Kerala: how was it?

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Going to Kerala for your first visit to India is a very soft introduction; especially the southern half of Kerala which is where we went. The state is the second richest in India, it has the highest literacy level of any state, and it is the smallest and most densely populated state. It is probably also the most picturesque state if one prefers tropical greenery. It even has its own mountain range covered in tea, rubber and spice plantations.

The main cities, Kochi and Trivandrum, do have some of the hallmarks of India in being polluted and full of people, but it is not anywhere near the level of a typical large Indian city. Also, they are comparatively clean cities. The level of poverty in Kerala is negligible compared to the rest of India, and the state is practically free from beggars. The welfare system of Kerala ensures that the number of people in abject poverty is limited; only non-Keralans, who as such don't qualify for state help, and Keralans who don't know the workings of the system, have to resort to begging.

The Keralans are an extraordinarily friendly people. Almost from the minute we left the airport in Kochi we started smiling. In the month we have spent in Kerala we have probably smiled as much as we would in 10 years in the UK. People do look at you, which is common in most parts of India, but it is almost always accompanied by a smile. And if not, you are guaranteed to receive a big smile if you initiate the smiling routine. Also, children and youths don't seem to be afraid of grown-ups and vice versa as is common in the UK. Children will approach complete strangers, i.e. foreigners, just to try out their English skills. In the UK, a grown-up talking to an unrelated child would be at risk of being arrested and charged with paedophilia.

Many people seem to forget that India is a developing country. Consequently, they fail to understand the reasons for the obsession with money in India. A family without an income, or a family that loses its income, e.g. if the breadwinner dies, will almost immediately sink into poverty. One of the reasons for the lack of understanding by foreigners could be that India doesn't seem that foreign: people speak English, and the country is relatively well functioning with a well developed infrastructure and classic European bureaucracy. However, the fact remains that more than half the Indian population by Indian standards can be defined as poor. In Kerala this obsession with money is less prevalent. Only in the tourist areas of Kovalam and Varkala did we feel that people deliberately and consistently tried to rip us off.

Kerala aspires to be the tourist state of India even though it doesn't have many tourist attractions like grand temples, buildings and monuments. The main attraction is the nature. In the north of Kerala there are several nature reserves and the Southern Ghats, in the central part there is the backwaters, and in the eastern part there are dams, the Western Ghats and Periyar Wildlife Reserve. In addition there are the beaches of South Kerala. Even though the transport system in Kerala is very efficient with frequent fast trains on the coast and high speed buses inland, there is one urgent issue for the Government to deal with if its intention of making Kerala the tourist attraction is to succeed: road quality. The Keralan roads are atrocious. The fact that pavements don't exist is something you quickly get used to, but the potholes on country roads are devastatingly painful, and there are so many that it is impossible for even the most skilled driver to get a smooth ride. The poor neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu, on the other hand, has roads, even in the most remote areas, that would make local councils in parts of the UK proud. You get the feeling that someone with a passion for roads has had great influence in deciding how the road network in Tamil Nadu should be developed.

One of the highlights of our month in Kerala was the food. Even though well cooked South Indian food wasn't available in all localities, we found that the South Indian cuisine is perfectly suited to the climate, and when it is well made it beats North Indian food by miles. And at no point has the food been too spicy. It was a particular joy to be able to eat without the use of cutlery; it makes it much easier to mix the rice or bread with the vegetables, which subsequently leads to a perfect mix of the food's flavours.

One of the issues that many people are concerned about when going to India is the prevalence of huge insects, dangerous snakes and other unfamiliar creatures. The insects are definitely big. A Keralan bee, for instance, is probably five times bigger than its UK sibling. There are also palm sized cockroaches, giant ants and huge spiders. In addition, almost every house has live-in geckos. Yet at no point have we felt that insects were a problem. At home, in the North English countryside, there are many more insects in the summer; after a short car journey your windscreen will, typically, be covered in splattered insects. This doesn't happen in Kerala. We didn't see any snakes either. Obviously, they are here since 70 percent of all snake types in India can be found in Kerala, and four of the most poisonous ones live here. But as long as you don't walk around in dense forest, high grasses and paddy fields you could live your whole life in Kerala without ever seeing a snake. The house gecko, which is anything from four to 10 centimetres long, is completely harmless. It is very cute and since it lives on insects it helps keeping the house clean; it is particularly fond of mosquitoes which are, probably, the most annoying part of Kerala.
Before leaving the UK we had to decide whether or not to use anti malarial drugs. We decided not to since we estimated that the potential side effects from taking the drugs for two and half months by far outweighed the risk and consequences of getting malaria. Also, malaria is probably the least unpleasant of the many illnesses that mosquitoes carry, e.g. chikungunya, dengue fever and elephantitis. Therefore, we would still have to protects ourselves from being bitten. The best protection is light coloured, loose clothes (mosquitoes bite through skin touching clothes) and lots of anti mosquito lotion. Additionally, you should keep doors shut after five o'clock and burn coils when in a stationary position outdoors. We tried different variations of mosquito lotion and they all seemed to work. In the end, when we ran out of our travel allocation, we decided to use the Indian brand Odomos (the lotion version); it does the job, is easy to apply, is cheap, and doesn't smell too badly. The problem is that a mosquito will always find a weak spot if there is one. So, even though you apply lotion on all exposed skin, it has the nerve to bite you under the foot or through the clothes where it is in contact with skin. Mort was the one who had the most problems with mosquitoes and he was probably bitten about 50 times despite his efforts. Sarah didn't get bitten a lot, but her skin tended to react pretty badly to the bites, including the development of a couple of blisters. The thing about mosquito bites is that you quickly get used to them. The first time you are bitten, you will probably experience a slight bout of paranoia, but this feeling will quickly diminish as you are bitten repeatedly. All in all, being bitten by mosquitoes is a nuisance because of the itching, rather than being a blind panic because of the very limited risk of contracting an illness. And the itching from a mosquito bite is not half a bad as the itching from a midge bite, which we (i.e. Mort) get a lot of back home.

Apart from mosquito bites, we have had no health issues to deal with. We haven't been poisoned by food, probably due to staying vegan, and the many fresh fruit juices we have bought from street vendors have not had any negative impact on our stomachs. The reason that many foreigners get food poisoning in India is contaminated water. We have avoided this by never getting ice in drinks and by always filtering tap water through the iodine filter we brought with us from the UK. We have, at times, had irregular bowl moments though, but this has solely been due to rice overload. After a month in Kerala, we have made the rule to never eat rice more than once a day, and a maximum of three times a week. Even the weather has felt pleasant at around 30 degrees with a typical real feel between 30 and 40 degrees. At times we even felt cold, e.g. in Munnar and Kumily where night temperatures fell to 15 and 20 degrees respectively.

The itinerary we chose is shown below. In retrospect, it wasn't entirely ideal, but nevertheless, we are quite happy that we did it this way. We would have liked to have spent less money on transportation, and to have avoided private transportation and certain locations, but at least we have seen quite a large part of South Kerala, including some localities that we wouldn't have known of had we not travelled by car.

The first part of the trip, from Kochi to Munnar, was done by bus and took five hours. The second part, from Munnar through Idukki and Peermade to Kottayam, was done by car and bus and took five hours. The third part, from Kottayam to Varkala, was done by train and took three hours. The fourth part, from Varkala to Kovalam, was done by train and rickshaw and took an hour and a half. The fifth part, from Kovalam to Trivandrum, was done by rickshaw and took half an hour. And the sixth part, from Trivandrum to Kumily, was done by car and took 5 hours plus a puncture.
Our recommendation for anyone wanting to experience South Kerala, arriving in Kochi, would be to follow the itinerary below. Varkala and Kovalam are essentially shite places that should be avoided. Spend your time in Kochi (for the city life experience), Munnar (for spice plantations and extreme natural beauty), Kumily (for wildlife), Kottayam (for the backwaters) and Trivandrum (for the capital city experience). From Trivandrum it is possible to get a train to the Tamil Nadu temple city of Madurai or to train back to Kochi. All these destinations can be be reached conveniently by public transport.

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This entry was posted by pundabee, on Monday, January 01, 2007. You can leave your response.