My Wanderings in India Come to an End: Kerala and Kochi

[continuation of July 31, 2004 email]

From here the pace of my travels quickened, as I was down to my last week in India with the entire southwest coast to cover in order to make it to Mumbai in time for my flight home.

The train platform in Kollam (also called Quilon).

The Kerala Backwaters

Street scene outside the train station in Kollam.

From Kanyakumari I traveled 4 1/2 hours by train to the town of Kollam, crossing over from Tamil Nadu into Kerala on the southwest coast. I stayed at a big old somewhat dilapidated British Raj-era government guesthouse (where I finally got to use the mosquito net I've been packing around with me for the last three months), and then the next day went on the 8 hour boat cruise along the backwaters from Kollam to Alappuzha. During this long, slow ride through lakes and canals I saw a land of coconut palms, fishing boats, cantilevered Chinese fishing nets, and small villages on the edge of the mile after mile of canals. Children ran along the water's edge to wave at us as our boat passed by. I was glad I'd taken the time to see the beautiful, tropical Kerala Backwaters--another of India's many unique and enthralling environments.

I stayed at this British Raj-era guesthouse in Kollam.

Pic taken while I was in Kollam, during my last week in India.

I met this Indian man down by the river outside the guesthouse and had a nice chat with him.

Tranquil moment on the Kerala Backwaters: this is the lake next to the guesthouse I stayed at.

Sunlight sparkling off the water in Kerala.

Looking back at the dock as our Backwaters cruise boat begins its journey (note the houseboats on the right).

This is the deck of the boat I cruised down the Kerala Backwaters on.

Small canoe with fishermen on the Kerala Backwaters.

Cantilevered Chinese fishing nets along the Kerala Backwaters.

More fishing nets.

Fishermen at work on the Kerala Backwaters.

A very large fishermen's canoe on the Kerala Backwaters.

Boats moored along the Kerala Backwaters.

Boats along the shore.

Wide expanse of water at the mouth of the Kerala Backwaters.

A canoe passes us as we continue up the Backwaters.

More colorful boats moored along the Kerala Backwaters.

Fishermen in canoes on the Kerala Backwaters.

Kochi

When the boat docked at Alappuzha at the end of the afternoon I took the bus to the Ernakulam bus station in the city of Kochi. A long autorickshaw ride took me to Fort Cochin, the peninsula where the oldest part of the city is located; the young autorickshaw driver got lost several times in the dark streets of Kochi and it was pretty late by the time I got to the guesthouse I'd selected from Lonely Planet to stay at.

Cantilevered fishing net along the beach in Kochi.

The next day I got up at dawn and walked to the beach, walking along the ocean to the point where the fisherman brought in their morning's catch to market. After breakfast I rode the ferry back to Ernakulam to get my train ticket, then returned to hang out and explore Fort Cochin. It's a relaxing little place with some nice restaurants and cafes catering to western tourists, a 500 year old church built by the Portuguese, some big several-hundred-year-old trees; there's an old Jewish synagogue; a small palace built by the Portuguese to give to the local raja to secure trading rights (then taken over by the Dutch a hundred years later and so called the Dutch Palace) with some great murals depicting scenes from the Ramayana, including a really nice one of Krishna frolicking with the gopis (milkmaids).

[Unfortunately, a memory card full of picture files became corrupt while attempting to download them to a CD at an internet cafe in Kochi. I lost over a hundred pics taken during most of the Kerala Backwaters boatride and some good shots in Kochi -- a lesson in attachment and impermanence from the universe. At least most of the digital files from my three months in India survived intact; and, until I return to South India someday, the pics in this chapter will have to suffice.]

Fishing is a way of life in Kochi - nets like these are a common sight along the beach in Kochi.

One batch of the morning's catch for sale at the beach fish market in Kochi.

I had to keep moving--at two o'clock the next afternoon I went to the train station and took my last train ride in India, an 18-hour overnight trip in a sleeper car to Goa.

Next stop: Goa.