Kerala by Chris


Our next escape was to Fort Kochi in the State of Kerala, a long standing trading port with Dutch, Portugese and British history woven into the long standing South Indian culture.  This history, combined with Kerala’s long history at the centre of the spice trade,  makes for some great dining. 

 From a perspective of economic development, Kerala is one of the most developed State in India with high median incomes, GDP per capita, literacy levels, a large Catholic population and, ironically, a history of communist governments .  The coastline in Kerala consists of islands separated by tidal “backwaters” which are heavily vegetated and provide a beautiful tropical backdrop.





Chris's Mum, Doreen, was visiting Mumbai for two weeks so the trip was coordinated with her stay.  We booked into the Tea Bungalows, an historic private bungalow converted into a small hotel with eight rooms.  The service and food was excellent and it had a small pool which is always a winner with Ada.



The spice trade in Fort Kochin is not just for the tourists, everywhere you can see the movement of massive quantities of spices ranging from truck loads of black peppercorns to hundreds of square metres of drying ginger. One of the highlights was watching the process of shoveling the drying ginger. One worker would push his wooden shovel while his two partners would pull ropes attached to the blade of the shovel.  Fort Cochin has a significant number of antique stores selling a wide range of Indian furniture and artifacts. What was particularly interesting was the range of Catholic iconography, statues and other religious paraphernalia that had been 
"retired" from the numerous Catholic churches 
around Kerala. 

We went on a “non-mechanized” back waters tour in a
 local wooden boat which is propelled by two boatmen 
using poles.  The trip was slow and peaceful even with Ada wanting to photo catalogue every plant that she saw.  As we moved along the waterways we saw locals harvesting weed in the backwaters to feed to cattle, burning local mussel shells to produce talc, harvesting coconuts and cleaning sand transported from the lakes by boat to use for construction.  We stopped to visit a village to watch the production of coconut coir ropes and view the wide range of spices trees, bushes and vines that are grown in the area.

The other attraction in Kerala was the clean ocean and beaches within 20 km of Fort Kochin after an enjoyable ferry and auto rickshaw ride.  For several days we used the same two auto rickshaw drivers to transport the five of us around the City.  One of the highlights of the trip was one of the drivers sharing the front seat with Ada and let her “help” to drive the auto.  This led to surprised and in some cases terrified looks from local pedestrians as Ada gunned the auto motor and somehow managed to drive in a more erratic way than is normally the case in India


Location: Fort Kochi, Kochi, Kerala, India

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