Welcome to God’s Country
We’d heard time and time again that southern India is much more laid back than northern India. As we landed in the southern Indian state of Kerala, we were hesitant. Having just left the blissful Andaman Islands, we weren’t really in the mood to dive back into the madness we had experienced in the north.
We can’t speak for all of southern India, but take it from us, Kerala is definitely not the north. On the way to our guesthouse from the airport, we were very confused. Why was the cars driving in their own lanes? Why weren’t they cutting off other cars? And most importantly, why is no one honking?
The state of Kerala is actually the world’s only democratically elected communist government and is one of India’s most progressive states. We hear that its not all rosy in Kerala – many breadwinners have to live abroad in the UAE and send money home to their families in order to make ends meet – but Kerala has made great strides in things like improving health care, raising literacy rates, and reducing litter. Keralans are proud of their state and have deemed it to be “God’s Own Country.”
A higher power certainly has bestowed beauty and lush tropical greenness upon Kerala. Our first introduction to Kerala was in the town of Fort Cochin, which is in the running with Kolkata to be my favorite city in India. (Not counting the fabulous Andaman Islands, of course). Like Kolkata, you can tell that the British once made their presence known in Fort Cochin. The Dutch and Portuguese also made their mark. Fort Cochin has a big Christian presence, and it was there that I saw an Indian nun for the first (and only) time.
Once we eliminated the small problem of ants trying to take up residence in our backpacks, we kept adding days onto our stay in Fort Cochin. We kept finding reasons to dawdle: an adorable little teahouse with Indian teas and a respectable death by chocolate cake; movie shoots to try to work our way into as extras; tropical flowers to photograph; fresh Keralean pineapple; waterside boardwalks with headbutting goats, Chinese fishing nets, ancient sprawling trees, and 1 rupee scales that tell you about your weight loss; Sean’s new Indian friends George and Justin at the old-school internet cafe; a cooking class to learn more about Keralean cuisine; an aryvuedic massage (which actually turned out to be NOT a good idea, but more on that later); dinner at a trendy, modern cafe cooked by local women; simultaneous pickup cricket and soccer games to watch; fantastic, delicious prawns from the seafood market, cooked with ginger and garlic; rickshaws decorated like Ferraris; real chicken briyani, finally; and tours by a guide named Magic Johnson. (And yes, I know there’s a lot of food on that list – we had some of our best meals in India in Fort Cochin).
Catholic school girls at Santa Cruz Basilica.
Teapots at, well, Teapot, where it is always tea time.
Cricket and soccer at once. Because it is India, and one game wouldn't be enough.
Headbutting goats (which surprisingly, was a common sight).
Old school Chinese fishing nets.
Curious bystanders at the movie shoot (which turned out not to be a Bollywood flick).
Dinner at our Kerelean cooking class.
Sean and Magic Johnson.
Fort Cochin was enchanting, and we could have stayed longer, but the backwaters and beaches in God’s country were calling…
Kerala is so beautiful! Great pics! Did you make it up to the mountains to visit the tea plantations?
Nilam, we didn’t and we are kicking ourselves. The pictures we’ve seen of that area look fantastic. We made semi-plans to go to Munnar but moving slowly down the coast won out in the end. We kept changing our minds back and forth, even to the point of almost telling our rickshaw driver to take us to the bus station to catch the bus to Munnar at the last minute instead of going to the train station to go to Allepey. If we end up making our way into Malaysia after southern Thailand, we may try to hit up the tea plantations there.
That is the neatest picture ~ the first one with the sky & the trees. A jigsaw puzzle in the sky ~ I love it!
The photo of the trees is spectacular! Seriously…it could be in a museum. You are a wonderful photographer and have a great eye for beauty in all forms.