Exotic India is a country so full of variety and surprises that almost anywhere you go is titillating and alluring. Unless you have endless amounts of time, you’ll never cover all of India in one trip. The trick is to figure out where in this potpourri of fabulous choices you want to spend your time.
After a fair amount of deliberating, I decided on a trip to the Kerala region of South India.
Kerala is especially popular with travelers for a myriad of reasons. It boasts beaches galore along the Arabian Sea, more than 40 rivers and miles of backwaters. There are lush tea plantations, colorful and exciting festivals, Ayurvedic health resorts and wildlife sanctuaries.
A chalk painter and elephants at the Kalpathy Festival © Ellen Clark
Photographers are suckers for festivals, so I planned the trip to coincide with the famous Kalpathy Festival. However, the festival was only one of the exciting stops on my itinerary. Other adventures included a stay at an Ayurvedic health resort, a few days on a houseboat cruising through the backwaters, and a search for the elusive tiger at a wildlife sanctuary.
Cochin (also known as Kochi), the airport location, is a major port city on the Arabian Sea. Basically split into two sections, its more modern Ernakulam boasts high-rises and a bustling modern vibe while across the water on a peninsula, the old districts of Mattancherry and Fort Cochin speak to the city’s past. In the historic districts you’ll find spice markets, an impressive collection of colonial architecture, 17th-century Dutch houses, India’s first European church, a synagogue and a Portuguese palace. This is also the location of the famous Chinese fishing nets. Huge mechanical contrivances hold out horizontal nets measuring 65 feet or more across, with each installation operated by a team of up to six fishermen. If you are blessed, as I was, with a fiery Indian sunset, you can snap some riveting photographs of the silhouetted nets against the red sky.
That night, I went to a traditional Kerala Kathakali dance performance to watch the male dancers apply outlandish and wildly colorful makeup. Then they dressed in elaborate costumes and headdresses that would rival a Las Vegas showgirl’s. The dance itself, classical and stylized, was performed to a traditional, discordant sort of music produced by drums and other percussion instruments.
In Kalpathy, the week-long religious festival of Ratholsavam, or Chariot Festival, revolves around the ancient Kalpathy Temple, which dates back to the early 15th century. The climax of the festival occurs when the devoted masses haul three huge, brightly decorated temple chariots festooned with flowers down the street. Musicians were playing all around town, artists were doing chalk paintings on the street, the chariots were covered with townspeople putting the final touches on the decorations, and every now and then an elephant with rider would suddenly appear out of a side street.
A night view of the festival © Ellen Clark
By the time the sun set on my day in Kalpathy, my memory card was full and I was ready to exchange the frenzy of the festival for a peaceful respite in the country.
It was inky black on the country road. Rice paddies on either side were interrupted only by an occasional modest house shrouded in lush foliage. I was sure the driver was lost. A health resort out here? Get a grip. But I was wrong — we rounded a corner and out of the darkness loomed a set of massive wrought iron gates framed by an elaborate white stucco structure. I could not imagine a more incongruous sight in the middle of seemingly nowhere. Two guards dressed in spotless uniforms ushered me in at Kairali Ayurvedic Healing Village.
Scattered around the 50 acres of tropical foliage, meandering paths and a network of streams were Kerala-style cottages made from locally available raw materials and named for astrological signs. The trees planted around each cottage were selected according to astrological tenets.
The next morning, I enjoyed a traditional Ayurvedic herbal oil massage.
The massage was relaxing, albeit very oily, but my therapist, a lovely, soft-spoken woman in a green sari, assured me it would rejuvenate and revitalize my mind and body and diminish the effects of aging. Who could resist this kind of promise? After the treatment, she gave me a special soap powder to mix with water in the shower to wash off the oil. Not only did my skin feel wonderful, I was convinced the treatment knocked a good 10 years off my sun-damaged face.
After such a relaxing morning, I was ready to brave the festival crowds once again. A sea of humanity swarmed around the giant temple chariots. Hundreds of hands reached out to get a hold of some part of the thick woven rope used to pull the massive vehicles through the streets. Not for the claustrophobic, but quite an experience.
Once again I segued from a frenzied, action-packed event into tranquility to spend the next couple of nights on a custom-made traditional houseboat cruising around the backwaters of Kerala.
The floating hotel was a Kerala-style houseboat, traditionally called a kettuvallom, or rice barge. The shallow, rounded hulls of these amazing structures are made without using a single nail. Each anjali wood plank is joined to the next with strong rope and coated with black resin.
The boat, called Vaikundum, was a luxurious, two-deck model with eight guestrooms, air-conditioning, en suite bathrooms, teakwood paneling, a full kitchen, a spacious sun deck and a large dining room and lounge area — the perfect vehicle for slowly cruising through the Kerala backwaters.
A traditional houseboat © Ellen Clark
Over the next couple of days, it stopped occasionally to visit a village, temple or church. The rest of the time, I lolled around on the sun deck, passing houseboats, some fishermen or a rural village on the bank. The sunsets were lovely, and the quiet tranquility of the area was enough to mellow out even the most confirmed type-A personality.
On my final Kerala adventure, I made a trip to the Periyar Tiger Reserve. Stretching more than 574 square miles, Periyar is one of 27 tiger reserves in India. Firmly committed to ecotourism, the reserve management strives to protect the natural environs for future generations.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time for a hike or an overnight campsite stay, so instead I opted for a boat ride on a 10-square-mile lake in the hope of spotting one of the beautiful tigers having a drink at the water’s edge.
Sadly, there were no tiger sightings, and though I was disappointed, I was not surprised. Exotic beasts in the wild just seem to disappear when I arrive. However, on the two-hour trip around the lake, I did see herds of deer and wild boar in the grasslands by the shore and plenty of diverse birdlife including egrets, kingfishers, herons, cormorants and grebes. My favorite wildlife spotting at Periyar? The cheeky monkey sitting on a “No Parking” sign in the reserve’s parking lot.
Kerala Info to Go
Cochin International Airport is the state of Kerala’s main airport and one of India’s largest in terms of international passenger traffic. There are no direct flights from the United States, but passengers can make connections from a number of Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern countries as well as cities in India. Buses travel to and from the airport, and prepaid taxis are available 24/7. Automated prepaid taxi counters at both the domestic and international terminals allow you to hire an “ordinary” or an air-conditioned taxi. U.S. citizens need a visa to enter the country; if there’s a chance of multiple trips to India, a 10-year visa is definitely the way to go.
Read more about Kairali Ayurvedic Healing Village.
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