Southern India; cities, backwaters and temples

Three years ago I had traveled the North of India, Rajasthan. This time I wanted to explore the South. From Chennai in the East via Bangalore in the middle to Kerala in the West. Kerala is known as ‘God’s own country’ so it better be good! Will India deliver again this time? Is the South really different from the North?

My trip to India started on the flight from Bangkok. The flight was full with Indians who had spent a long weekend in Bangkok. The two guys next to me on the plane immediately started a conversation. They were obviously proud inhabitants of Chennai and they were telling me all kinds of stuff about this big port of India. Unfortunately I could only understand half of it because of the accent and speed they talked with. However, it was a great start to the trip. In Vietnam and Cambodia the only interaction with locals is about business. As a tourist you’re just a big bag of money. In India many people are genuinely interested, sometimes in a funny way…

Another advantage of India is the challenging traveling, that is as long as you’re not sick at least. This may sound weird to you but because of the tough conditions and the fact tourists are not always well catered for, the drinking crowd, the naive idiots, people wearing football shirts, the ridiculous Asian group tours and the Russians will not, or hardly make their way to this incredible country. Unfortunately tourism is developing rapidly in Kerala with all negative consequences…

For me this is where real traveling begins. You’re constantly confronted with yourself. In many places hardly anything is arranged so you’ll have to do it on your own. Interact with locals to find your way and to order food. Do you take local transport or will you take an easy taxi? How do you cope with the enormous poverty in certain places? How do you cope with the fact you’re a relative billionaire in this country? Yes, it’s all very enjoyable as long as you’re staying in a nice hotel and eat in great restaurants but is that the way locals live?

People will ask you the most direct questions. They don’t start with a nice introduction, no it’s spot on from the start. An example: “Hello sir, how old are you?”, 34, I reply. “You’re not married?”. Nope. A big silence usually follows. Most times this is the first question someone asked me, maybe followed by a very polite “How much is your salary?”…

Another interesting phenomenon is the fact men and women are supposed to travel seperately whenever possible. There are seperate queues to buy traintickets and special ‘women only’ traincompartments make sure there will be no interaction between men and women. Schoolbuses are for girls or boys only and in the regular buses women sit in the front and men in the back. Unfortunately because of the big sex scandal that took place in Delhi they want to split all public transportation. They still have a long way to go if you’d ask me…

Traveling in India will raise questions and you will have to answer them on a daily basis. I like it.

Chennai is a big port with around 5 million people. The city lacks interesting sites and therefore I felt I was the only tourist. I took local trains for two days around the city and a rickshaw here and there to complete the journey. I visited the Koyambedu wholesale market before making my way to Marina beach to see the sunset. Everywhere people helped me out, many times even without asking. People approached me every now and then for a little chat but of course there were some annoying rickshaw drivers as well. The next day I took the train to Bangalore to visit some friends. I told them I really liked Chennai which resulted in raised eyebrows. Apparently inhabitants of Chennai are known to be not so friendly towards their fellow compatriots…

Working for IMS (back in the old days…) I got to know some people in Bangalore. One of them is John Pradeep. Last May I had to visit the IT capital of India and brought my ski’s with me and left them at John’s place. In the meantime John got married with Divya and they moved to a new house. I met John in the center of town before seeing both his new house and wife! Together we had a great dinner at Khaaja Chowk.

The following day I decided to explore the city by just using local transportation. It’s a nice way to interact with the local people because you really need their help to get around. I started by checking out some sales at the shopping malls. My 6 dollar sneakers I bought in Ho Chi Minh were not so shiny anymore so I could use some new ones. When I checked out a nice looking pair of Converse shoes I broke one of them by just trying them on. OK, no shoes this time. I checked out the foodcourt because John recommended the only place in Bangalore to eat Chole Bhature. This is a huge fluffy bread (the Bhature) originating from Delhi that is served with some bean curry (the Chole). It was funny that even though the restaurant had many items on its menu, everyone seemed to order the Chole Bhature. Apparently many Dilliwallahs, as inhabitants from the capital are referred to, were in the house. In the afternoon I took a couple of buses to reach the area of Basavanagudi. This area is supposed to have kept its old charm and therefore a lot of character too. I checked out the Gandhi Bazaar before making my way to the Bull temple. The bull is a sacred Hindu demi-god known as Nandi which is an attendant of Shiva (wow, what a sentence…). The temple is therefore also known as Nandi temple. It was a bit of a weird temple to be honest…

After two days of catching up with friends in Bangalore, time had come to visit Kerala. I took an early morning flight to Trivandrum, which is in the South of Kerala, from where I would make my way North. I was the only one wearing shorts in the plane because it was a ‘freezing’ 25 degrees Celcius. Brrrr… Instead of taking a rickshaw to the trainstation in Trivandrum I took the local bus from the airport which resulted in me being a site for the locals. An exhausting 30-minutes later I walked around town, had lunch and walked to the trainstation to catch a train to Kollam. I traveled in general class which is best described as a compartment where they put as many people as possible. After some pushing and elbows, I finally entered the train. It was fully loaded and an old man, who was standing next to me besides the ‘toilet’ (read: dirty shithole) in the train, laughed to me and said ‘welcome to India, how do you like our trains?’. Thank you sir, I find them quite interesting…, I replied.

Kollam is known for the backwaters, just like Allepey, but a bit less crowded and touristy. Once you leave the main town, a road leads you towards Ashtamudi lake where a couple of bungalows are located. One of them would be mine for the next couple of days. I took a beautiful canoe-ride around Munroe island before illness took over. A huge headache kept me in bed the afternoon and the following day a high temperature was a fact. A trainride to Kumarakom was on the agenda and with the help of some Ibuprofen the journey wasn’t too bad actually. The next day however I continued my journey towards Cochin which resulted in a quite unpleasant experience. The sleeper class was loaded with people mainly because a huge number of pilgrims were on their way back home. I had to stand for nearly two hours feeling dizzy, sweating enormously and vomiting never felt too far away. Wow, did I enjoy that trainride. Having survived the journey, I decided I had to visit a hospital, Gautham Hospital in Fort Kochi was the lucky one. The hospital turned out to be like any business in India, highly inefficient. Many people interfere with your case which is really unpleasant. Too many people work at the registration desk. Then there is someone assisting you with the registration process, the doctor himself and of course there is someone telling you when he is available. Another person takes care of the documents and again another person is showing you the way around the hospital. In India there is no social system run by the government, so they developed their own: too many people for the work available would normally result in high unemployment but in India they decided to work very inefficiently so at least everybody has something to do. Well, it’s a different way of looking at things…

When the doctor identified both a high heart rate as well as a high temperature of 40 degrees Celcius he suggested me to stay in the hospital for three days. I’m not feeling thát bad, I thought. Are they trying to rip off a tourist in the hospital too? Of course, this is India. I decided testing my blood and urine would be enough so I could hopefully exclude Malaria from the list of possibilities. It turned out I had some sort of regular infection and an antibiotics treatment would be sufficient. Of course someone accompanied me to the pharmacy in order to get my medication…

I lost my appetite the next couple of days which is highly unusual for me but I started to feel better every day. After a week of not enjoying Indian food, taste finally had come back. Being sick also gives you a different view of India. Suddenly everything is annoying. The traffic with the many horns, people with all their questions, the dirt, beggars, negotiating about everything, the heat, the many mosquitoes and flies, it all felt terrible. The impact of a relatively harmless infection…

In the meantime I had visited Fort Kochi and Munnar. Fort Kochi is a small island adjacent to the bigger Cochin or Ernakulam, consisting of many homestays to accommodate the tourists. The main attractions are some churches and the Chinese fishing nets. I found these nets to be quite impressive. Big wooden constructions are lined up to catch fish on a continuous basis. Groups of fishermen work together to manage the nets. In front of the nets the daily catch is on sale. Between the many fisher- and salesmen, tourists wonder around to check out this setting.

Munnar is a so-called hillstation known for tea plantations. An extra bonus for me were the cool nights because of its elevation. The surroundings of Munnar are absolutely stunning. I have never seen such a green landscape. Tea plantations were simply everywhere with mountains in the background. The village of Munnar itself however, was really disappointing. Some shops selling crap combined with dirty restaurants will not result in a high rank amongst the most beautiful cities worldwide. The first day I visited Eravikulam national park, known for the Nilgiri Tahr (or mountain goat…). I saw some goats in the distance but because of the annoying behavior of most of the local tourists – Indians tend to talk rather loud – of course the goats wouldn’t come any closer to the road we were supposed to walk on. The following day I sneeked into the tea plantation adjacent to my homestay. I felt alone walking amongst the stretched out plantations. Finally I found some workers and they enjoyed having me around them. They wanted to see the pictures I took of them and laughed seeing their colleagues on the screen of my camera!

Next stop was Goa. Apparently the journey from Cochin to Goa is that popular, that all trains were fully booked. I was not really looking forward in a 18-hour busride so I decided to book a plane. Comfortably I made my way to probably the most well-known place of India. Because it is so popular and because it’s a beach, the place lost its charm, assuming it once had at least some of it. It felt like the Indian equivalent of Benidorm. To summarize, Goa is not made for me. The seafood was enjoyable, but that’s about it. After two nights the train was awaiting me, this time with Hampi as the destination. The train takes you to Hospet from where you can take a rickshaw to Hampi to be more precise. Three years ago I met a couple who had traveled in India for four months and Hampi was the highlight of their trip. I had kept that in mind and this time I had to see what all the fuzz of the little town is about. I shared a rickshaw with Heinz, a retired German schoolteacher, and arrived in the Hampi bazaar. Many guesthouses are located over here. A much nicer area was located on the other side of the river but unfortunately I only found out after I paid for the three nights at Shambhu guesthouse. Together with Heinz I went on a little rickshaw tour around Hampi. Hampi used to be a rather big city some seven centuries ago but now it is nothing more than some ruins and temples with a small touristy village in the middle. The ruins and temples are quite special however and therefore belong not very surprisingly to the Unesco World Heritage.

The rickshaw took us to all the main ruins and some very nice Hindu temples. In between the sites a remarkable green landscape with palmtrees and huge boulders form the decor. It creates a very charming feel.

After a long day of sightseeing I decided to explore the other side of the river by motorbike the next day. Whereas the Hampi bazaar has a very touristy feel with locals trying to sell you whatever, the other side has a much more laidback feel. Even though it’s touristy as well, it feels completely different. Much, much nicer. A younger crowd, with some Hippie-wannabees amongst them, hangs out at the many bars and restaurants or is driving around on a motorbike. Not being a big fan of hippies, I took the motorbike and started exploring. Once Hampi was left behind, one could either go left or right on the main road with some stops along the way. In the morning I explored the left by driving for at least 20 kilometers to find out there was not that much to see. Being afraid to run out of fuel I visited a small village before turning back to town to have lunch at the Laughing Buddha restaurant. This place had such a relaxing vibe, I could have stayed there the whole afternoon listening to the Indian tunes and enjoying the view. However, the other side of the main road had some promising sites so I had to go. After driving around to explore the area a little bit more I had some chai (sweet Indian tea) and visited the Durga temple. However, I saved the highlight for the end of the day. More than 500 steps lead one to the top of a hill where the Yantrodharaka Anjaneya or Hanuman temple is located. The temple is nothing more than an ugly little white building, the view however is quite remarkable!

After three days I took the Hampi Express back to Bangalore and my trip in Southern India came to an end. To summarize I can say I really enjoyed Chennai and Hampi both for different reasons. In Chennai I did not feel like a tourist for the first time in six weeks. I really felt I was amongst the locals, observing their way of living instead of traveling from one site to another with many Westerners. I found Hampi to be quite a special place. It is touristy but for a good reason. The ruins and temples are impressive and the town has a special feel. Kerala was a bit boring to be honest. Yes, the backwaters are beautiful but that’s about it. Let’s forget Goa, please.

If I have to choose I’ll pick the North. Rajasthan is not as developed as Kerala and therefore is more chaotic and dirtier. I guess that’s exactly what I like. If I want to see beautiful nature in a clean and organized country I go back to New Zealand. The chaos and the craziness are what make India special to me. And Punjabi food, the cuisine in Rajasthan, is better if you’d ask me…

After visiting ‘God’s own country’ I’m on my way to Kashmir which is described as ‘Heaven on earth’. Well, as long as the snow is good I’m happy! Bring on some fine currypowder!

Click here to see more pictures of my trip to Southern India!