KERALA

We’ve just spent a wonderful week in Kerala.

First we arrived to Cherai Beach where we stayed in a little resort. It was not luxurious at all, but clean and with a relaxing atmosphere. We’ve got impressed with the beach: wide and loooooong. The sand was actually pretty clean; we were thinking how our beaches in our own countries would look like if the local cleaning services would stop! The water was very clean and HOT HOT. I actually never experienced that before. We came to the water to cool down and we found that it was like hot tab water! The current was also quite strong, but save. A very good experience. On Sunday afternoon there was some people taking a walk there, but the rest of the days almost nobody was around. Once in a while some young guys came to take a look to see if there were some girls in bikini and they enjoyed the view (there are always some foreigners in this resort). But soon they lost interest and left.

Then we left to Allepey where we took a houseboat to see backwaters. You can rent this boat for two people or for more. There is a “crew” of three boys that also cooked the meals. That was so nice. There is absolutely nothing to do, just to sit there and watch life passing by. In the evening there is even less to do! Just bring some booze and some play cards or some games and enjoy the place. We where lucky because in one temple close to where the boat stopped for the night there was some kind of celebration with decorated elephants. Wonderful. Then back to the boat. Do you know how it is like to be forced to do absolutely nothing??? Such a wonderful experience!!!!

The next couple of days were spent in Kumarakom Lake Resort. Wow!!! What a place! We loved it!!! Such a pearl in the backwaters.

The next and the last stop was in Fort Cochin, were we spent the last two days. There we also saw the famous Kathakali theater. Here we also noticed that even more people wear "lungies" than in Bangalore.

Kerala… hmm… Such a beautiful place. When you live in Bangalore for a while you get used to all the dust and the noise, the crazy traffic, the dry fields in this time of the year, the beggars approaching your car, the beggars approaching you on the main city areas… When we came to Kerala we couldn’t stop smiling. The air was clean, the fields were green, coconut trees were everywhere, and the people, well, the people was as peaceful as the place, smiling all the time with their beautiful faces and they leave you alone when you say no thank you!!! In Fort-Cochin we were able to walk almost everywhere. The roads were not busy and they were not smelly and dirty. Only when we saw the Chinese fishing nets we had to make an effort to keep breathing because the old fish smell was a little too much… But we loved it! We took the ferry boat to the mainland in Cochin, Ernakulam and there we saw the image we know from India: the chaos, the noise, the dirt on the side road. But still it was in a more peaceful way than in Bangalore.

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La semana pasada nos fuimos a Kerala. Tuvimos un viaje estupendo y nos dejó un buen sabor de boca.

Primero nos fuimos a Cherai Beach a un pequeño hotel en la playa. Para mi fue una experiencia increible. Con el calorón que hacia (y que hace) voy y muy directa me meto en el agua para refrescar pero cual es mi sorpresa? El agua está caliente! Pero vamos, caliente calienta asi como cuando abro el grifo de la ducha… Nunca habia experimentado esto antes. La corriente estaba bastante fuerte, pero bueno, se dominaba bastante bien. Asi como un dia con bandera amarilla en Asturias.

Luego nos fuimos en un barco a ver lo que aqui se llama “Backwaters”. Esto son unos canales que unen ríos y lagunas de agua salada. Todo desemboca en el mar. El paisaje es increible lleno de verde y de palmeras. Tuvimos suerte que ahí cerca de donde el bote amarró para que pasaramos la noche habia un templo que celebraba algún tipo de festival. Habia tres elefante engalanados y un grupo dandole a los tambores. Casi nos dejan los timpanos pal arrastre, pero tuvimos una experiencia inolvidable.

Al día siguiente el barco nos dejó en un Resort que se llama Kumarakom Lake Resort y el sitio es increible. Idilico.

Lo último fue pasar un par de días en Cochi (Fort Kochi) donde pudimos ver el teatro Kathakali.

Cuando llevas un tiempo viviendo en Bangalore te acostumbras y ya no ves el polvo en el aire, los trafico de locos, el ruido y la gente pidiendo... En Kerala todo es diferente, la gente no agobia y el aire esta limpio (o más limpio...) Pudimos caminar por las calles sin tener que saltar las basura, la gente durmiendo en la hacera o los agujeros de las aceras que si te caes vete tu a saber donde acabas...

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