A Month in the Hills of Kottayam, Kerala

31st July, 2009 – 1.38 pm, Pune
A Month in the Hills of Kottayam, Kerala

On the 12th of June, two of my friends from the English Dept, University of Pune and I boarded the CST- Kanyakumari Express (more commonly known as Jayanti Janata to the Mallus) which would take us to Kottayam. The reason we were on our way to Kottayam was that we had applied for the VII Theory/Praxis course which is conducted by the Board of Contemporary Theory, Baroda. When we had applied, we were really enthusiastic about going for the course but as the day of departure got closer, our enthusiasm waned. On the day that we were supposed to leave I kept thinking of excuses about why I should opt out of this. But I didn’t let Annie or Pradnya know about it since I was the one who had been most interested in going for the course in the first place. I couldn’t just back out of this at the last moment. So, I didn’t. We got onto the train. When the train had just left the station I told them about how I was having second thoughts about going. Both at once broke out as to how even they had those same thoughts and we realized that if we had shared these thoughts with each other, we wouldn’t be on this train. So, I guess I was meant to be on that train.

The train starts from CST, Mumbai, then we enter a portion of Karnataka and then Tamil Nadu and finally Kerala. It takes 36 hours and it doesn’t go via Konkan railway which is supposedly the more scenic route. My advice is that if you are travelling to Kerala, book well in advance on a train that goes on the Konkan railway. The trains are cleaner and the scenery is better. But to catch a Konkan railway train you would have to go to Panvel. So that was one of the reasons we were going on this slow and filthy train. The train journey was not very memorable except that I picked up a fight with around 8 men who were bent on usurping our seats for a game of cards. Well, I won the argument and got my seat but had to put up with their nuisance in the adjacent seats for the rest of the journey. Those idiots were pilgrims going to Sabrimala! I couldn’t believe that men of God could be like that.

We reached Kottayam early morning around six. Caught a rickshaw and stuffed our luggage in there. The rickshaw trip was a novel experience. The place we were headed to was on top of a hill. Considering our luggage and the strength of the rickshaw I didn’t think the rickshaw would have been able to pull through. More than once I got the feeling that we would go tumbling backwards. But we made it. The accommodation was in a convent- Apostolic Oblates Spirituality Centre, Manganam. The sisters seemed very nice and our rooms seemed pretty nice too. But soon after we had settled into our rooms we noticed black beetles crawling everywhere. I still have nightmares about them. They are called vand in Malayalam. Pretty harmless creatures but they gross you out when they gather in colonies in all corners of the room.

This retreat was surrounded by rubber plantations and huge tall trees. The retreat itself was very beautiful. The sisters had their own garden in a way filled with all the flowers that I had ever seen in my life. But a lot of those plants were exotic and ornamental. But they had their own vegetable patch too and some fruit trees like chickoo, banana, lichee, guava and some indigenous fruits. Among the birds, Indian Tree Pies were a common sight, plus the Large Green Barbet, White Throated Kingfisher, Caucal, Common Crows, Common Indian Myna. I spotted the Black naped Oriole and Silver beak Munias once or twice. Among the butterflies, Common Rose was extremely common. The others include Glassy Blue Tiger, Chocolate Pansy, Grey Pansy, Lemon Pansy, Grass Yellows, Common Indian Crow, Danaid Eggfly, Great Eggfly. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get many pictures of these beautiful creatures.

As for the tourist attractions in Kottayam city, there aren’t many. There were a couple of churches we visited namely Cheriapally and Veriapally, which mean small church and big church, respectively in Malayalam. In Cheriapally, the priest gave us a guided tour inside the pulpit which wasn’t all that big but had paintings on the wall dating to the 13th century. At Veriapally was the Persian cross which is a major attraction it seems. Around the cross is an inscription which has not yet been deciphered. The church lies on the banks of the Meenachar river which is mentioned in Arundhati Roy’s God of Small Things. Incidentally, this town is her native place and her mother runs a school a couple of kilometers from the place where we were staying. Apart from these churches there is a Shiva Temple which we could not visit. But I have heard it is beautiful.

One of our Sundays was spent on a house boat in the backwaters of Allepy. Allepy is located about three hours away from Kottayam and we had hired a bus which cost Rs.5000/- To rent an entire house boat for the day costs you Rs.12000/- which includes lunch consisting of sumptuous carimeen (Pearl spot in English). The boat starts from Allepy and takes you to the Vembanad lake from where you get a view of Kumarakom Wildlife sanctuary. The day on the house boat was an amazing experience. The Vembanad lake is huge. Khadakwasla seems like a little baby before it. Sightings on this day include Cormorants, Darter birds, Cattle Egrets, Pond Herons, Purple Heron, and a huge kingfisher which I have not been able to ID. As for the butterflies, the only one I remember spotting is the Southern Birdwing. Along the backwaters we visited another church from the 16th century. Although the present church had been built recently, it was originally a hut established in the 16th century.

The next Sunday we travelled to Cochin in a hired car. It cost us Rs.500/- each for the car. We started out at 5 in the morning and reached Cochin by 7.30, I think. We were there to appear for an exam, so we didn’t end up doing much out there. In the evening, on our way back I spotted a woodpecker. We crossed over the Periyar river which is huge. All the rivers in Kerala leave you gaping at them in disbelief especially after seeing the tiny streams which pass off for rivers in Pune. The highway from Cochin to Kottayam is actually very narrow and winds through the hills. In the early morning, we had missed the scenery but on the way back we could enjoy the scenic beauty.
The Sunday after that we set out for Kumarakom. We caught a bus to Nagampadam bus station which is about half n hour away and from there we got a bus to Kumarakom which charged us Rs.8/- each. The bus transport in Kerala is very efficient and cheap mostly due to the private buses plying on all routes. Even the rickshaw fares are same all over. No one tries to cheat you unlike in Pune. Kumarakom is 14 kms away from Kottayam and it took us more than an hour to get there probably because the bus took a longer route. At Kumarakom, we could either hire a boat which would take us on the Vembanad lake. It would cost us Rs.350/- for a couple of hours. We wanted to walk in the forest so we simply bought entry tickets to the sanctuary which cost Rs.5/- each. The walk through the forest was lovely. Although it was very mucky due to the rains, it was nonetheless enjoyable. You can’t really go much into the forest so our walk was really short. I think we just went about three kilometers inside. Kumarakom had a lot of water birds. We saw roosts of Cormorants and Cattle Egrets. This place supposedly had a huge number of Darters and Spoonbills. Although I didn’t spot any Spoonbills, there were plenty of Darters around. I spotted another big Kingfisher. While we were in the sanctuary it started pouring heavily. But the view of the lake became even more beautiful thanks to the rains. The forest guard told us that we could get a government jetty across the lake to a place called Muhama. Although there was no need for us to go to this place, we really wanted to get on the boat. In order to get back to Kottayam, we would have to go to Allepy from Muhama, then Changanacherry and then Kottayam. Since we had time on our hands we decided to do that and the boat trip just cost Rs.5/- each compared to the 400/- for the houseboat. When we landed at Muhama, the others didn’t really want to continue with this plan. They were soaked and didn’t really like it I guess. So we decided to catch the boat back to Kumarakom and catch a bus back. Anyway, the boat ride was great and cheap. I spotted huge flocks of Cormorants on the lake and a solitary Southern Birdwing.

My last visit to Kerala was in December 2007 and I had felt that the place was as green as green could be but Kerala in the monsoons was another experience altogether. The greenery was everywhere. And it was simply heavenly.