Alleppy to Mangalore

Alleppy to Mangalore
Well our stay in Alleppy was short about a day but we had a great time. It was time to move to the North to Mangalore a city where most of the friends have thier family homes.

We went to the bus stand where we had got done in Alleppy and about an hour later go the express to Eranakulam the journey was rough and bumpy with some scenic view of the backwaters the strech of road along the channel as it is man made is so beautiful but the upkeep is the less said the better. If it had been any other european or even Malaysia they would have made this into a great water way with open air resturants and a clean and smooth travel.

So reaching Eranakulam we had some dinner and boarded the next express luxury coach to Mangalore, as the journey was through the night we had little to see where we were or what was happening. I was off to sleep in a jiffy as the traveling had made me tired. When we woke up we were somehwere in near to Mangalore city. We got off to the stop to be at a friends family home where we had a great breakfast of chicken curry with dosa, and idli and tender coconut water.

Around Mangalore - Ideal Iceream and other places
We freshened up as we had to meet many of the families of friends , so we rushed in the local bus and went to each of the houses as soon as possible by afternoon we had a stop at the famous Ideal Icecream shop (had heard and had lot of icecreams from here when freinds would stuff all that they could in flasks, or pots and bring it over while travelling from Air) and after years of having that way it was really a pleasure to have it fresh and cold. Now this was and still is a small place but the secret family formula has made the family very rich and famous all over . They have opned a big 2 floors plac e to cater to the the demand which is never ending.


The original formula is still a secret and the pricing so raesonable as compared to what you get from Baskin / Natural /other big advt companies . Nothing is comparable to what you get here.

From there on took the bus back to where we had got down at the friends home had a great meal and packed our bags to go to aKappu a family home again. Inbetween lots of beer and drinks on the Kappu beach and dinner at a local hotel at Padubidri. When we reached it was 12 and was dark. We had a good sleep over and in the mornign ventured out to see the village. nothing much but an old river which was now a trickle of water due to the contant dreging of the sands had left it with very little water and also dirty.

We got our luxury bus in the noon and came to Mumbai.

So what about Mangalore
Mangalore a city very old British rule had a good influence in the way the schooling and medical centre are set up. Most of the schools are convent , good colleges, chruch as old as 100 years, very old charm village style now given way to multi storey structures with millions coming from hard earned - Hotelier (Udipi, Bar and Dance Bar) owners, mostly starting off as hooch suppliers in years gone by and then with small dosa , tea stall owners making it big with feeding the ever eager Bombayites.

KERELA - ALLEPPY

ALLEPPY - OR AS IT IS CALLED ALLAPHUZHA

Taking off from the wedding hall we rushed to the small bus centre to catch the express to Alleppy. I prefer to call Alleppy, the journey was for about 5 hrs reached there by evening and at the main market centre where express buses stopped. Getting off we were hounded by the local guides for the various lodge/hotels. Since we had to move the next morning to North - Mangalore we decided to stay in the beautiful house boats.

The local guide asked us that how long would we like to hire, we said that through the night so as to avoid staying in the hotel. The price Rs 25,000/- (US $ 510 ) inclusive of night meals / breakfast/ lunch. Veg , non veg everything , a 5 star hotel in Mumbai would charge about the same for 2 double 2 single occupancy . Jaws dropped we decided it was not worth that whopping amount to spend the night. So a few glare here and there and pop came the word bungalow one room availabe for Rs 600/- (US$ 15) neat clean , near the beach ,Air conditioned .

We immediaetly took it, it was a nice cosy little bungalow, a family already on the ground floor, and a couple on the first floor opposite our room, the average sized room all four of us.

We freshened up and went to the beach. It was clean but crowded, nice cool breeze, walking along the way were centuries old houses, fishermens inn built by the British, and lovely little cottages converted to hotels.

About a couple of hours on the beach we decisded to go to the bungalow ordering a takeaway on the way from a local hotel and had a quite dinner. Morning all of us got up ealry as we needed to spend as much time as possible on the boat in the back waters . The local guide helped us get one at a very cheap rate early in the morning at 8 am, and we hopped in and took our place . This a small boat, with a roof where four chairs were put up and little shade over the head. Moving through the little pathway was much like Venice (this is why Alleppy is called the Venice of India). Unfortunately the entire strech of the waterway is filled with weeds which have not been cleaned up.

The sad part is that with so much of tourisim in this part of India so little is done to make this wonderful land/sea/waterway worth a decent clean look.

The small bridges over the waterway just like the European style, so beautiful. There is so much to this place that as we travelled along the narrow backwaters we stopped at a local house and got off the boat , we had freshly caught king prawns, clams, shrimps, mackerel. The lady quickly fried some of it a little went into the curry, and some were just roasted on the wood fire outside the house. Having the local toddy, eating the very tasty curry which is made in earthenware is something no foodie should miss.

Back on the boat we went right into the sea and took the return trip back to the market where we started. This four hours of backwater was something one has to enjoy with sipping huge tender cocounut water, the food, and the stillness and calm of the sea meeting the water inlets.

So Alleppy is good neat clean houses mostly French style, white all around, beautiful clean beach the boat houses, small boats for smaller budgets, the fish and curry & rice at the local backwater houses freshly cooked, banana chips, huge tender coconut with sweet water.

The waterway sadly full of weeds, if the lcoals did their bit this place could generate a Billion Tourism Dollars for the country. I always felt with so much natural places, even if only the two states of Goa and Kerela were to be made the tourisim capital of India and all efforts to keep it clean and have fantastic infrastructure for travel/stay/food it could generate enough revenues to run the entire nation.

Looking at the revenues that tourisim brings to the country like Singapore / Malaysia / Thailand, it surprises why we don't make that kind of facilities made . Specially Malayasia and Singapore have man made jungles and forests and it is so wonderful that it just takes your breath away.

The Minister of Tourism might not do anything, but the lcoals can with the state ministeries help generate lot of money from tourisim.

Kerela Tour Cochin Alleppy Kerela Travel Boat Houses

KERELA - KAYAMKULLAM

KERELA:
Kerela the coastal state of India is famous for its back waters , beaches and in the east of Kerela the hilly jungles and many places of greenery and peaceful existence of people and animals in the natural habitat.

MY FRIENDS WEDDING: THE TRAIN JOURNEY
After years of trying to find a good girl to marry my friend found someone from Kerela, his mothers hometown of Kayamkullam. We six friends among the many more were lucky to go to Kerela as most of us other friends were not able to come with family due to the long distance and their children’s school.

We boarded the train journey from Kurla Terminus, bags full of snacks, water, playing cards in the reserved sleeper coach - 2 tier. My friend whom I will call Mr. Groom & his brother confirmed that the journey will be over in 24 hours.

After an hour of traveling, lunch time a family of three, lady , husband and middle age son sitting in the chair section opened a plastic bag containing rice and spread it on the on the makeshift table, fish curry good quantity to last 3 days tied neatly in plastic bag next was opened spread on the rice and spicy fried fish packed in foil all was next and they ate their meal in 10 minutes

Looking at them made is scurry for our lunch as we had not carried with us any we heard the lunch vendors who were shouting Veg Biryani, Egg Biryani repeatedly without much hesitation we ordered 3 veg and 4 egg.

Well not surprisingly we found rice same color white, fried onions and small pieces of eggs and the very same for veg instead of egg , cauliflower for veg.

So train traveling all you get is what they sell and not what you wish. For four meals we had eaten the same thing right from Mumbai to Kayamkullam, the fourth meal is something I will share little later. In between vendors typical Kerealite accent shouting in hindi - bada bada bada, and after seeing what they had to sell realized it was Vada Pav (Potato Balls with Bread a famous poor mans burger in Mumbai) and some shouting - pallan puri, pallan puri. (Banana slice fried with chick pea flour) and some tea. We had some of it and continued our card game which by now was the only thing besides sleeping to do.

Through the journey were green fields, buffaloes, small villages and lots of lots of railway crossing as we passed by (this was the mostly due to the fact that as we entered the State of Karnataka, Kerela, lined along are all small towns and villages that have no bridges for crossing the railway tracks and so at each and every level crossing the train had to stop for 5 -10 minutes ). So the journey of 24 hours stretched to 33 hours by the time we reached our destination.

DESTINATION: KAYAMKULLAM
Not having traveled for such long time in train it was really tiring. Off we all huddled into the Tata sumo luggage and all and after stopping for five times for the ever present Communist party strikes and slogan shouting we reached home of Mr. Groom.

On the table were spread various dishes of sweets and snacks and after and hour of chatting with the family we were in our hotel, well a small one and quite really a lodge.

Dinner was fish, fish curry with chicken, rice, and idli. As Mr. Brother left bidding us good night requesting all of us to get up as early as possible as the marriage function was at 11 am and we had to travel long distance to the hall. So off we went to bed and were woken up by the lodge guy shouting to us to take bath fast as hot water was at a premium and would not be available after 9 am.

So bath, clothes and off we went to the van , huddled up once again, the journey was long winding roads between the green paddy fields. Seeing the greenery made we realize what we city guys really miss as used to seeing concrete jungles.

THE WEDDING
At the hall the Mr. Groom was really nervous with our comments of why he was plunging into matrimony so soon. Bridegroom was ready in the hall and after the rituals of entry into the hall the stage was set with simple decorations and LO AND BEHOLD THE BRIDGEGRROM COMES HOLDS HAND WITH THE GROOM, some prayers, some blessings, a zillions lemons being presented to both of them and bang its over.

Well Kerealite wedding gets done so fast that it hardly takes 5 minutes and you are married. So when you are invited to a Kerealite wedding please be on time or its over .

Lunch was the typical south Indian fare on banana leaf and lots of rice, 6 varieties of vegetable, lentils, sambhar, curd, snacks, and sweets.

Having had lunch we had lot of time and a friend who had come from Cochin (Kerela) mentioned that since it was our first visit we should take a trip to the backwaters and then jungles. So off we went to our hotel packed our bags and caught the next local bus to Allaphuzha.

This is something i would like to describe in detail; they say "Gods Own Country" Kerela. Well truly one has to see it.

ALLEPPY / ERNAKULAM, BEACH, BACKWATERS
Well Alleppy , Eranakulam and our journey North to Mangalore (Karnataka) all this and more next blog.

GOA Beaches the real thing

GOA BEACHES

Couple of months during the start of the monsoon seasonI had been to Goa for a annual break from work. This trip to Goa was a special one as it was after 5 years that i would be on the beaches of Goa.

The flight was extremely boring with no lunch (Jetblue Airways) the only good thing from it scratch coupon i got option for some wierd brand Watch, my wife pearl shaped necklace. The airlines revenues have been badly affected due to the high Air Turbine Fuel (ATF) price hike. They were and are still going through cost cutting /control to see that they don't have a bigggg dip in the revenues. As it is the merger of some of the airlines has made a big diffrence to the common people who were till then enjoying cheap fares.

GOA - AIRPORT
Anyway once at the airport the taxi cabs / auto have a strict union rates to be followed so there was no bargain that could happen. Our destination was to Alexandria beach hotel on the Candolim beach where we had a family getogether. It was hot and sultry for monsoon season time.

CANDOLIM BEACH - NORTH GOA
After the afternoon nap, went to one of the cleanest beachs of Goa Candolim beach it was a 25 steps from the hotel, and here i was ovewhelemed by the huge sand mounds blocking view of the sea, as i walked over the sands then as from a distance i could see the massive waves of sea water rushing into the sands.

Candolim beach is one of the best beaches in north Goa. Its clean, white and fine shiny sands, the waves are bigger compared to other beach. The next 2 days went sitting on the sands and see the massive waves of sea water gushing in, swimming is a strict no no but you see the odd locals and some daring one enjoying. Sunset from here was one most beautiful sight i have seen in ages. Most of the Europenas and Americans love this palce as it is less of the locals and Indian tourist and love the serenity of the place with small shacks for beer good food. Our host at Alexandria was exceptionally good she was a fantastic cook and her sons had good bar and kitchen serving freshly cooked fish. Great value for money.

BIG EYESORE ON CANDOLIM BEACH
A huge rusting stranded ship, locals when asked say that the ship has been here for the last 8 years and nothing has been done to remove it, just behind it is the famous Fort Aguada. Well as i finish writing this part, my better half says that this beach is one of most dangerous due to the currents and huge waves and its steep right near the shore.




BAGA BEACH -NORTH GOA
Compared to this the next 7 days at the Baga Beach famed for fun and Feni and all night roll on parties was a big disappointment. But as it was off season it was really deserted.

The road from Candolim Panchayat building to Baga is narrow and often you see on the side people riding thier bikes. One has to be really take care as the point to point buses pass by at high speed without much care. You come to the main Calangute Market circle and then turn right to Baga beach or go straight to Calangute Beach. Candolim - Calangute - Baga is all one strech.

The distance a mere 4 kms and charge for taxi off season 150 rupees (3 US$), and the same during peak season which is September to March 1000/1200 rupees (24 US$).


An evening walk to the Baga beach was good seeing some good english type inns, Beer shacks and live music. The road to the main beach is behind the famed BRITTOS shack, it was a shock to the eyesight. Smelly dogs and full of poop as they roamed about. The entire strech of beach is filled with dog poop and dogs chasing as you are strolling fearing when they would pounce.

A local mentionted that these were dogs owned by the shack owners mostly to ward off and scare the ever present Indian Romeos wide eyed staring shamelessly at the scantily dressed (what else would the Europeans and Americans do on a sunny beach). So then poops, dogs, smelly sands, and the ever present Romeos eyeing each and every slip of the wet bikins from the waist or wet bosoms.

All in all the beach is very infamous for all the wrongs reasons so being at the beach on a schecluded beach is a strict no no for all tourists.

Short trips to Mapusa market (good place for all your shopping for local produce), went to Vasco to meet some more relatives, Vasco is the harbour/port very city like.

Welll here i must say that the easiset way to travel in Goa is to hire a bike or right at the Baga beach end near Brittos is the start point for buses to Calangute market with stops at certain point or you can wave hand to stop to hop in or out.

From the market you get buses to Mapusa, Panjim. And from Panjim you can take buses to the south part. Offcourse the buses are the normal one, no push back , and long distance to south you dont have much standing unless you can sustain the rough ride.

As my vacation came to an end I wondered where was the old Goa which i had seen as a child of 7 year young boy full of green paddy fields, mango tree, chaples, old tiled roof house, and the Sussegad Goan men and women enjoying the evening cool breeze sitting on the porch.

Tourisim money was a boon to the fisherfolk of Baga villages or for that all the beaches but they now find themselves left out from their land, as most of them have sold their ancestoral houses and live in small houses doing nothing but riding the bikes and hiring bikes and taxis.

Well Goa if you must see do so in the monsoon , not crowded, cheap but without the fun and parties as it is mostly closed and all wrapped up.


Well lot of people as how are the beaches lined up so these to maps of the North South can give you a good idea. (Click on the images for bigger size).