Sri Lanka - Colombo to Anuradhapura - 19.11.2013

Our 45 minutes flight from India bought us to Colombo Airport ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandaranaike_International_Airport )

Within the hour, we were through Immigration with the Officers immediately noticing this was a 2nd visit and wishing us a good holiday.

A new expressway had been complete reducing the normal 2 hour taxi trip to 40 minutes to Fort Colombo Railway Station ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Railway_Station ).

We were booked with ExpoRail, the new tourist concept of Sri Lanka Rail which offers airplane style carriage travel with meals.  Our total cost for the 4 hour trip was $A 12.00 each

 Leaving Colombo behind this is the late train and it quickly become dark.  With the darkness came heavy rains.  Yet it was still fascinating going through the small towns and jungle at night.  The movies on offer were 'Madagascar' and 'Rio', both entertaining.

Before long we arrived at Anuradhapura ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anuradhapura ) and booked into the Ceylan Lodge ( http://www.ceylanlodge.com/ ) - a quick beer and off to bed...it's been a long day.

Kovalem Beach, India

200kms south of Alleppy is Kovalam Beach ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kovalam )

Our hotel is located right on the beachfront. A stroll along the "promenade" with the usual collection of sellers reveals a even larger part of the town just around the small headland.

It is very much like a European style beach town. Everywhere is seafood eateries and tourists. The sand is turning to black sand and you can rent a beach chair to sit in the sun.

It is very much like a European style beach town. Everywhere is seafood eateries and tourists. The sand is turning to black sand and you can rent a beach chair to sit in the sun.

Early mornings, local fishermen set large cast nets then slowly pull them into shore teaming with an assortment of fish (generally small).  It attracts a lot of watchers with the odd participant in the net pulling.

Divers in small wooden canoes search around rocks off the headland and collect mussels for sale in local restaurants.  We are both astonished as to how the fishing is going to continue being sustainable given the methods.

Finding anywhere that has ice cold beer or drinks is a bit hard, but we finally settle on the local bar for our beers.  Check out the entry warnings.

 A really wonderful small local restaurant for our meals is only 100m away. We splurge on a seafood platter direct from the sea with tiger prawns, calamari, mussells, kingfish done in Kerala style banana leaf.  Cost about $A 30.00.  Our beers arrived in coffee cups - a bit unusual, until finally it is explained that the restaurant is not licensed, so you drink beer from coffee mugs & keep the bottle beneath the table.

All up it is very relaxing but the weather is very hot and humid with late afternoon showers.

Finally our India holiday is at an end and we head to the nearby Trivandrum Airport ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trivandrum_International_Airport ) for the flight to Sri Lanka.

It's only here that we experience our most unpleasant experience with Indian officials, when both of us (the only foreigners on the flight) are singled out to have our carry-on bags searched.  Forced to unpack every item in our backpacks including all our cameras, videos, computers.

Held up for 15 minutes, the absolute rudeness of the officials, refused any explanations, refused any complaint process, this is the worst, disgusting experience in all our overseas travels. Thank goodness we arrived early at the airport.  This is one airport we would never recommend arriving or leaving from.

Flying with Sri Lanka Airlines ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SriLankan_Airlines ) is a wonderful experience - our flight is only 45 minutes, but we get a free breakfast and upmost courtesy.......

5 Nights on the Kerala Backwaters

Our starting point is Alleppy ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alappuzha ) where we have chosen a small 1 Bedroom houseboat as it will give is access to the smaller canals & villages & less competion with the larger tourist boats.

Leaving Alleppy is like being on a Melbourne freeway at rush hours and reminds of Halong Bay ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halong_Bay )

We soon leave the rush behind & head into the smaller canals where we pass countless small villages, where most of the people are local rice farmers.

The backwaters of Kerala's biggest lake is a wonderland of birds espcially Indian Shags (cormorants), egrets, brahminy eagles & kingfishers.

A lot of the smaller lakes are being 'dyked' so the land can be reclaimed to create India's vast rice paddies.

Along the way we are introduced to a local alcoholic brew - a "Toddy".  Bit like a fizzy drink but not to our taste, so the Captain & Cook happily polished it off after dinner.  Yes it is in a 1L Water bottle & costs 50Rupees ($A0.75)

The food that isproduced from this very small on-board kitchen is nothing short of 5**** - with freshly caught fish for lunch very day (even if they are only 6" long)

Every single village has it's Christian or Roman Catholic Church - a leftover the the Portugese/Dutch/English period of occupation.

 

Highlight of all the churches is the 1500s Syrian Catholic Church which also includes a Seminary, Nunnery and Hospital for the local town.

 

Transport around the backwaters & canals is by any means

 

(including 'duck herding')

So ends 5 nights on Kerala's backwaters. In hindsight, we would have chosen 3 nights as you can easily fit everything in.  Unless you are in a group, we would solely recommend a smaller houseboat for 2 people.

Our recommedation is Binu Joseph at Kerala Boat House

( http://www.keralaboathouse.com/budget_houseboat_kerala.html )

From Alleppy, it's 4 hours south to Kovalem Beach before flying to Sri Lanka.

Fort Cochin, India - 10.11.2013

Our last day in Fort Cochin - it's been a relaxing time with all the excitement of the many markets and eateries.

Today we are back to Jew Town ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochin_Jews )for some market shopping & a visit to the Synagogue (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradesi_Synagogue). It's abso;utely packed with people & photography & video is not permitted.  It does however have an excellent display of hand-painted pictures showing the immigrations of the Jewish traders to Cochin and the trials & tribulation they went through to settle in India.

Right next door is the Dutch Palace ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattancherry_Palace ) Again photography & video is prohibited, but many of the murals depicted on the walls are highly detailed, but fading with time.  Despite being built by the Dutch most of the interior is based on the lives of the local Kerala rulers.

We spend a bit of time around the market stalls & craft shops, however the value of the $US out weighs the $A.

The afternoon is spent at the Taj Mahal Cooking School with Usha where we learn about the basics of the different Kerala spices & cooking.

Dinner is what we cook and it is marvellous with Dosa, Curried Vegetables and Rice.  Michael's bleary eyes are because of the camera flash not the beer.

Tomorrow we travel to Alleppy for the start of our 5 night houseboat trip throught the backwaters of Kerala.

All up it's been a tremendous new adventure in Fort Cochin, somewhat of a different scene from our past experiences in Central India

Fort Cochin - India - 9.11.13

Our last two days are fairly relaxed.  A trip on the local ferries proved very interesting except we ended up on the wrong island on the return trip - the navy base but nobody really cared about us wandering around.

The harbour trip from Erkulam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernakulam ) around the harbour was quiet mudane with the highlight a visit to their new "container shipping wharves"

That night we go to a traditional Kathakali Dance Performance.  It is absolutely superb with the actors applying their makeup on stage to demonstrate the amount of work that goes into the performance.

The performance is spell binding and all the parts are played by males.  The music is drums and other traditional instruments with the only singer providing the vocals.  Hopefully we will produce the video when we get back to Australia.