The Travelogue - part 1

Any trip should not be marked as complete, until one documents the trip details. Yesterday, I came back from Kerala trip and I’ve 4 trips (including the Kerala) pending to be documented!

Let me start with Latest one first, since it is very fresh in my memory.

2 days Kerala –GSB- temples trip.

Day1: Reached Ernakulam early morning by bus from Mysore. Made a quick change in my plan and decided to catch the train to Alleppey where we have our Kashi Mutt branch with accommodation facility.

Reached Alleppey or Alappuzha at 11. In Kerala, all temples open early in morning say 3a.m or so and closes at 12PM. In some temples (including Guruvayoor I guess), there is a short break of say 1 hour or so in between this 3 am to 12pm. The temple will then open at 5 PM and closes by 8-9PM. So we decided to start our temple visit in the evening. Had a quick bath and went to our GSB temple nearby which is couple of centuries old! Had lunch (Prasad) at this temple. In Kerala, all GSB temples are called Tirumala Devaswom or TD in short. Oh yeah, b.t.w GSB stands for Goud Sarswat Brahmins, a sect of Sarswat Brahmins with affiliation to both Vaishavism and Shivaism.

1.30PM – Left Alleppey and reached Vaikom at 3PM. Since there was 2 hrs to go for the temple to open, we slept there inside the temple complex. This is a temple dedicated to Lord Shiva and supposed to be one of the oldest. Temple is as huge as one cricket stadium.

5.30P.M – Left Vaikom and reached Alleppey back at 6.45 PM. We quickly hired a taxi and started off to the next place – Ambalapuzha Sree Krishna Temple – the Dwaraka of South. This is another famous temple of Krishna in Kerala. When Tippu attacked Guruvayoor, Lord Krishna’s idol was kept safely here in this temple. We were lucky to see the Lord decorated in the form of Narasimha.

8.15P.M – Reached TD temple at Parkad. This is supposed to be the oldest GSB temple dating back to 400 years! Had Prasad here and left for Alleppey where we had the dinner at Mutt’s Manager Home. The Manager’s mother, who is very aged, is a huge cricket fan. Though deaf due to age, she has not lost the love for cricket and Mallu serials. And not just that, she speaks so nicely to anybody as such that I was just listening to her with full smile and was totally carried away by her warmth and affection. Got her blessings before we left after the dinner.

Day 2:

Left Alleppey early morning by bus and reached Thoppupady (Ernakulam) at 8 am, on the way to Cochin. The plan to visit Cochin got inserted while having lunch at Alleppey. People over there were praising the Cochin TD temple very much and wanted us to visit it at any cost. So thus we decided that we will pit stop at Cochin TD temple enroute to Ambalamedu.

 There was little bit of confusion at this junction, which turned out to be good at the end. Though we had planned to arrive at Cochin by train, we changed the plan and took a bus as per the suggestion of the Alleppey Kashi mutt manager and his friends. We were asked to get down at Thoppupadi (Ernakulam) and then catch a bus to Fort Kochi. We were then supposed to get down at a stop called Pandikudy from where the Cochin TD temple is at a walkable distance.

But the almighty had planned the scheme of things differently J In the bus that we were travelling from Alleppey to Cochin, a elderly man who was standing, fell flat on his face on the floor of the bus when the driver  applied the brakes very hardly(which is very common in Kerala. Driving is real harsh over there and all vehicles generally will be over speeding). The sound of his falling was so loud that for a split second I thought that he might have got seriously injured. But the very next minute the man was given water and was helped to get down. There was hardly any commotion and neither the man nor other passengers had any altercation with the bus crew!!!! The bus moved from the spot as if nothing had happened. Had if the same thing happened here in Mysore-Bangalore, there would have been a flash strike and the road would have been blocked for at least an hour.

This incident shocked me like anything as the sound of the man hitting the floor while falling resonated continuously in my mind for next 1 hour. I was still feeling bad for him even after getting down at the Thoppupady stop. This made me to forget about the next bus to be boarded, the stop name etc!! I decided that I won’t travel again in bus in Kerala (an emotional decision which fizzed out later)! So instead, I stopped an auto and asked him to take us to TD temple. He spoke something in Malayalam which I couldn’t understand. I asked him the fare and he said 130/- I agreed and got into the auto with my mom. It didn’t register in my mind then that this Thoppupady place where we are currently, is in Ernakulam and not Cochin! There is TD temple each at both the cities (twin city). The driver might have tried to explain the same to me which I hardly bothered to care. So he took us to the Ernakulam TD temple (logical) which we had not planned to visit. This clearly proves that everything is decided by the Lord above. If he wants us to get a chance to visit him, he will provide us that even without our asking! I feel divine as I write this.  We had breakfast at nearby Bharat Hotel – a decent, well maintained veg restaur with excellent ambience. For the first time ever I used rest room in a hotel to unload myself. And full credits to the hotel with regards to the maintenance of the rest room. After the breakfast, we visited the Ernakulam TD temple. We had real quick darshan of the Lakshmi venkateshwara and left.

10.30 AM: Reached the Cochin TD. A Konkani speaking elderly man (whom the lord sent to help us reach the Cochin TD temple) helped us a lot at the bus stop behind Ernakulam TD temple. Luckily, even he had to go to Cochin TD temple and helped us board the right bus. We boarded the bus going to Fort Kochi and got down at the Matanjali stop (or may be Pandikudy stop, don’t remember properly as the two names were used interchangeably) from where the temple is at walkable distance. The temple is very huge with gates at all 4 directions. The architecture is very similar to any other old Kerala temple that I saw.

In the temple we enquired about the means to reach the most important place – Ambalamedu Kuladevata complex, which was the only place that I had planned to visit originally as part of the trip, but which later got this much bigger by God’s grace. After discussing with couple of people there, we decided to hire a Auto, even though the cost was on higher side, since we had to reach there before the temple complex closes by 12P.M. If we were to take bus, we had to change minimum 2 buses to get there. Language problem coupled with time made us to think logically and opt for the auto.

12P.M: Reached Ambalamedu. Our Kashi Mutt Swamiji has got this complex constructed where there are more than 6-7 temples dedicated to all the different kuladevathas of GSB community. We had 5-6 mins to cover all of them before the temple shuts for the noon! Thankfully we did get the darshan of all the deities. Had lunch (prasadam) at the temple and left for the next stop – Chottinakkara, at 2PM.

3P.M: Reached Chottinakkara. We took a bus to Hill Palace stop from Ambalamedu. All through the entire route, I saw the refineries, LPG bottling plants of Bharat Petroleum and Indian Oil. From Hill palace stop we took another bus to reach Chottinakkara. There is a Bhagavati temple over here which is as huge as any old temples of Kerala. The goddess is worshipped in 3 different avatars here every day! The temple opened at 4.30 PM. We had a quick darshan and left for Ernakulam at 5.30PM by bus.

6.30PM: Reached Ernakulam. We roamed around nearby the bus stand and M.G road, in search of a place to buy the famous Kerala banana chips. Luckily we managed to locate one store where we purchased huge quantity of chips (which I’m munching on while writing this post), had dinner and waited for our 9.15 Bus. If you happen to book tickets in Kerala RTC bus, here is a tip for you (if you are not Mallu). If the time in the ticket is mentioned as 9.15 P.M, don’t think it is the departure time of the bus. It is the time at which the bus will arrive at the stand, the first boarding point! I had tough time dealing with people at the stand to know why the bus hasn’t come even if it’s almost time. Language problem just intensified the tension rapidly.

Bottom Note: On the face of it, the trip looks like a well planned and executed by us. But while I was writing, I realized how wrong it is to assume it that way. Several points crossed my mind which registered this fact in my mind –

1. Apart from Kannada, the only south language I can understand is Telugu. Malayalam ranks last in the hierarchy of the languages I can grasp. Still, I dared to visit the state.

2. We had planned to stay put at Ambalamedu thinking that we will be close to Ernakulam which may help us in moving around easily to cover all the places that we planned to visit. But as we got down from the bus and enquired with few people as well as the Mutt manager, the reality was known – nobody (excluding the mutt manager) really knew where the place is located. By God’s grace, I had made risk mitigation plan (almost without my conscious effort, as if driven by external powers) just the previous day as per which I had decided that we can stay in Alleppey if situation demands. But never had I had a smallest hint in my mind at that time that this could really happen.  Looking at the reaction on the face of the people in the bus station, we quickly decided to execute the Plan B – catch immediate next train to Alleppey. Luckily the railway station is located very close to the Ernakulam bus stand. In fact, just behind the stand the railway tracks pass. Time was 7.30 when we reached the station. There was a passenger train going to Alleppey still in station. But again by lord’s wish, the lady at the counter didn’t give us the ticket for that train and instead handed over the ticket for the next train which was at 9am. We had good 1 and half hour to spend now. On a quick glance at the station, I was assured about its cleanliness (no, I’m not sarcastic). We brushed the teeth and then had a breakfast at the food plaza in the station. The food was really decent as well as the hygiene at the place. Once we completed the 80% of the morning chores, we were bit relaxed and waited for the train for next 30 mins. Later on day 2, when we went on hunt for banana chips at evening in Ernakulam, we were looking out for a good Kerala cuisine restaur too for dinner, but couldn’t locate one anywhere nearby. So the same food plaza at the station came to our rescue finally.

A few tips for Kerala travellers –

1. Buses – govt or pvt, are very rash in driving. Do take care when you are standing inside the bus. It’s very difficult to manage if the driver applies brakes hardly and suddenly.
2. In general, driving is very rash. So be cautious in crossing the roads.
3. Train connectivity is excellent. Especially the Jan-Shatabdi express. Have a train route reckoner on your smart gadget and make good use of the train network for your travel.
4. People do respond in Hindi/English. So no need to worry about language prob much. Also all important boards will be in English too.
5. Auto drivers don’t fleece much (unlike in Bangalore or Chennai). So hop on the auto if needed without much worries. But do make it a point to enquire the price before you board the auto.
6. Don’t shout around or make noises if you are in big groups. They don’t take it positively.
7. Food.
   1. Keralites like the red-rice (aka boiled rice) and prefer it over the normal white rice. So do make it a point to ask for white rice when you order your meal.
   2. Water served in any hotel will be pale pink in colour. No it is not dirty water. They soak the kokum (Garcinia indica) in the water before serving. This is excellent anti-oxidant with great medicinal values. So don’t worry about the colour when you sip the water in hotels. But yeah if you are the SRK type-guy (of swades movie), you can go for mineral water bottles.
   3. Coconut and coconut oil/by-product will be extensively used in food preparation.
   4. Food will be ultra-non-spicy (almost bland I can say). I recommend the Andhra guys to carry a pack of chilli powder or fried chillies when they travel to Kerala.
   5. For strict-vegans. Don’t ever pass by any non-veg hotel there. If you are starving, better to survive on grass rather than giving the non-veg hotels a try. Reason – most non-veg hotels will serve Beef!!!

All In All a nice trip.

Hari OM Tatsat.