Fort Kochi - Dutch Palace, Chinese Fishing Nets and Cherai Beach

On 17th morning we woke up late (around 8:00 am) had idlis again for breakfast at our apartment and headed out to Fort Kochi. Again ‘Destinator’ took us to the wrong Jew Street in Ernakulam and we had to do a u-turn and go another 7 miles west to Fort Kochi through the morning traffic. We first visited the Dutch palace and believe me I was amazed by the murals … especially the ones where Lord Krishna was multi-tasking with the gopis. Ooomph!

Peak hour morning traffic in Kochi








Then we walked down Jew Street till we came to Yousuf’s … a quaint little place where one can get good home cooked food. Try the vanilla milk shake. They use real vanilla beans instead of the synthetic flavors. The trick is to use ½ a bean in a glass of milk (about 250 ml). Splendid! We also reserved our seats for the 3-hour boat ride on the backwaters for the following day – 18th May. Mr. Mansoor, the owner is a friendly person and the food at Yousuf’s is great! His mother and sister prepare food in the kitchen upstairs.

Chinese Fishing Nets @ Kochi

We then drove down to the sea shore to take a look at the ‘Chinese fishing nets’. I was very curious about what that meant. Could have been fishing nets ‘Made in China’ or real Chinese people casting their nets. Eventually I found that the ‘technique’ of fishing is Chinese. A huge structure (approximately 50 feet high) is erected. Five people tug on ropes and the nets are heaved up based on the theory of counter balances. An interesting technique indeed!

Siddharth has just returned from China with a masters in Fishing.

Then we took the ferry to Vypin island, from where we drove on to Cherai beach. The water is clean and the beach is pretty safe. The beach obviously is much cleaner compared to the ones we have in Maharashtra. No plastic! No litter! The people here are much disciplined. Education does make quite a difference. Saiee had a great time chasing the waves and letting them chase her. On the way back to our hotel we stopped at Varkeys to get some snacks and stuff. Dinner at Prashanth in Tripunithura. End of day 3.


Warm sunset at Cherai beach








Siddharth and Saiee flying a kite

Another day . another long drive!

May 16 began with a cup of filter coffee! Hmmmm.

We then visited the Udupi Krishna Math (Devasthan) which is one that was established by Madhwacharya.

Then wed had not-so-piping-hot idlis, dosai etc. And hit the road. This time it was Suphala on the wheel. The odo read 788. It was her luck that she ran into the worst roads (so far) on the trip. There is a lot of road construction in progress in the Mangalore-Surathkal stretch. That unfortunately gave us a slow start. Suphala did a fine job on the wheel ... but it was more like a motor driving school experience for her because of my endless instructions.

We fueled up again at 903 and then it was Monali's turn at the wheel. She did upto the time we had lunch a KTDC hotel (somewhere near kudlu) where we had lunch and our first drink of “padimukhi”, the warm pink colored Kerala medicated drinking water. We hit the road again heading to Kasargod. At 953 on the odo we realized that our speed was getting us nowhere (sorry ladies, you gotta take the back seat!)

Siddharth took over from Monali and he did a 150 kilometers till sundown. Then I switched places with him at around 6:30 pm and went non-stop to our hotel in Tripunithura, Ernakulam. It was just before midnight that we got there. Even though I was using GPS (Destinator and One India map on my HTC TytnII) the place was difficult to find because it is situated in a bye-lane and there aren’t enough signs to guide us there. The other problem of course, is the language … not too many people could understand Hindi or English! It was close to midnight and not too many people on the road and the ones on the road could not make head or tail of what we were asking them. But in the end there was one sushikskit bekaar (as Amit would have called him. Lol) who gave us the right directions to get to Star Apartments. Then their office was closed and we had to call Sam Verghese on his mobile phone and he sent someone to help us check in. Star Apartments in Tripunithura is an apartment cluster consisting of about 20 buildings housing about a thousand apartments. Out of these Star Homes (the company that built these) keep about 50 to 60 apartments and let them out to tourists. Look up www.starhomes.co.in for more information.

End of day 2.

Getting to Kochi

Made it to Kochi finally! It is Saturday morning … and I haven’t found any time to update.

Our first day on the road!!!

Started from Pune at 4:15 am. My alarm went off at 3:00 am and trust me, I haven’t seen the hands of the clock placed that way in years. We struggled a bit to get our stuff into the trunk. That’s because we had decided against getting a roof carrier … the only model available was one that fits on a Santro and was priced at Rs. 3950/-. It’s crazy to spend that kind of money for a 10 day tour. We had actually decided to take only a pair of jeans and a couple of t-shirts each, but then the palio did allow us to carry more so that we don’t return home looking like beggars!

The road to Kolhapur (NH-4) is amazing and I have driven that road several times. One can get a steady 120 – 130 on this stretch of the road resulting in a average of 80 to 85 kms in an hour. There’s a couple of toll collection plazas on the way and one has to shell out about Rs. 150 by the time he gets to Kolhapur. Except for a couple of halts we got to Nipani where we had breakfast. Not a star rated place but one can’t complain about that on a road trip! The drive then onwards was a bit rough getting onto NH-63 going through Kalghatgi, Yellapur and finally reaching Ankola on NH-17. Watch out for the speed breakers around Kalghatgi. Those are huge and frequent! My first fuel stop was at Kalghatgi and I happened to see a truck load of villagers with “African Influences”. I vaguely remember having seen a documentary about this particular ethnic group … which speak the local dialect and have lived in this part of the country, but have distinct physical appearance like the Africans. (See attached photo!)

After filling up, our next stop was Ankola .. where we accidentally stumbled upon ‘Kamat Upachar” which is lovely little diner on NH-17 at the junction where NH-63 meets. The food was just awesome! Served on a plantain leaf were a few vegetables, pickle chapattis/pooris etc. Then there was rasam, sambar and daal … all Karnataka style. It had been ages since I attended a wedding in Karnataka and it was like reliving those days. We were also served luscious slices of the local mango from Ankola. Not as delicious as the Devgad Hapoos but not too bad either! The lunch ordeal was topped with ‘Ideal’ ice cream and paan.

Next stop was Murudeshwar … the gigantic statue of Shiva is breathtaking! The windy yet serene ambience was much needed. The roads were good overall (better in Karnataka than Maharashtra).

Our drive continued to Udupi (also on NH-17) where we stayed at Sharada International. We got to Udupi around 7:00 pm. The rooms were decent and reasonable priced. We had to have only dinner (it was a dry day on account of elections in Karnataka) and we dropped off to sleep. It might have taken me only 10 … 9 … 8 … zzzzz!

End of day 1.

Tyres Inflated with Nitrogen Gas (Nitrofill)

Just filled my car up with Nitrogen gas. This was done at -
Darshan Tyres
Opp. Karishma Society, Kothrud, Pune 411038


One website claims –

• In 7 million miles of truck tire testing, nitrogen inflated tires lasted longer.
• Tire failures were reduced by 50%
• Tread life was increased by 25-30%
• Improves steering
• Improves handling
• Improves braking
• Reduces chance of tire failure
• Dramatically slows pressure loss from permeation
• Improves fuel economy
• Reduces tire oxidation
• Eliminates interior wheel corrosion
• Reduces running temperatures

Darshan Tyres charges Rs. 25/- a tyre. The guy who filled it up told me that it will last at least 4 months. One can inflate with regular air in case of deflation. So my next date for the check up is September 9. Lets hope that this really does what it says. I’ll be posting the results back here and also in www.team-bhp.com

JJ Cottage Munnar

Just got word from Sid that JJ Cottage in Munnar has been reserved. BTW, I was happy to know that he has parking. Lol.

Star Apartments, Kochi

Suphala today paid advance money into the account of Star Homes. I called the guy up to confirm that and he's going to send me a mail tomorrow.

We'll be staying at this place called Star Apartments in Kochi (Cochin). Sound like a good place to me. The deal is a two bedroom apartment that comes with a living, dining and kitchen. Their site is www.starhomes.co.in. I'll write a review and post pictures when I get there. Cheers!

Our road trip starts on May 15^th. The route that we have mapped out is Pune – Hubli – Udupi – Kozhikode – Kochi – Thekkady – Munnar – Bangalore – Pune. This is the route that we have planned currently, but who knows? Things might change as the tour progresses.

 

Initially, Suphala and I made up our minds to go on a road trip. How we came up with Kerala is a long story. When I mentioned this to our friends Nimit and Kiran, they were very excited and keen to join us on this trip. They were scheduled to drive to Goa with other friends of theirs but in their mind, they wanted to go with us, especially Kiran. Somehow things did not work out with Nimit and Kiran and we decided to do this trip ourselves.

 

Suphala and I have been working hard and we haven’t taken a break for the last 8 years. Of course, we’ve been on small weekend trips but none of them as exciting as this one. Suphala mentioned in passing to one of our neighbors, Monali, who is also a good friend of hers. Monali and Siddharth were pretty much thrilled about this whole concept and that’s how they agreed to join us.

 

Initially we were pondering about our mode of transport. Since it was going to be a road trip, it was a given that we will drive. Siddharth owns a TATA Indica V2 and mine is a Fiat Palio Stile Sport 1.6. The two cars have distinct advantages and disadvantages of their own. While the Indica is a diesel car we could expect savings on fuel, and the Fiat (petrol) is the one with power. Finally we have decided to the Fiat!

 

My car has been serviced recently and is all set to go. I’ve got a few things to take care of though. I’ll need to fill up my tyres with Nitrogen, so that these long drives don’t heat up the tyres. Also, I need to get a luggage carrier (or rack) which will enable us to carry enough stuff (I’ve been telling Suphala that we’re not going away forever, so you don’t need to pack our entire home. Lol) We’ll have to be careful of what we pack in, considering that we have limited space (The fiat palio is a hatchback, as you all know)

 

Yesterday, the four of us spent some time on www.holidayiq.com and booked our accommodations in Udupi, Kochi & Thekkady. We are yet to book a hotel in Munnar. In Bangalore, we’ll stay with my aunt (mausi) in Jayanagar 7^th Block.

 

It is my first experience of blogging, so I’m going to be experimenting with mobile blogging on the way and you can expect updates quite often. I will use my Windows Mobile phone to upload images and text to this blog. I’m not sure of the availability of broadband or wi-fi hotspots along the way, so there might be some technical glitches. I hope this is entertaining and informative to all of you.

 

Thanks for participating!