KERALA

Make these moments count.

What happened to Instagram and all those jaw-dropping blog-posts about the ever travelling “so-called influencers” these last months? Due do the pandemic explosion of the covid-19 virus, which drastically changed our daily routines within a couple of days. Flight companies stopped their activites 3 months ago, bloggers aren’t posting anymore, and travel-photographers lay down their cameras.

It seemed like the whole world stood still after the forced restrictions that we had to sustain. Will we ever be able to travel again, like we used to?

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The first month actually didn’t feel that bad, staying at home, and having endless free time for your hobbies and the people who lived under the same roof. Running and cycling had become a daily habit. We started to spend less money, and we started to enjoy our own neighbourhoods.

However I have to admit after my 4th week in a kind of “lock-down” situation I missed spending the time abroad, hearing the sounds of a foreign language, eating a different cuisine, enjoying drinks at sunset with sand between my toes. The time off, gave me many occasions to reflect on what I went through these last years.

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I clearly remember my very first “solo” trip to Norway in 2013, to visit my couchsurfer friend Martin, who back then, was living in Oslo. It was the first time when I decided to leave the country all by myself, to recover from a severe breakup. This trip actually was the spark that ignited to the fuel for solo-traveling. I discovered how fun it was to discover a city by yourself and get in touch with way more people than traveling as a group of friends.

Since then I’ve made it to my own bucket-list destinations, sometimes even multiple times: Japan, Cuba, Israel, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, India, Vietnam…

Initially when I started this blog, I praised the way of “solo-traveling”, as it allowed me to get to know myself better, and it made me the person that I am today. There were moments of pride, joy, laughters and tears, however nothing will make those memories fade away.

Things have changed since 2013. For the last 2 years, I discovered beautiful places with my girlfriend by my side. Was it a big change? Actually no. I guess because, she and I, we were surfing the same wave, while we were traveling. Sharing a hostel, getting drunk on cheap booze, socialising with locals, walking around like college students on a budget trip… all this, wasn’t a big deal, and we barely had to set compromises. Now that I’m turning 38 this year, I’m slowly turning my back to those wild binge drinking nights, and looking for a more quiet and cozy bar that play smooth soul and jazz tunes to drift away into the night.

I can definitely agree, that both ways of traveling are totally fine, as long as the attitude stays authentic. I’m also pretty sure that this kind of traveling won’t change, as soon as kids starts seeing the light of our world. Parents shouldn’t blame their kids for their boredom in life. Stay curious, and keep that hunger for discovery alive.

These last days I really thought alot about my most memorable trips. Surprisingly the drunken nights weren’t those special moments. This comes from a person who loves to drink!

For me, it was rather the words that were spoken while sitting in a bar, or while sharing a cup of coffee. The last handshake or hug before saying goodbye. Or those seconds that froze time for the lenght of an eye-blink, like in Varanasi at sunrise. Those special moments, made me go back multiple times to the same place, as I was craving for repeating pleasant moments. Japan took over my heart within a heartbeat. I really wish that I could make it back to Japan this year. It would be my 6th trip to “Nihon”, every consecutive year.

Making new friends in Japan. Meeting the locals in Havana in a worn down bar. Getting smashed with buckets of water in Myanmar for the Sonkran Festival. Celebrating an indian wedding without alcohol. Feeling lost among the “ultra orthodox” in Jerusalem, but still being blown away by the cultural differences, those things in life, that money can’t buy.

I got a new laptop, my first one within 15 years. It kicked in with a tiny motivational swing to create a new video with passed experiences. Once you go through older videos or photos, by chance you can find an old gem of a scene or shot, that slipped through your catches while traveling. I edited a bunch of never used footage, that didn’t make it to the final cut back then. Shots of people we met on the road, however which didn’t really fit in the video back then. I’m glad to tag “Ishan”, “Shyam”, and “Ekko” to the video above.

We can’t wait to strap the old backpack around our shoulders and step back on the path that we were following for many years. I miss the sound of the sea, the stars in the asian skies, the tuk-tuk engine noises, the dirty flip-flop feets, and the street-food you can buy for a buck.





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An indian wedding in Kerala

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This is going to be a kind of different, but special post, as we flew back to Kerala for an indian wedding. Who would have thought, that I’d turn back to India for a 3rd time, after my less amusing first trip to Dehli and Agra 3 years ago. And guess what? I’d love to get back to Kerala a 4th time.

Last year, 2018, we did a trip across Kerala, and spent new year’s eve in Kovalam. I could cleary notice a huge difference in mentality and kindness in southern India, compared to its northern part. Everybody was so kind, and we were threated like kings & queens.

This time we landed in Calicut airport, to start our journey towards Kanjirapuzha, a little town next to Mannarkkad, which was located 4 hours driving away from the popular city Kochi.

We landed around 04:00 am, passed the immigration as quick as we could, and expected to get out of the aiport, to meet our driver. Around 04:40 there was no sign of a driver, nor a working ATM, nor a SIM-card selling point. Where could we go without driver, without any money, and not being able to contact someone through whatsapp or phonecall.

In the end we managed to call our good friend Vinoy (in exchange for exegaretaed roaming costs), who arranged everything, and just moments later, we were on the road east-bound.

I felt great being back in Kerala, the sunny state with millions of palmtrees and millions of smiles in the streets. It took us a little more than two hours to reach Mannarkkad. We were lucky to check-in at a small hotel, to borrow Vinoy’s hotel room for a couple of hours to get some sleep, before he would pick us up, with the other folks from Luxembourg, who were coming for Vinoy’s wedding.

We went out to get some cold drinks as we were melting in the hotel room. Vanessa entered a jewelry shop, as she wanted to get fancy for the wedding. People started entering the mentioned shop, to introduce themselves, shake hands and ask our names. It seemed like they’ve never met any caucasians before. As soon as we left the shop, the same show went on on the sidewalk. So many people gave us a big smile and tried to interract with us, eventhough some barely spoke any english.

The “selfie” is a huge thing in India. “Selfie please!?” we heard it a million times. The funny part, was that they’d rather go for a selfie, than getting a proper group-photo with us. They all went for the selfie, straight arms out and pressing against us with a big smile, to get the typical selfie iphone shot.

In the afternoon, we met up with Vinoy, Kamilla, Joana and Nicolas. We were also introduced to Vinoy’s friends and cousins. After a couple of photos we headed to our resort “Diga Resort” in Palakkad. We had the whole resort for ourselves, as it mainly consisted of three huts. The location was pretty scenic, as we got a view on the nearby water-dam. Everybody was exausted from the traveling journey to India. We had a little nap and socialised in the early evening, played some drinking games and ended up drunk by the end of the night. As we initially had planned to go out for dinner, which didn’t turn out to happen, the host of the resort, brought us some free delicious grilled fish and chicken. They were happy to have some foreign tourists at their resort.

 

The house party.

The next morning we all woke up with a hangover, and went for a quick indian breakfast at the resort, in the owner’s kitchen. It felt like having lunch at grandma’s place, but we loved it.

Our friend Sham picked us up, and the long day was about to begin. We went back to Mannarkkad to get dressed up for the wedding. Vinoy’s family made us a present and offered us dothis and saris. We entered a pretty fancy shop for indian standards, and all eyes went on us. Again lots of smiles, handshakes and selfies. After a while the manager showed up as for a photo with all of us… after that, there was no more turning back. We acutally took over 30 photos following the first one.

The ladies were all happy about their clothes and jewelries, they definitely felt like princesses out of an indian fairytale.

After spending almost 2 hours at the shop, we headed towards Silent Valley, driving uphill the serpentines towards the mountains. We were told that we couldn’t get inside the national park, as there were issues with a group of Maoists (a form of communism which has been banned in India for security reasons). We had a stop, where I could fly up my drone and take some beautiful landscape photos. Straight after that we went for a lunch-curry.

We headed back to Mannarkkad to meet up with Vinoy and his family, who showed up all the way from his hometown Trivandrum.

After getting ready back at the resort, and already being late, we made it to the house party around 7:30 pm (instead of 5:00). The pre-wedding party took place at Vinoy’s wife house. They hosted around 200 guests. The whole evening was mostly about dancing, singing and eating. Once again, we felt like VIPs among the indian, as we were offered the front seat of the show. The younger guests invited the white folks on stage for dancing, and thought us their indian dancing moves. Everybody was so kind and felt super happy just for being part of it.

Our first wedding party without alcohol.

The big-day ceremony

The celebration was split up on two different days. The previous night happened to be the celebration party, and the ceremony the following early morning was the official part of the wedding. The ceremony took place in a nearby convention center, where approximately 700 people were invited.

Traditional indian music, lots of colorful saris, the beautiful bride, it all felt like being in the middle of a movie.

The ceremony was mainly split up in the three main parts: the official wedding, the delicious post-wedding lunch, and the indian selfie experience. It happened again. Almost every single relative of the couple’s family wanted to take photos with us. Children, older people, the husbands, the wives… they all wanted a photo with caucasians in it. We felt once again super popular.

After mid-day most people left the place, and we had to as well. We had booked a taxi Kochi for all of us, because that’s where we split up, some moved on to Goa, Nicolas flew to Sri Lank the next day. And Vanessa and I, we headed back home to following day.

 

Kochi.

After having spent 2 and a half days in the Mannarkkad area. We checked out Kochi on our last day of this very short trip. After having spent over 4 hours in a taxi, to get to Kochi with our friends from Luxembourg, we decided to book one night at a nearby airport hotel, this time it was a fancy one. However we didn’t know that we were 1 hour away from the more popular sights of Kochi.

Right outside our hotel we managed to get a tuk-tuk which would bring us to Fort Kochi for 1000 ruppees. We didn’t know that it would take that long, and that we had to get on a short boatride to get on the “island”. On our way we witnessed the beauty of the backwaters, and the chinese fishernets along the palmtree-shores. It reminded us of Allappey’s Backwaters. I was pissed, that i didn’t pack my drone for the last day, as the scenery was rather beautiful, and I would have loved to take some photos from up there.

Our tuk-tuk driver Martin, was a very gentle man. Eventough communication was a mess, as he barely spoke any english, he still tried so hard to exchange some informations about our lives. We felt happy to show us his city.

Fort Kochi had the feel of a hippi island, everything seemed more laid back. Lots of trees, fishermen, graffitis, streetart, a small street market alley along the waters. It had a vibe of its own. I definitely would have loved to spend the whole day at Fort Kochi, however we had to pay attention to our schedule as the flight was leaving at 7pm.

While passing by the only 9 remaining chinese fishernet installations, we were approached by a handful of fishermen, who explained us, that they would bring up the nets from the water, between 150 an 200 times a day. A group of slender men would be pulling ropes with their bodyforce to get the nets high and check for fishes catches. We were allowed to try it ourselves. They also told us, that the tsuanami from 2004 caused a lot of dammage. The wooden installation were destroyed, and the waves brought too much sand to the shores. Due to that, the fishermen catch a lot less fishes than they used to.

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On our way back to the hotel, Martin asked me if I wanted to drive his tuk-tuk. I gladly accepted his offer, and sat behind the steering handle. Driving a tuk-tuk in India, priceless.

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Kerala: Kovalam, Alleppey, Munnar

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As we planned on staying in Kerala for 8 nights, time realy wasn’t on our side. Distances in Kerala are quite significant, which we didn’t expect at all, considering Google-Maps showing us 120-150 km routes. Because of the traffic and the narrow roads, 120 km could easily take up to 5 hours of your prescious time.

We landed in Trivandrum, as we were planning on spending New Years Eve on the beach, and we opted for Kovalam, because the surroundings and its red-white striped light house looked very charming.

Kovalam.

Kovalam’s beach was nice, nothing more nothing less. The restaurants at the beach front were quite alright for indian circumstances. However when you moved further away from the back alleys of the shore, the surroundings got pretty odd. There wasn’t an ATM nearby. You’d find plenty of roadstalls selling the usual stuff, chewing pan, sodas and biscuits. On New Years Eve, we were part of the few younger folks walking through the sand of the beach. Bars and restaurants were busy with older people, mostly europeans.

There was nothing going on late at night. Selling alcoholic beverages was prohibited if the bar wouldn’t pay a pretty expensive authorization. Some bars would sell the booze under table and serve the wine, beer or spirits in coffee mugs. For half a bottle of red wine we paid 10 euros / dollars on NYE, which is insanely expensive for indian people. Of course we had to hide the bottle under the table, in case the cops would show up.

Kovalam had its charming side, because only after one day, the locals would start recognizing you, and you’d get in lovely conversations with them. Of course always having in mind to win you as a customer in their shop or restaurant. The weather was flawless, even at night we had t-shirt temperatures. The water of the sea was pretty warm and the palmtrees bordering the shore made Kovalam a pretty place.

One day we drove up to Varkara with a rental scooter, it took us 5 hours in total to do the roadtrip. Varkara looked different than Kovalam, less buildings, more greens. In the end I can’t tell you which beach I actually prefered. We enjoyed the scenery along the road while heading up north. But I guess the 5 hours driving weren’t worth it, to spend some hours on a beach.

Initially we planned on staying 2 nights in Kovalam, but we extended our stay for one more night, as we didn’t want to rush with the usual check-out and packing our backpacks after the night of NYE. Honestly 3 nights in Kovalam is too long, as there isn’t much to do in the area. You can do daytrips to Varkara, the center of Trivandrum which gives you the feel of a city-vibe, or driving down south to the Vivekananda Rock Memorial (which we didn’t do, as it would take another 5 hours of driving in total). The scooter rental rate was a bargain, as we only paid 300 rupees per day (4 euros/dollars).




Alleppey and its backwaters.

After driving up north to Varkala, we figured out that Alleppey would be quite a ride. The distance between both cities is around 160 km which takes up to 5 hours driving.

A local told us that you can reach Varkala by train, however the train only leaves in the early morning and only once a day. So we opted for a taxi, which would cost us only 40-50 euro/usd, hassslefree, with an A/C, and you can sleep in the back of the car. Easy!

Alleppey is well known for its charming canals and its bigger lake on the northern side. That’s what we saw and what we got. In Alleppey we visited the city center, however the town looked like any other indian city. Our pleasant part of Alleppey was definitely our stay the “Bamboo Lagoon Resort”. The Bamboo Lagoon had the feel of a guesthouse, as there weren’t more than 10 to 12 rooms for rental. We had the chance to get one of the 3 rooms of a cottage that were very close to the river’s edge, facing the backwaters. Opening the doors in the morning was very beautiful as you could witness the beauty of the house boats passing by, watching the local fishermen in their canoos, or just observing the neighbours taking “a shower” in the river. It definitely felt more like India, than Kovalam’s beaches.

There wasn’t much to do on the “island”, as you had to a 1 minute canoo-trip to reach mainland. For one day only it was very pleasant to saviour the quietness of the resort, spending an hour in a hammock and watching the boats passing by. You could book a boat from the hotel and do a canal trip through the back waters. The boat cost around 500 rupee an hour (5 euro/uds). It would lead you through different canals and offer you a scenic view of the neighbourhood.

Unluckily on our first day we were told that on the following day, violent riots could take place in the city as there was an issue with a nearby temple, where women were granted access to use the temple for the first time ever. The radical religious fanatics obviously didn’t like that, and the use of violence was expected. So the only way to get to Munnar was to leave in the early morning at 01:00 or 02:00 am, or we would have to stay a second night, and spend all day at the resort, as driving with a taxi or buses was prohibited for security reasons. We decided to leave at night.

However we were already pretty sure that we would stay one more night at the bamboo lagoon on our way back home to the airport.

Munnar.

Munnar was a contrasty destination in comparison to the backwaters and the beaches of Kerala’s coastal region. Munnar is a located in the mountainous area of Kerala. It looks very green and hilly and the temperatures tend to be much lower at night.

Our roadtrip to Munnar was quite an experience. In the end we can have a good laugh about it, however the behaviour of our driver was rather dangerous than hilarious. The taxi driver picked us up at 01:30 in front of the bamboo lagoon resort. We put our stuff in the trunk and our journey began. After a couple of minutes the cab was stopped by the local police. They asked where we were heading, as it wasn’t allowed to drive out because of the riots that would high-probably happen that day. We were allowed to move on.

On the road I noticed how the driving behaviour of our driver changed: accelerating, breaking, accelerating, breaking.. and it went on like this. I instantly knew he was too tired to hold the road. After having hit the sidewalk numerous times, the driver decided to have a break and sleep for 30 minutes. Later on he told us, that he hadn’t slept for almost 24 hours.

We arrived in Munnar just before 07:00am. We stayed at the “Kaivalyam Wellness Retreat” for one night only. Before checking in we didn’t know that the resort had a fully-packed schedule with activities for their guests: free yoga classes, free tea tasting, early morning visits of the tea plantations, and many many more. They even gave free cooking classes 3 times a week. Obviously the cooking classes didn’t take place when we were visiting… as for myself, I’m always missing the best parts while traveling. Bummer!

The Kaivalyam Retreat was most definitely a beautiful place. Surrounded by endless trees, different kind of plantations (black tea, cardomon), it felt so refreshing breathing in the mountain air with all those scents outside of your room.

After having checked in, being led to our room, taking a shower… we notice the beautiful tree houses outside of our window. The lovely owner of the hotel, was so kind to give us a kind of upgrade, and let us move into one of the few tree houses that were available. Spending the night in a tree house was already worth the 5 hours we drove in a taxi to reach Munnar.

We were looking forward to discover the mighty green hills that we found on Google. Sadly during our visit, most of the tuk-tuk drivers were off work, because of the on-going strike all across Kerala. So it wasn’t possible to get to those greeny landscapes, as they were located 15 kilometers away from our resort.

Nevertheless, we were enjoying our 30 hours in Munnar. The 07:00 am yoga class was fun. It was interesting to witness the indian point of view about yoga, its flow, and how they practice it. We were executing all the asanas on traditional matt, rather a rug, and it kinda felt like I was doing yoga for the first time.

This was pretty much our Kerala trip.

So during a whole week, 7 days, we managed to visit 4 different cities: Kovalam, Varkara, Alleppey and Munnar (and we made it back to Alleppey and Kovalam on our last 2 days). Obviously we couldn’t experience all the parts of that beautiful state. But we experienced enough, to agree that it’s worth doing the drip. The whole trip changed my view of India, as it wasn’t actually that fun the first time I visited the country.

If you’re a fan of Bali or Srilanka, you will love Kerala.

Namaste to all the lovely people that crossed our path on this trip, … we met too many lovely ones!