Aluva -> Thrissur -> Palakkad (13.11.24)

It was a wrench to leave Kochi area, because we had really liked the vibes of the place, including the interlocking tiles on the roads that often gave a feeling of driving in a fairyland town, like Oz. But we were about to travel to another iconic place, Palakkad. When we were in Muscat, half the people there seemed to be from Palakkad, which made me want to visit the place someday. Firstly to see the origin of so many luminaries, and secondly to understand why so many luminaries left the place.

Palakkad, like Kanyakumari, reexamined its cultural identity in 1950, and in 1956, the mostly Tamil-speaking Kanyakumari shifted from Kerala to TN, and the mostly Malayalam-speaking Palakkad shifted from TN to Kerala. Who gained in the process? Who knows?

Today's travel was to be only 125 km, around 3 hrs of driving. We had left at 8.30 am and we would have reached Palakkad by 12.00 noon, even having provided for a breakfast break. So we decided to take a little detour to Thrissur, which is roughly midway. Incidentally, Thrissur or Trichur, an anglicised version of the Malayalam word 'Thrisshivaperoor', literally means 'the town of the sacred Shiva'. So guess what we decided to visit in Thrissur?

Sree Vadakkumnathan temple at Thrissur (10.30 am)

One of the oldest Shiva temples in India stands on 9 acres of ground with sprawling buildings, especially four gopurams standing guard over the central building. This earthy-toned Kerala temple, made of wood and stone and almost in perfect preservation, is designed in an understated style that immediately quietens the senses. Inside, coloured murals and wood carvings adorn the walls. Whereas Tamil styles go for height, Kerala styles go for width, it seems. Lord Parasuram is said to have established this temple. Even if he didn't, it is definitely worth a visit.

South Indian temples have their own rules, and a placard here read that men should remove shirts/banyans. While stripping off my shirt, I noticed the men here interpret 'bare-bodied' in various ways. As you can see below in my efforts at picturisation, these are (i) the Abraham Abs, (ii) the Tiger T-shirt, (iii) the Salman Shirt, (iv) and the Katrina Choli. Ladies, however, could be any heroine from the 50's.

The darshan was satisfactory and orderly, without pushing and shoving and without demands for money. We celebrated our gratitude by licking a couple of ice-cream cones together.

Checking into Palakkad (1.00 pm)

NH544 that runs from Kochi to Palakkad did a great job, except in one spot where construction work merged the three lanes to a single one, and brought out road rage in the whole spectrum of motorists. 

We were staying tonight with a Muscat friend of ours, Radha and Somakumar, who live in a beautiful villa in town. Palakkad is not a big town, with more than its fair share of narrow lanes, but I had also gained some serious skills in narrow alley manoevours in the last couple of weeks, enough to be nominated for the epiteph 'Alley cat'. Our car reached their house without a single extra scratch. A special Kerala lunch followed, including avial, koorka (chinese potato), surmai fry, sardine curry, chicken and payasam. To our limited capabilities, it was like Onam sadia.

Evening at Palakkad (4.00 pm)

We also went and met Prasad (my Muscat colleague) and Ranjini for tea, who promptly filled in the gaps in our Kerala cuisine education and fed us ras-vada, alu bonda, elayappam, neyyappam, the last two being coconut/jaggery-based sweets. This small tea meal covered us till dinner, or so we thought.

Back in Radha's house, an evening of karaoke (Somakumar is a great amateur singer) finished with another new item - kozhkatta (rice balls with condiments) making its appearance. Our education in Keralite cooking has now advanced far beyond the default 'appam with stew'.

Tomorrow we will visit surroundings of Palakkad, looking for beautiful spots.

Photo credits: Panna Rashmi Ray

Local at Kochi (12.11.24)

Today was a relaxed touristy day at Kochi. Rashid's co-brother Mr Shani had brought along breakfast from his house - home-cooked idlis and vadas. So the day started well.

Lake view point at Kadamakudy (11.30 am)

Mornings should not be wasted, so we did a quick outing to Kadamakudy area, which lies on the eastern side of the channel separating Vypin's island. We had to drive around 40 mins from our place in Aluva.

Kadamakutty is a backwater area, with big water bodies flowing slowly to and fro with the tides. One strip of road with water bodies on both sides seemed to be a particularly popular place, going by the number of shanties waiting to open in the evening. At High Noon, it was pretty deserted, and I could almost see Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly shimmering on the culverts. Water hyacinth plants with their lilac flowers were gently floating about, carrying out their part of beauty duty. It was a warm and lazy scene, like that evoked by the drone of bees and the aroma of spices.

Vypin to Fort Kochi by Ro Ro boat (4.00 pm)

All these may sound Greek and Latin, if not Malayalam, so let me put things in perspective.

From west to east, we get the outlier Kochi, Willingdon Island (formed through channel dredging) in the middle and then modern Ernakulam. Aluva is even further east. Vypin, Vellarpadam and Bolgatty Island hover around the top. Everything is connected to everything else by water metros (launches) and bridges, so there are more than one way of moving from A to B, without falling into the C.

On Viju's advice, which was aimed at giving us a variety of experiences, we drove to Vypin island (being the port area, roads were quite empty). There we shoved our car onto a Ro Ro Boat, viz a catamaran capable of holding 10 cars, 20 bikes and 100 people. It was hardly a patch on Fred Nelson in the ferry business, though. The crossing was over in 7 minutes, and we were in the Fort Kochi area. Very smoothly done.

Santa Cruz Cathedral Basilica (4.45 pm)

Kochi has changed hands a large number of times.

1500-1663: The Portugese (remember Alphonso de Albuquerque?)

1663-1795: Dutch

1795-1947: British

Portugese architectures are all over the place and the Basilica is a prime instance. It was supposed to close at 5 pm, so we rushed around a bit, taking pics.

Mattancherry Palace (5.00 pm)

The MP, also known as the Dutch Palace, was actually built by the Portugese as a gift to Kerala. This lay on the east edge of Fort Kochi, and though we drove like a hot knife through butter, we could not enter the palace museum on the first floor (it closes at 5 pm). It was being promoted heavily by google as THE place to see in Kochi.

The Paradesi Synagogue (5.30 pm)

Kochi has only 8 known Jews, and a separate synagogue for them seems to a bit of overkill. The approach road to the synagogue is also known as Jew Town.

Built in 1568, it is the oldest active synagogue in the Commonwealth!

According to an exhibition hall at the synagogue, the Jews first landed at Cranganore in 72 AD (modern Kodangallur) and were welcomed by the Rajah there. They got kicked out of Cranganore by the Moors and the Portugese in 1524 AD and so Joseph Azar, the last Jew prince, swam the river and surrendered to Kerala. Jew town is a long street where most of houses sport arts and artifacts of a bygone age.

Sunset at Fort Kochi beach (6.30 pm)

By the time we wrapped up in Jew Town, the sun had already set. Still, we had to complete the experience of Fort Kochi, so we parked at the beach and spent a few minutes there, enjoying the breeze, the relaxed crowds, and an old French lady who seemed quite interested in our road trip.

Dinner at Grand Hotel, MG Road (7.30 pm)

This place was also suggested by Viju, and it did come with one big plus, especially for MG Road - private parking. We stopped here on the way back and had a well-prepared dinner of appam accompaniments - chicken stew (Panna) and Aleppy fish curry (I). One does need fortification when leaving Fort Kochi.

Though totally local, we still managed to travel 110 km today. Tomorrow morning we leave for Palakkad.

Photo credits: Panna Rashmi Ray