The Rough Guide to Kerala

360 Pages·2010·0.81 MB·English

by  David Abram

THE ROUGH GUIDE to
Kerala
Deserted beaches • Holy festivals • Lush backwaters
KERALA About this book
Kasaragod 0 50 km Rough Guides are designed
to be good to read and easy to
Mysore use. The book is divided into
KARNATAKA the following sections, and you
Kannur (Cannanore) should be able to find whatever
you need in one of them.
Thalassery
(Tellicherry) 3
The introductory colour
Chembra Udagamandalam section is designed to give you
Peak
Kozhikode (2100m) a feel for Kerala, suggesting
(Calicut) when to go and what not to
Coimbatore miss, and includes a full list of
contents. Then comes basics,
P(Paalalgkhkaatd) TAMIL for pre-departure information
Guruvayur NADU
Thrissur (Trichur) and other practicalities.
2
Ana Mudi The guide chapters cover the
(2695m)
state in depth, each starting
Ernakulam Munnar
Kochi (Cochin) with a highlights panel,
introduction and a map to
Vembanad Lake Kottayam help you plan your route.
Periyar
Alappuzha (Alleppey) SaWncitludlairfey Contexts fills you in on
Amritapuri 1 history, religion, the sacred
ARABIAN SEA
arts, wildlife and books, while
individual colour sections
1 Southern Kollam (Quilon)
Kerala introduce Kerala’s ritual
2 Central Varkala theatre and the key role
3 KNeorrathlaern Thiruvan(Tarnitvhaanpdurruamm) Kovalam elephants play in the state’s
Kerala culture. Language gives you
an extensive menu reader and
enough Malayalam to get by.
The book concludes with all the small print, including details of how
to send in updates and corrections, and a comprehensive index.
This second edition published November 2010.
The publishers and authors have done their best to ensure the accuracy and currency of all the
information in The Rough Guide to Kerala, however, they can accept no responsibility for any loss,
injury, or inconvenience sustained by any traveller as a result of information or advice contained
in the guide.
The Rough Guide to
Kerala
written and researched by
David Abram
www.roughguides.com

Contents
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C
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Colour section 1 Contexts 257 |
Introduction ...............................5 History ...................................259
Where to go ...............................7 Religion ..................................278
When to go ..............................10 The sacred arts ......................288
Things not to miss ...................11 Wildlife ...................................301
Books ....................................309
Basics 17
Language 313
Getting there ............................19
Getting around .........................24 Malayalam words and
Accommodation.......................31 phrases ................................315
Food and drink ........................35 Food and cooking terms ........318
Health ......................................45 Glossary.................................321
The media ...............................50
Festivals...................................51 Travel store 327
Sports and outdoor activities ...56
Yoga and ayurveda ..................58
Culture and etiquette ...............60 Small print & Index 331
Shopping .................................63
Travelling with children.............66
Travel essentials ......................67 Playing gods colour
section following p.112
Guide 75
1 Southern Kerala ..................77
2 Central Kerala ...................163 Elephant madness
3 Nothern Kerala ..................221 colour section
following p.240
3
(cid:2)(cid:2) Backwaters near Alappuzha (cid:2) Mural, Aranmula
Mangalore Bengaluru (Bangalore)
Maddur Channapatna
| IN KaPsaarlaakgaondnu Mandya Kanakapura
TR Bekal
O Kanhangad
D Mysore
U
C KARNATAKA Kollegal
T
IO Parassinikadavu THOLPETTY
N WILDLIFE
| W Azhikode SANCTUARY MUTHANGA Chamrajanagar
H Kannur (Cannanore) WAYANAD WILDLIFE
ERE Thalassery (Tellicherry) Mahé SBualttatenr’sySANCTUARY Gundlupet
T Badagara Kalpetta
O

G
O | W KappadNH-17 C(2hP1ee0ma0kbmra) UdagamandalMamettupalayam
Kozhikode (Calicut) SILENT
HEN Beypore Manjeri NVAPATALIORLNEKYAL Erode
T Tiruppur
O
G Mannarkkad Coimbatore
O Tirur
Malampuzha
Ponnani BCahraetraupthuuzrhutah yShoranur Palakkad TAMIL NADU
(Palghat)
Pollachi
PARAMBIKULAM
GuTrhurvisasyuurr (Trichur) Nelliampathy WILDLIFE SANCTUARY
Valparai
Irinjalakuda
Kodungallur AngamaliMalayattur ERNAAVTIKIOUNLAALM A(2n6a9 M5mud)i
Kaladi PARK
Aluva (Alwaye) Munnar Teni
KochiE (rCnoaTckHhuEilna )BmVAaiCkoKmTWhrAipuTnEitrRaS PeriyTarH EKKADY Madurai
Ettumanur Idukki Chellarcovil
Kumarakom Kottayam Puttady Kumily
PERIYAR
Alappuzha (Alleppey) Vandiperiyar WILDLIFE
Pambiyar SANCTUARY
Mannarsala M
Metres Amritapuri KayankulaAmranmula Achankovil adurai
2500 ARABIAN SEA Shencottah
2000
Kollam (Quilon) PEPPARA WILDLIFE
1500 SANCTUARY
Varkala Ponmudi
1000
Anchengo Nedumangad
4 5310000000 0 50 km T h i r u v a n(TarnivthaanpdururamNVHmi-z4)h7injaPmaKdmovaanlaambNhDeaaypymuarAragmastya Hills Kanniyakum
Nagercoil ari
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Introduction to T
Kerala R
O
D
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C
T
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|
W
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R
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Green and gold are the defining colours of Kerala: green TO

G
for the tropical lushness that bursts from every patch of O

ground in the state; gold for the prosperity that has for | W
H
many thousands of years been a consequence of this E
N

abundance. You see the two in combination everywhere, T
O

in the borders of the white cotton (cid:80)(cid:88)(cid:81)(cid:71)(cid:88) worn by Keralan G
O
men, in the ceremonial umbrellas hoisted over temple
deities as they’re processed on elephant back during
festivals, and in the make-up of the (cid:78)(cid:68)(cid:87)(cid:75)(cid:68)(cid:78)(cid:68)(cid:79)(cid:76) hero, framed
by his trademark jewel-encrusted headdress.
Gold and green will also dominate your first impressions of
Kerala if, like most travellers, you arrive by plane from the
Arabian Sea. Landing at Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum)
or Kochi (Cochin), a flash of vivid golden sand brings the
ocean to an abrupt end, giving way to a carpet of vegeta-
tion: bands of shaggy coconut palms interwoven by tangled
rivers, canals, lagoons and water-logged rice paddy that
stretch to a horizon bounded by forested mountains.
The lower slopes of the Western Ghats, less than 100km inland, are the source
of the spices that drew traders from across the world to the shore known for
centuries as the Malabar Coast. Ships from ancient Rome, China, the Arabian
peninsula, Portugal, Holland and Great Britain sailed to India’s southwestern
seaboard to fill their holds with pepper, as well as cinnamon, cardamom and
ginger. They brought with them a cornucopia of new ideas, technologies,
foodstuffs and religions, which the Keralans embraced and made their own.
Scan the skyline of any town in the state today and you’ll see, rising from the
red-tiled rooftops alongside mosque minarets and the brass finials of Hindu
temples, whitewashed church gables whose congregations claim descent
from converts evangelized by Saint Thomas in the first century AD. In Fort 5
Cochin, the region’s pre-eminent colonial trading post, cantilevered fishing
Fact file nets introduced by Chinese immigrants hang
like giant predators along a waterfront dotted
| I with Portuguese palacios, Dutch merchants’
N • Edged by 580km of
TR coastline, Kerala is 130km mansions, British warehouses and Jewish
O
D wide at its broadest synagogues.
U
C point and covers a total Adaptability and openness to the outside
T
I surface area of 38,863
O world continue to be central to the Keralan
N square kilometres; it takes
| around twelve hours to character. When recession started to bite in
W
H ride from one end to the the 1970s, many Malayalis (a name derived
E
R other by train. from the official state language, Malayalam)
E
T • In March 2001 (the left to work in the Persian Gulf. Now remit-
O
date of the last census) tance cheques sent home by them account
G
O the population of Kerala
for 25 percent of GDP. Behind the state’s
| stood at 31.8 million,
W economic success story lies its long-standing
H of whom 56 percent
EN were Hindu, 25 percent policy of universal education. Thanks to
T Muslim and 19 percent enthusiastic patronage from the region’s ruling
O
G Christian. maharajas and, after Independence, successive
O
• Both the literacy rate communist governments, Kerala enjoys the
(91 percent) and life highest literacy rates of any Indian region
expectancy (73 years) are
and has led the field when it comes to gender
the highest in India. GDP
equality and family planning.
weighs in at Rs37,500
(£545/$845) per capita, Yet while innovation has always been central
bolstered by remittances to Kerala’s prosperity, Malayalis remain
sent from overseas (one
in six Keralans work (cid:3)

abroad). Te
a
p
• Malayalam is the lan
official language of the tatio
state and the mother n
tongue of nearly all
Keralans (also known as
“Malayalis”). English is
most people’s second
language, and is widely
spoken in large towns,
resorts and in businesses
across the state.
• Keralans consume
more alcohol per head
of population than any
other Indian state, with
sales in excess of $1.2
billion annually – a major
6 source of tax revenue for
the government.
staunchly conservative.
Traditional dress is the
norm, even in the cities, | I
N
while the old hierarchy of TR
O
caste, in spite of decades of D
U
social reform, continues to C
T
I
dominate political life. From O
N
the visitor’s point of view, |
W
this can have its downsides H
E
– not least the fact that most R
E
temples remain off-limits T
O
to non-Hindus. But it also
G
(cid:4) Houseboat on the backwaters O
accounts for the survival of
|
Kerala’s extraordinary traditional arts scene. A wealth of Malayali music, W
H
dance and ritual drama forms continue to be widely performed and enjoyed EN

across the state, in precisely the same contexts as they have for centuries. One T
O
of the world’s most elaborate systems of holistic medicine, ayurveda, has also G
O
been kept alive for thousands of years in Kerala, where it now enjoys a new lease
of life as a spa therapy.
Moreover, thanks to Kerala’s go-ahead tourism industry, you can enjoy
these unique cultural phenomena from the comfort of some truly wonderful
accommodation. Whether an ancestral tharavadu mansion made of teak or
a converted kettu vallam rice barge in the backwaters, a British tea planter’s
bungalow high in the Cardamom Hills or a royal hunting lodge lost in the
jungle, heritage hotels and homestays run by local families offer plenty of
excuses to get off the beaten track and will deepen your experience of a region
that, for all its paradoxes and contradictions, never fails to astonish.
Where to go
K
erala’s largest city and administrative capital is Thiruvananthapuram
(Trivandrum), in the far south of the state, but its principal tourist
hub, where the majority of travellers first alight, is the former colonial
trading port of Kochi, 220km further north. Facing the modern
metropolis of Ernakulam from across the harbour, the time-worn backstreets
of Fort Cochin, lined by old Portuguese, Dutch and British houses, provide
the main focus for visitors, with a broad choice of homestays and heritage
hotels, and atmospheric little restaurants, cafés and art galleries. Fronted by
7
a channel that’s still busy night and day with maritime traffic, Fort Cochin’s
iconic Chinese fishing nets are the defining feature of the waterfront, but
(cid:3)

P
u
| IN likali o
TR r tig
ODU er dan
C ce
TION , Thrissu
| r
W
H
E
R
E

T
O

G
O

|
W
H
E
N

T
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GO you’ll see dozens more of these quirky contraptions dangling from riverbanks
in the backwaters to the south. Boats and punted canoes ferry sightseers out
of Fort Cochin each morning to typical lagoon- and river-side villages where
life, dominated by inshore fishing, crab farming and coir production, seems
little affected by the presence up the highway of a major city.
For trips deeper into the famous Kuttanad backwaters, however, the market
town of Alappuzha, a couple of hours’ drive south of Kochi, is the best
springboard, particularly if, like tens of thousands of visitors each year, you
want to explore the region in a converted rice barge. A fleet of nearly 500
handsome old kettu vallam, capped with elegant coir canopies, waits on the
outskirts to whisk passengers over the glassy expanse of Vembanad Lake, or
along the network of palm-fringed canals and rivers crisscrossing this densely
populated rice-growing area. For a more hands-on experience, you can also
jump on one of the clapped-out local ferries connecting Kuttanad’s myriad
settlements, or stay a few nights in one of the many heritage homestays
occupying antique, gable-roofed tharavadukal houses.
The southern gateway to Kuttanad is the old spice port of Kollam (Quilon),
a popular stop for travellers en route to or from the nearby beach resort of
Varkala, with its spectacular red cliffs and famous temple. Hindus have come
to the village’s sacred white-sand beach for many centuries to immerse the
ashes of recently deceased loved ones in the sea. But pilgrims these days are far
outnumbered but the ranks of sun-worshipping backpackers who congregate
on the beach and clifftop cafés overlooking it.
The state’s other main resort, Kovalam, further south, is looking a little jaded
8
these days, but serves as a convenient base for day-trips into Thiruvanan-
thapuram, where you can shop for traditional Keralan metalwork, admire the