Feb. 15 train to Kannur, for a stay at Blue Mermaid on Thottada Beach

The same taxi driver (he’d been spending a lot of time with us) picked us up bright and early (too early for breakfast even) so we could be sure to make the 7:40 train. When we check out of rooms we always carefully do a double and sometimes triple check to make sure that we haven’t forgotten anything. We did the same at Arco Iris, and it wasn’t until several days later that I started to wonder where my favorite pair of sandals was. I couldn’t figure it out, and I finally e-mailed Arco Iris.

Sure enough, I’d left them there. We’d carefully checked our room the morning we left, but in the dim dawn I hadn‘t been thinking about making sure to also look outside the front door. This is India where everyone removes their shoes outside, and this is a large house with several sets of guests and two children, so there were lots of shoes on the steps in front of the house. I never even though about the fact that I’d left mine there too. When I contacted her, the owner was kind enough to mail them to me at a place we had an upcoming reservation.

Since our plans weren't firm when I was booking train tickets, I was playing the India train ticket cover-your-number game. So, I actually had three different sets of train tickets for the Goa to Kannur leg of the journey. Our train was delayed, and while we waited, I walked through the train station in search of some food for us for breakfast. I finally stopped at a very busy restaurant with lots of turn-over and bought some cooked food to go. My husband was a bit apprehensive about eating train station food, but we were hungry and had no bad after-effects. We wanted to take this train trip and do it during the day since it is supposed to be one of the most scenic journeys in India. It was quite interesting scenery along the coast, but the trip was so long that we didn't just sit and stare out of the window the entire time but also spent some time reading.

Surprisingly, we only had four people in our six person 2AC compartment. Of, course people who had traveled the day before in our assigned car would have also had only four in the car because I had two reserved seats for that day that I never cancelled. Earlier in the trip I'd kind of lost track of dates and times and forgot to cancel the second set of tickets for this trip. By the time I remembered I should cancel, we were in Wildernest where we could get no connectivity. Despite the fact that Wildernest tells guests they can use the office computer to check e-mail, we were never successful in getting online. So, I was unable to cancel, and we paid for a journey not taken.

Our train left an hour late, so it was 4:30 in the afternoon before we arrived in Kannur. We'd asked our guesthouse—Blue Mermaid-- to send a rickshaw for us. As we walked out the gates of the train station, a guy came up to us and asked if we were Julie. Apparently we didn’t look like the locals, and it was a pretty good guess that we were the people he'd been sent to pick up.

As soon as we got in the rickshaw and started out over the bumpy roads, we said to ourselves that we were back in the India we knew from former trips. Cows, trash, and beeping rickshaws on bumpy, dirt roads. After a quick stop for some tangerines at a fruit stand (we'd read the advise to bring snacks since Blue Mermaid doesn't serve lunch) we bumped along and in about fifteen minutes arrived at our resort.

Blue Mermaid is small and quiet and not at all upscale, but it definitely met our needs. The location is on the side of a small tidal lagoon and in front of the Arabian Sea. Initially I had requested one of their rooms with AC, but due to a mix-up (I’d changed my dates) we ended up with a room with no AC. Actually I think we ended up better than we would have been since we got a larger room on a corner so we’d have the opportunity to have both a private side balcony and the common front shared balcony. And, we could get cross breezes, so we were fine without AC. We’d been told that Goa is typically cooler than Kerala, and this is in northern Kerala so I am guessing that it has a climate much more similar to Goa’s.

After settling in, we set out for a walk along the Thottada Beach. Where we were this beach is more of a cove with large rocks establishing a natural barrier at either end. Some guests who were leaving told us about a path we could follow up and around the rocks going inland for a while so we could then reach the next adjoining beach area. We returned for a pre-dinner beer and then joined the group for the communal, set-menu, dinner. Food was good, but I guess my only criticism was that protein/fish portions in particular were rather skimpy, and it seemed apparent that the owners were trying to minimize food costs by not providing the more generous amounts that other places we visited provided.

Feb. 16 & 17 Blue Mermaid

We are not typically beach people (my husband can take perhaps a half a day max of sitting around), but we felt in a six week trip we should try a stay at one of India’s beaches for a few days. Plus, we were now about two weeks into what had been thus far a pretty active vacation, so it was an appropriate time to take a break from doing a lot of sight-seeing. Amazingly, after a couple days here we got into the routine and could see how people would just take a relaxing beach vacation for a while. And, this experience ultimately ended up guiding us in our choices a week or so later when it got soooooo hot that we needed to make some decisions about what to do and where to go.

We spent our two days here in a nice, gentle routine that is unusual for us on vacation, especially in an exotic location. Have breakfast, go for a really long walk on the beach or a bit inland in the midst of the local houses, swim for a while, retreat to the shade for some reading and a snack, in late afternoon take another long walk and have a swim, have a pre-dinner beer, have dinner, read a bit and go to bed. By the time we left, I was saying that we could have done this for a few more days.

When I’d booked the place and made our plans, I’d thought that we would be bored and assumed we’d at least go into Kannur to check it out; we didn’t. And, when the hosts offered the opportunity to take in a long evening/night attendance at a theyyam, we declined preferring to just stay at Blue Mermaid.

Still enjoying your account of your trip!

Also following along. Skimpy protein would have been a big problem for me! Pity you mssed the theyyam event, it was a highlight for me. Amused about the sudden liking for beach time - I've had that experience occasionally on a long trip.

Continued thanks, Julie. mmmm.... just reading about your routine, let alone doing it, is making me very relaxed!

We woke at about 3:00 a.m. to go to local temple for Theyyam performance.
Colorful, fascinating, glad I was there-- but i can understand how easy it would be to sleep in.

We stayed at Costa Malabari on the cliff, so to reach the beautiful beach required walk down many many metal stairs (and back up too of course). I'd have preferred a place like yours where the beach was right in front of the lodging.

I guess we were at the relaxation portion of our trip and also knew that we'd be doing some intense Hindu immersion later on, so we decided against the theyyam (as did most of the other people who were staying at Blue Mermaid).

Despite the protein quibble we'd return to Blue Mermaid, and we'd request the same room we had.

Thanks for sharing your report it's a package of ideas and reviews. very helpful.

Very interesting report. Waiting to hear about the biking and Hindu immersion!

Feb. 18 Fort Kochi
Immediately after breakfast a rickshaw taxi driver picked us up for the train station where we’d be continuing our journey on the Konkan Express. This time it was a relatively short but beautiful journey of only five hours to reach Cochin. Despite the fact that I knew exactly what dates we’d be in Cochin, I hadn’t been particularly efficient in booking us a room. I’d spent a lot of time on Trip Advisor reading reviews looking for the sweet spot of location, price, comfort and charm. A couple of my choices didn’t have availability by the time I contacted them; then I saw a new listing—Fort Bungalow--on AirB&B that sounded really nice and met all of my criteria.

We had stumbled across a gem—exactly what were looking for. We were the first guests who used AirB&B here and, when discussing a deposit, it took a bit of explaining to the owner how AirB&B works. He was obviously new at this being the owner of a guesthouse thing since, when I asked him about sending a taxi to pick us up at the train station in Ernakulam, he told us to just find a taxi on our own. This was the only time on our entire trip when an owner couldn’t provide this service. We did find a taxi, but the driver (who told us he knew every hotel and guesthouse in Cochin) did not know where ours was since it was so new. With a final phone call enroute, we finally arrived at Fort Bungalow.

Owned by a young couple with a kindergarten age daughter, this large, old house is built around an open atrium. Apparently it took them two years to completely remodel the house which is in a great, quiet, non-touristy, and convenient location. We were offered a cool drink upon arrival and met the entire family. The man who owns the guest house also owns a local travel agency (don’t a lot of them?) and, hoping to make some money I am sure, he wanted to talk with us about our plans for our stay in Kerala. When we told him about our plans for our upcoming bike trip, he seemed a bit skeptical, asked us about our itinerary in detail, and said he had never heard of the agency we were planning to use. This perhaps should have been a red-flag for us about our bike trip, but it didn’t register at the time. And, we, of course, thought he was instead trying to sell us on his services.

The very nicely decorated rooms have AC and open out on to the wide balcony that encircles the atrium on both of the upper levels. There is seating outside the rooms on the balcony, but this area is obviously not air conditioned. And, it was warm there at this time of year since the atrium is open to the outside. Unfortunately, the wifi signal did not reach inside our room, and if I wanted to use the wifi I had to go out to the balcony outside our room or go downstairs to the main living areas; that is when I noticed the heat. Breakfasts here were also good.

It was late afternoon by the time we arrived, so shortly after our arrival we set out on foot to explore the area and to look for something to eat. When making our plans I’d been concerned that so many people say Cochin is so terribly touristy. Maybe those people never left the main few streets of the main tourist area. Here, as in so many other towns we’ve visited, it is not hard to get away from the tourists and into more regular places. We only had this one late afternoon/evening here and one full day. I know now we could have used another full day, but we had booked the cycling trip and only had so much time to explore Cochin.

I’d planned our walk to include a stop at the local branch of Fab India; this one wasn’t that large or all that great though. We strolled around for a couple hours just getting a feel for the city before finding a restaurant/bar on the waterfront. We are great fans of harbors and enjoyed sitting at Hotel Seagull’s dining area that juts out into the harbor. The food was acceptable but nothing special, but being right there on the waterfront observing all of the after-dark activity in the harbor (and having the possibility to buy a beer for my husband) made it a good spot for us. In fact, the next night, after checking out some other possibilities, we ended up back here again.

Feb. 19

After a good breakfast we started to explore Fort Kochi. Our interests aren’t in just the typical tourist things but in getting a glimpse of the real town. We enjoy observing waterfront settings, so we set off in a different direction than most tourists automatically veer towards. Instead of automatically going to the northwest where the Chinese fishing nets are, we walked up to the very north of Fort Kochi where the ferries dock and then headed along the road that follows the waterfront south and east. In fact, if we’d had another day in Kochi we would have taken some of these ferries across to see more of the port and other areas of Fort Kochi. But, we had to pick and choose since we just had this day.

This route was not at all touristy, and it was very interesting observing the shops, warehouses, waterfront and lives of real people. Plus, we got some interesting photos. When finished with this enjoyable walk, we headed back into the more touristed district so we could visit Mattancherry Palace. We would have also visited the synagogue that was close by, but our timing was off and it was closed for several hours during the early afternoon.

We wandered around a while and then found a nice, relaxing place in a shady interior courtyard of an older building to have a late lunch. After lunch we set out walking again. By now it was later afternoon and a perfect time to take the seaside promenade along the more touristy western sea side of Fort Kochi.

It was cooling down a little by this time, and we joined the many locals and tourists who were also taking advantage of a nicer part of day to walk along the shore. In places this was parklike and there were vendors set up with treats and souvenirs. Close to the Chinese fishing nets there were also boats where fishermen were repairing their nets and there were stalls selling all different sorts of fresh fish. It was a great time of day to stroll along here, and the changing light made for some good photo opportunities. For dinner we ended up returning to the same restaurant as the night before, and once again we enjoyed sitting outside and watching the smaller local fishing boats and the larger nautical vessels moving through the port area. Then, it was time to start to pack up to get organized for the big bike adventure that would start the next day.

again, you are making this trip seem very attractive, julies.

When you say it was hot, how hot are we talking about?

Yes, it was very definitely an interesting trip with lots of different types of things to do. But, as I said at the beginning, just go earlier than we did so you don't have to cope with the heat.

Weather was in the low 90s (35), but with the humidity it felt about ten degrees warmer. And, if you exerted yourself, it was even worse. About six weeks after we returned from India we were in Merida, Mexico when it hit 110 for two days. Honestly, this didn't feel as bad as India had.

THE BIKE TRIP

If we had to assign a grade, we’d give this a D/D+. It got this rating primarily because we had nice places to stay and we had nice bikes to ride. It will soon become apparent why the overall grade is so low.

Biking through Kerala sounds fascinating, and it has been on our bucket list for a long time. We are purely recreational cyclists, but we’ve done trips of around a week before in France, Germany and Vietnam, so it is not as though we are completely inexperienced. However, we are also not by any means biking fanatics or super fitness freaks. And, we are also getting older and know what our limits are.

I started looking around for a trip that would meet our needs and finally decided that a custom trip would be what we wanted since we wanted more than a day or two biking around Cochin but didn’t feel we could tackle one of the typical trips that goes up into the hills in Munnar. Our European trips have been self-guided, and we enjoyed those because we can operate pretty independently. Our Vietnam trip was deluxe in terms of service (we had a guide, a driver, and a mechanic who would ride the bike if we got too tired) but very inexpensive.

I had extensive e-mail exchanges and a phone call with the owner of a small cycling company—Cycling South India. I’d been led to believe from his website that we would have a driver in a sag wagon and a guide, and this is what we were looking for. I told the owner our ages (past 65), said we had not been on bikes in four months because of the arctic-like climate where we live, said we were purely recreational cyclists who like to take leisurely rides so we could stop to take photos, said we were quite concerned about the heat, AND said we did not want to do any strenuous hills. In fact we had several lengthy discussions about hills, how steep they were, what the grades are etc.

His company primarily deals with German cyclists, and he kept telling me that he’d had many older German clients do much more difficult itineraries with no difficulty. In fact, he said he had some Germans in their 70s who could cycle 200 kilometers a day. I told him we are not German and we are not nearly that fit and we had no desire to do anything that strenuous and we wanted to avoid any strenuous climbing. I thought he understood. But, perhaps he is an example of the Indian psyche I’ve so often heard about where they do not want to tell you no and just keep nodding and agreeing.

He assured me he could come up with an easier bike trip that was a perfect match to what we wanted. We debated the idea for about a week and finally decided that if we did not do this now we would never do it because we are only getting older (this is starting to be a recurring theme in discussions we have about trips). In theory it sounded good. So, we booked.

Our first warning, and in retrospect we should have called a halt immediately was when he arrived in Cochin to pick us up for the start of the trip. There is not much parking around Fort Bungalow (the B&B we were staying in Cochin), so he double parked in the middle of the road and told us to get in with our suitcases. He was in a small sedan with a bike rack with three bicycles on the back of it. This was a tight squeeze because the trunk couldn’t be opened since the bike rack was mounted there, and we had two regular size suitcases and two day packs. We had assumed we’d have a vehicle large enough to serve as a sag wagon, and we assumed we’d have a separate guide. So, we were thinking that this was just the pick up service, and we’d be stopping somewhere else to get the other person and a larger vehicle. Naïve……And, what is that old saying about assume once and assume twice you are an ass?

In our e-mailed planned itinerary he had told us that we’d be driven to the outskirts of Cochin so we would not have to deal with the busy city traffic. This sounded good to us and was similar to the descriptions of other bike tours departing form Cochin. As we rode along in the backseat of the car my husband and I kept looking at each other, waiting for the moment we’d get the other person and the van. Never happened. Instead about 30 to 45 minutes out of Cochin the guy pulled over to the side of the road and said we could start cycling there. His plan was that he would drive ahead in the car and stop at each intersection making sure that we had properly followed instructions and turned in the direction he told us to go.
This one guy in the small sedan was the combo guide/driver/sag wagon. We were on the shoulder of a pretty busy road and didn’t even have an opportunity to test them to see if we had the right size bikes. I made a few trial circles around the shoulder to adjust my seat to the right height, and that was it.

We are pretty adventurous and laid back people (and obviously fools), so we got out and started cycling. We are old hands at India and are used to traffic flow and patterns so we were not nearly as freaked out as most people probably would have been. And, we were able to handle the traffic going around us.

More to come……

OMG, Julie...my heart is pounding about the rest of your bike ride. No kidding. I am in suspense...

Indeed, that is the most disappointing Fabindia ever. It was better now (Feb 20150 than first time there in 2008, so you can imagine what it was like (or not like) 7 yrs ago.

Always in the market for future stays, I'm going to read up now on Fort Bungalow!!

oh dear. I think that all of us who travel outside our own countries [and sometimes inside them] have had those experiences where the heart sinks and you want to get out of the situation but that seems impossible, and then you realise that you are committed and it all just gets worse.

Oy! Anxiously waiting for the rest of the story!

It's wonderful to be able to turn those semi-horror experiences into great after-the-fact stories, but experiencing them is a different story! Thanks for being able to come back and share this with the rest of us!

You are brave souls. My husband wanted me to ride bikes in Vietnam, but we curtailed that after a few minutes when I realized I didn't have proper clothing and my pants were sticking to my legs so much from the heat, that I could hardly pedal. I can't imagine dealing with the traffic in India along with the heat. Can't wait to hear further details! These are the stories that make traveling so memorable.

As a quick aside, one of the most shocking stories I've heard was from my cousins. As they were transported from the airport to their first hotel in Delhi, the driver hit a pedestrian walking on the highway. Can you imagine how they felt when a group of men lugged the half dead man into the back of their vehicle so the diver could transport him to the hospital!

Oh dear, this does not sound like it will end well!

Interested to read that asking for what you wanted did not produce it. I thought my difficulties of that kind in in India were because I was a solo female, perhaps not. I found that if my driver was used to going A-B-C-A, telling him I wanted to go A-C-B-A would have no effect, until I got REALLY insistent.

Let's just put it this way. My husband now says if anyone asks about biking in India, just tell them to forget it. There are many better places to cycle.

And, as you'll soon hear, this cycling trip is when the heat really, really began to get to us. Vietnam was actually a truly fascinating cycling trip (much more so than India) despite the fact that it was also hot there. Both places we wore these scarves we have that are filled with some sort of gel. When you soak the scarf in water the gel absorbs the water and keeps you cool for a while. They do help. And, rather than helmets (of course rural India is where one would not want to have a head injury) we wore big floppy hats for sun protection.

Kathy--I don't think it was because you were a single female. In retrospect I think it is because some people (agencies) have a set idea of what they think would be best for you and just proceed to deliver that even if you have said you want something else. I know what you mean by REALLY insistent. This guy did not get it until the day I finally told him I was really angry.

dgunbug--Last year when we spent three weeks in Nepal we had a somewhat similar incident. As we were driving along the only main road in Nepal we saw an overturned truck down at the bottom of perhaps a 6 or 8 foot embankment. It didn't look good and I made a comment to the driver and my husband about how I hoped the driver was okay. About 15 minutes later as we were driving through a local village, our car was flagged down, and the driver stopped to have a discussion with the men who had stopped us.

It turned out they had somehow transported the injured driver to their village but needed transport for him to the hospital. The driver asked us, and we of course agreed. So, a couple guys helped this obviously pretty seriously injured man into the front seat. He was lying with his head back and moaning in pain. As we approached the larger town where the hospital was the driver had to stop to ask the policeman and several locals where the hospital was. It wasn't at all obviously marked. Then, we stopped at the edge of the main road where there was a large tree with a bench around it. The man got out and made it to the bench. He was on his own to find his way down a maze of narrow streets (too small for the car) to reach the hospital. We are all so fortunate to have all of the opportunities we have just by virtue of having the luck to be born where we were born.

Yipes!

Whoa!

Oye! Waiting now to hear the rest of your biking adventures.