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Kerala 2009 Route

daniel — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 10:09:43 +0000

Indian train announcement

daniel — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:28:06 +0000

I recorded this announcement on the platform while we were waiting for our train from Varkala to Alleppey:
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
After an advertisement jingle, the announcement is made in three languages: first in Malayalam (the official language of the state of Kerala), then in Hindi, and finally in English.

Happy new year 2010!

daniel — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 07:44:30 +0000

A happy new year to all of you! Live long and prosper!

New Year lights on the beach in Varkala

Christmas decorations in Kerala

daniel — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 07:34:09 +0000

Varkala Beach

daniel — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 12:05:29 +0000

A few pics from Varkala

The train to Varkala

The cliff

The beach

The palm

Impressions from the Cardamom Hills

daniel — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:29:55 +0000

From Cochin we took a car to Kumily, a hill station in the Cardamom Hills. A few pics..

Got a flat tyre in the middle of a rubber tree forest

View from the mountain road

Ananas/Pineapple plantation

Tea plantation and Pepper (the vines growing up the trees)

Christmas dinner

The first few days in Kerala

daniel — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 10:26:43 +0000

We have now spent two days in Cochin but we still need to get acclimatised. It feels really hot, almost like sauna. After all we observed a temperature jump of almost 40 degrees between Switzerland and Kerala! Luckily we did choose a room with an A/C, otherwise it would be difficult to get a good sleep in the heat. And we can also use the A/C to get our Swiss Chocolate back to a solid state In the picture on the right you see the view from our room.

Yesterday we went shopping in the city of Ernakulam on the mainland opposite to Cochin. Today we saw the old portuguese St. Francis Church, the oldest european build church where Vasco da Gama was buried, and some more shipping. Next we will try to visit the Paradesi Synagogue, on which I missed out last time when I was here with David.

At last we managed to book a houseboat trip in spite of the high season But before the boat trip we are going first to the cooler hills (we still have to decide between Munnar and Periyar) and to the beach at Varkala.

Christmas holidays in Kerala

daniel — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 21:16:50 +0000

The bags are packed and we are ready to leave. Just one more night of sleep, then we will take the flight to Cochin, Kerala.
We will spend our Christmas holidays and the New Year somewhere between the beaches and the teagrower hills, the Nilgiri mountains.
I’m looking forward to the warm weather. The meteo says, today it was around 35°C, I guess no chance for white Christmas over there