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.
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.
