South India: Land of Temples,
Palaces and Plantations
story and photos by Judy and Ted van der Veen

Imagine acres upon acres of palm trees, rice paddies, tea plantations (or coffee or spices or rubber), and wildlife reserves, interspersed with towns and small cities dominated by magnificent stone temples and maharajahs' palaces, and you have the southern tip of India. While the Golden Triangle of the central north is the most likely choice for a first trip to this vast sub-continent, there are other fascinating regions to discover as well.
Lynne Mayer's The Magic of India in the June 2007 issue of TTS provides excellent advice on preparing for a trip to India as well as a description of that more "touristy" Golden Triangle. Here we will tell you about our extensive tour of the south in November 2006.

For three full weeks we were part of a group of fourteen visiting the three southern states of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, a tour called South India Explored organized by Exodus Travels in the UK. We began and ended the tour in Cochin far down on the western coast (Arabian Sea) of India, travelled by luxury coach up into the hills to stay in Ootacamund ("snooty Ooty" of the British colonial era), through two national parks to Mysore and eventually Bangalore, where we boarded the train to cross to Chennai (formerly Madras) on the eastern coast (Bay of Bengal).

From Chennai we followed the coast south to the former French territory of Pondicherry, then back across the tip via Thanjavur, Madurai, and Periyar National Park to Kovalam, a resort town near the southern tip of the continent. The return to Cochin included an overnight on one of the traditional houseboats through the backwaters. This was a very different India from the one we had visited over twenty years ago (the classic Golden Triangle), and a very pleasant surprise it was.

Why a surprise? The most evident reason is that so much of what we westerners find hard to cope with in India - the overcrowding, the rampant poverty, the begging, the abject misery - is almost lacking here. Instead, we experience the pleasure of learning about different cultures, meeting friendly people, seeing historic monuments and the beauties of nature without ever feeling that sense of revulsion that many visitors to India have.

The dominant impression is green in many hues - the coconut palms of the west coast, the hillsides covered with tea plantations, the spice farms, the rice paddies of the lowlands of the east. There is also the ecological "green" of the "no-plastic zones" where any packaging is made of used newspapers, as wrapping paper or folded into bags or cones.

Then there are all the vivid colours - the women's clothing, both saris and hijabs, the markets, the flowers, the birds, the temples. Perhaps the greatest surprise is the religious harmony. While Hinduism and its variant forms are dominant throughout India, Islam has always had a stronghold in the south.
There has been a Jewish presence since the 6th century BCE, and the first European explorers found Christianity already established by people from the Middle East. Culturally and architecturally, one sees the influence of the Hindu and Muslim, but also the Portuguese, Dutch, French and British.

As we drive through many small villages, we stop often to admire a local temple, to visit a market, and on one occasion, to watch a local festival. We also stop at a garden centre which exports fresh flowers to Europe. Foreign tourism is still relatively undeveloped here, and because of this the people are genuinely curious and interested in visitors.

The children are delightful; the school children clamour to practise their English, even the little ones ask for "school pen, soap, shamp(oo)" which they then carry back to their mothers. (Not one asks for candy or chewing gum.) You are bound to come across school excursions at the various sites. Even the teachers will want to talk with you, and the children who have cameras will want to be photographed with you. One day, I decided the climb to a temple was too strenuous, and sat waiting for the others on the staircase.

I felt like royalty as the children filed past, addressing me as "Aunty", shaking my hand, asking my name and country, looking back to wave as they continued their climb or descent - and I, who am the most camera shy person on the face of this earth, could not bring myself to refuse their polite requests for photos. Even the ubiquitous hawkers of souvenirs and postcards usually accept a quiet "No, thanks" and move on - but don't tell one "Later" as you enter a site, for he will be waiting for you when you come out!

Kerala calls itself "God's Own Country". It's a region of great natural beauty and it has also achieved near-100% literacy and high levels of education and healthcare. Statistically, the region is poor, but this is not evident. It is a very small state stretching along what is known as the Malabar Coast.
It is here that one is particularly struck by the balance of Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Jewish faiths.

In Cochin, you will undoubtedly visit both the 16th century Jewish synagogue with its hand-painted ceramic floor tiles from Canton, China, the oldest synagogue in the old British Empire, and the Portuguese-built St. Francis church where Vasco de Gama died in 1524, later restored by the Dutch, and eventually taken over by the English. However, tradition states that the Apostle Thomas visited here in 52 AD; there is documented evidence of the passage of a Byzantine monk in the 6th century and the existence of several Syrian Orthodox churches from the 9th centure.

The Jewish community has been here even longer. The Mattancherry Palace contains well-preserved wall paintings of scenes from the Ramayana and a display of artefacts from the Rajas of Cochin who were crowned here. At the harbour are Chinese-style fishing nets introduced by traders from the court of Kublai Khan, still in use today. Near the southern end of Kerala is Kovalam, a popular resort town that has developed from an old "hippie" hangout.

The main beach, not accessible by cars, is protected from the sea currents. The road is lined with restaurants, many serving fresh seafood. In the late afternoon it is interesting to watch men and women deliver large fresh fish on their heads and shoulders to the various restaurants.

This part of Kerala is heavily Muslim, so officially there is no alcohol allowed. However, the beach is strictly for tourists, and so they get around the licensing issue by serving beer in chilled bottles that have been wrapped in newspaper; the beer is poured unto a porcelain mug and the paper-wrapped bottle placed under your table where it is less visible!

The highlight of any trip to Kerala is a trip on one of the traditional rice boats - now renovated or specially built as houseboats for tours. They ply the backwaters south of Cochin, from the towns of Quilon, Kottayam or Aleppey.
These picturesque boats are constructed of local woods and bamboo. Each boat is equipped with a kitchen and the crew of three will include a cook. They carry from two to ten passengers. Those designed for overnight trips have small double-bedded rooms with private facilities, an open deck and lounge area.

There are options from day trips to trips of several days. Our tour has us spend one night in a resort near one of the backwater towns, a morning tour of a "coir village" where the entire village is involved in the production of coir rope from the fibrous outer shells of the coconut palm, before boarding our boats before lunch.
We eat lunch underway, in the evening our boats pull into shore together so we can have dinner as a group on the largest one. We overnight on the boats, have breakfast, and are back at the landing by late morning where our bus is waiting for our return to Cochin.

Karnataka is a large state of which we visit only the south. Mysore is called the sandalwood city, and has been traditionally a producer of incense. Today there is also a burgeoning IT industry. There are vast areas of parkland throughout the city, and thus noticeably much less pollution than in other large centres.

Major area tourist attractions are the City Palace, Chamundi Hill topped with a seven-storey temple and a huge black monolithic image of Nandi, Shiva's Bull, garlanded with fragrant yellow blooms (both popular Hindu pilgrimage sites), the Maharajah's Palace within the town, the 11-13th centure temple of Somnathpur, and the ruins of the fortress city of Srirangapatnam whose sultan fought the British in the late 18th century (his mausoleum stands in a large garden).

From here we head east to Sravanabelagola, the location of an important Jain monument, a 17-metre high monolithic statue of Gommateshwara erected in the 10th centure and representing the prince Bahubali. Nearly 700 steps carved into the granite hillside lead up to the monument; those who do not wish to climb can be carried by porters in palanquins. This is where I opt to sit out the climb after the first 100 steps and end up playing "Aunty" to the school children.

We spend the afternoon visiting the temples of Halebid and Belur before overnighting in Hassan. The low, squat temple of Halebid reminds us very much of Khajuraho in the north, being completely covered with sculptural details, no two alike, representing all facets of life, though the sexuality is less explicit than at Khajuraho. The temple at Belur is still an active temple, but unlike many others, non-Hindus are admitted throughout.

Our trip from Halebid to Belur turns out to be an unexpected adventure. Our bus breaks down, and so we arrive at the first temple on the local bus where we are the subject of much wonderment. However, although we have to wait a while, our own bus does reappear at Belur.
The next day is spent travelling to Bangalore for our train ride to Chennai (Madras). We each carry a small pack with us because, while the train arrives at a reasonable hour, the bus with our luggage does not arrive until the middle of the night.

Although the reason for the train ride is expediency, it is indeed an interesting experience. Seats are pre-assigned and meals are served airline-style. Ted has the good fortune to sit next to an electrical engineer who is very willing to talk about his field in India and most curious about electrical engineers in Canada (and we have a nephew who is one.)

The train ride brings us back into Tamil Nadu which is a large and mainly agricultural state; it is also the home of the strictest vegetarianism in India. Indeed, the Lonely Planet guidebook describes it as the most "Indian" state of the nation. The main language here is Tamil, and while Hindi and English are formally taught in school, there is more likelihood of language difficulties here. The Tamils are fiercely proud, but one of our guides pointed out that they are not militaristically so as in other Tamil regions.

This is the home of Dravidian art and architecture and the temples are characterized by their soaring goparams (towers). We have already passed through a part of Tamil Nadu after leaving Cochin for the hills - the Western Ghats straddle the border between Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and the major hill towns are located in Tamil Nadu. We spend two days in Ooty, billeted in what had been the servants' quarters of the old maharajah's summer palace.

On our arrival we dine in the palace, the second night we have a barbeque around a campfire. The town is at an elevation of over 2000 metres, and so the nights are quite chilly, summer being long past at the time of our visit. Some of us enjoy a hike down from Dodabetta Peak (2600 m) through the forest to the renowned Botanical Gardens, while others take the bus to the Gardens. In the afternoon we retrace a small part of our route to ride the miniature train back up to town.

The unique feature of the rail line is a toothed central rail which the locomotive locks into on the steeper slopes. For all the students on board, it is the chance to cheer loudly to hear the echo as we go through the many short tunnels! Views over the hills are stupendous, and we pass many people, students and workers, using the rail bed to walk home

Our arrival in Chennai by train is the beginning of our main time in Tamil Nadu. We have a free day in Chennai (the driver really needs a day off after his long drive the day before), and many take advantage of the chance to go shopping while others walk along the Marine Drive, joining the Sunday crowds. Monday morning sees us head inland, stopping briefly in Sriperumbudur at the Rajiv Gandhi Memorial on the spot where this Prime Minister was assassinated in 1991; it is a very moving monument in a quiet corner outside the village.

Our destination is Kanchipuram, one of Hinduism's most sacred cities, to visit two of the more than seventy temples: the vast Ekambareshwara Temple, dedicated to Shiva, covers an area of more than nine hectares, and its gopuram is almost 60 meters high; the Kailasanatha Temple is one of the oldest, begun in the 7th century.

We then head back to what is known as the Coromandel Coast. We visit the rock-cut caves, statues and temples at Mahabalipuram, then on to Pondicherry, the former French colony, where we visit the well-known Sri Aurobindo Ashram and its paper-making factory, then tour the market. From here we drive through a fertile delta of rice paddy fields. As the monsoons have just ended, they are being ploughed or planted. In Thanjavur we visit the art gallery of the 16th century palace and the 10th century Brihadeshwara Temple.

Our next stop is the city of Madurai, a vital centre of Tamil culture, and home to the most stupendous temple of all! The Meenakshi Temple is at the heart of the city. It is a hive of activity: an on-going religious festival, an auction for charity, a soup kitchen, a riotous blend of sound and colour. While the other huge temples have been in natural stone, here every surface is painted in shimmering pastels, pinks, yellows, greens, blues, oranges and golds. There are nine gopurams, some 4,000 granite sculptures, and several pillared halls surrounding the peaceful Golden Lotus Tank where worshippers bathe before entering the shrines.

We are all thankful that this is our last temple, because anything else would be anti-climactic! We also visit a very interesting Gandhi museum here. The displays are a vivid reminder of what we learned in school or from the film Gandhi, a startling eye-opener if you have never studied this humble, but courageous man, his strength in passive resistance to bring about change for his countrymen.

Heading back into Kerala, we visit our third national park. Going from Ooty to Karnataka, we had driven through Madumalai and Bandipur National Parks, seeing several birds, monkeys and deer along the roadside. Periyar National Park is a destination in itself. We tour a spice farm the afternoon of our arrival.
The next morning we go for a two-hour forest walk with a naturalist and in the afternoon we take a boat cruise on the lake seeing several birds close up and, in the distance, elephants. From here it is a very long day's drive to Kovalam Beach and the continuation of the Kerala part of our trip.

For information on this trip, go to www.exodus.co.uk, then enter trip AIS. Exodus is a small-group, low-mid cost, adventure travel company. By clicking on 'contact us' on their home page, you will find contact information for Trek Escapes who are their agents in Canada with offices in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Toronto. Exodus also offers group flights from England at reasonable rates. When considering a trip to India, one must always take the weather into account.

The south, particularly on the Bay of Bengal side, has a secondary monsoon season in the fall. While temperatures were hot but bearable in November, we now know December-February would have been a better choice. The humidity along the coasts was quite high. We had only one day of monsoon-like rain, but did pass through regions where there was considerable flooding and some roads had been washed out.

Throughout the trip we were accompanied by a country guide (a young man from Agra), the bus driver, and his assistant. We contributed to a kitty which was used for porters at hotels, meals when we ate together, tips for local guides, etc. The country guide was very good, the local guides varied; some were excellent, others had very poor English and/or had difficulty explaining what we were seeing (in which case our country guide took over, but Department of Tourism regulations state that a local guide must be hired).

Hotels were generally of western standard and we always had en suite facilities. Everything was clean, staff were courteous and efficient, although service could be slow. Many of our accommodations are rated "Upper End" by Lonely Planet. City hotels were conveniently located, often on busy streets, but we always felt it was safe to go out. In more 'touristy' areas like the national parks and the beach, the hotels were generally quite new. Only in the hill town of Ooty did we find our accommodation not quite up to par. It was chilly, however, extra blankets were provided, we could ask for a fire in the in-room fireplace, and "character" was tops.

As one of the staff pointed out, we were there in winter; it was in summer that the British "took to the hills" during the Raj to cool off. And it was only two nights in an area one would not want to miss! Breakfast is always taken in the hotels. Other meals are not included. Lunches were usually at local restaurants, dinners often at the hotel or a one of the few tourist-oriented restaurant. Most of our group ate together most meals, but when there was an abundant choice of restaurants, we often split up. Service in restaurants varied greatly and buffets were common.

Usually a few western dishes were offered in addition to the local cuisine. We already knew that south Indian cuisine is spicier than in some areas of India, but we often had the unforeseen and disappointing experience of finding it not spicy enough.

Our guide kept confirming that we really did mean "Indian very spicy", not "European spicy"! At buffets, he would ask them to take two servings of a couple of dishes back to the kitchen to spice them up for us, then would say "I don't know how you can eat food that spicy." But that is part of what we went to India for! I would like to emphasize that tourism is just opening up in southern India.

At most of the temples and other cultural sites, the vast majority of visitors were Indians. Not until Pondicherry did we come across "group tourism" from France. In Kovalam, there were many Brits on beach holidays. At one site we met a group of American students on a working abroad term. If you are interested in new destinations, do consider southern India - it is a treat..

Timesharing in India

With the massive recent growth of the middle class in India, timesharing has become very popular ; the current RCI catalogue offers a choice of about fifty resorts. In planning our November 2006 tour of southern India, we opted to add on a timeshare week at either end. This helped us recover from jetlag before our tour, and afterwards rest up before the long flight home. Our first week was spent in Goa, the former Portuguese colony on the west coast south of Mumbai (Bombay).

This is a beach holiday destination, with the majority of holiday-goers from the UK. There are many resorts on or near the thirty or so miles of white sand beaches, with an accompanying variety of restaurants and shops. Our resort was one of four belonging to the Royal Goan Beach Club group, RGBC at Benaulim (RCI #3726, gold crown classi-fication), 17 miles from the airport.

The resort was very much like a resort in the Caribbean, with two storeys of units built around the swimming pool with its swim-up bar, food service, ample lounge chairs and umbrellas. Check-in was swift, the staff very helpful, and service excellent. For the moment, this resort is at the southern edge of tourist development in Goa. It is a 10-15 minute walk to the beach through a luxury resort or along the road. There is a restaurant on site and several others just minutes away, our favourite the one directly across the road where we were treated as friends after our first visit and where the chef knew we really did want Goan cuisine with Goan "hot" spiciness.

The small shop at the resort sells bread, cheese, jam, tea, coffee, biscuits, etc., and so we did our own breakfasts and lunch most days in our mini-kitchen. Other facilities include an exchange library, beauty salon, ayurvedic spa centre, as well as a variety of activities and excursions at/from the resort. Goa is an excellent spot to relax, but one does not really get the flavour of India. It is a good jumping-off point as standards of meals and accommodation are western, but one really must go elsewhere to experience India.

Our post-tour week was at Kairali Heritage Resort which we found wanting and which we have since discovered has been dropped from the RCI list. While this resort did serve its purpose of allowing us to rest up for the trip home, we would not recommend it; we would have been better served had we flown back to Goa to the same or a different resort. Or we could have returned to Kovalam in the far south and stayed in a hotel for a more laid-back beach experience.

Overall, however, our conclusion is that we made a wise decision to have a resort week both pre- and post-tour; the trip from Canada to India is a long one, no matter how you break it up. However, one must never think that a timeshare vacation in India is an experience of the real India.