Kerala Vacations

Finding the right charity

We are planning our next trip in March, this time to Tamil Nadu before spending some time on the houseboat and in the office in Cochin.

One of the more exciting parts of the trip will be a vist to a children's home in Dindigul. Clients often ask us if we know a charity they can give to when visiting India. There are so many it is hard to know where to start, but we have often struggled with problems of transferring money and knowing exactly how it is spent. The Awake Mercy home, however, is a cause we feel really needs everyone's help. Our local University has had connections with this organisation for some years and we have spoken to several people about the fantastic work they do. The local community supports their work in practical ways, but they are going to be wothout a home unless they can raise the money for their new building very soon. In March we will be able to see for ourselves. Please take a look at their website. The HAPSI website

The Malabar Whistling Thrush

One of the joys of travel to me is the wildlife. I am not strong on the larger animals but the birds in India are a wonderful treat. Everywhere you look there is something strange, and usually something familiar as well. The bublbuls put on a great show as they feed, there are eagles and birds of prey in both town and coutryside, brilliant sunbirds and bee eaters are not difficult to spot and everyone who goes to Thattekad Bird Sanctuary gets to see a Sri Lankan Frogmouth, as it not only sleeps deeply during the day but seems impossible to wake. The exotic kingfishers and parakeets, the rarer hornbills and woodpeckers can't fail to excite, but sometimes something stranger makes itself known. Staying at the High Ranges club we were woken to a tuneless and meandering whistling outside. We commented on how people the world over whistled while they worked and thought no more about it until we were woken at the Tea County, some distance away, but the same whistler. No-one was in sight, and there was  nowhere for a phantom whistler to be hiding.

We found out that we were being treated to the rare sound of the Malabar Whistling Thrush, a large, unshowy thrush which sings only in the monsoon. It is sometimes known as the Whistling Schoolboy, the best descriptive name for a bird I know, at least in the monsoon.

Culture-shock, is it real?

Many guide books talk about Culture shock and whether you should expect it. If you have never travelled to an alien culture before, you should. Some people never experience the strange sense of discomfort and disorientation which comes with the feeling that you have fallen down a rabbit hole and ended up lost in space, but they are rare!
The sensory overload of a strange country, strange customs, noise, heat, colour, all conspire to make you exhausted and disoriented. Everyone seems to speak English, but it is not your language. It is a constant struggle to get what  you want and trying to find a toilet or a drink can tip you over the top into panic. However much you enjoy the frantic exuberance of India, there will come time when you are home-sick and just want out.
That's the time to chill. Take time out, however exciting the place might look. Read a book to ground yourself in normality, the more mundane the better. If you don't read or can't get a book, find a tourist bubble with something familiar in it, a cafe, a western-style hotel, and sit for a few hours. It passes.

Looking at TripAdvisor

Planning a trip for March 2009 we are glued to TripAdvisor. We always look to see which hotels in an area are receiving good reviews as this can save us time finding new places to check out. It is fascinating to see the different responses to hotels. Expectation plays a big part in how clients rate the places in which they stay. Hotels which regularly receive rave reviews can suffer a spate of "I didn't think it was so great", and if something goes wrong the reviews are worse that if they had not been spoken of so highly in the first place.

Of course, the only people who are going to write reviews are those with something good to say, or something really bad. Complainers use every means to get their own back on places which have failed them, and sometimes the complaints need sifting through very carefully.

"No pool" at an inner-city 3-star hotel, (did they ask for a pool when they booked?) "The staff didn't speak very good English" at a small local hotel, "there were mosquitoes in the roof-garden restaurant", "the insecticide used to keep the mosquitoes down in the roof garden restaurant smelled," etc. You get the idea.

The reviews do have an effect. We have been asked to book hotels on the strength of them sometimes with excellent results, sometimes less so. Chefs have off days and days off and hte kitchen might, on just one day, be poor enough to damn a whole resort. I don't know how you manage clients' expectations of India. Wejust keep remembering that one person's disappointing holiday is another's big adventure.

The Fishermen's Village at Marari

The Fishermen's Village is one of the new resorts along this fast-developing coastline. It is set back from the beach and consists of new bungalows with a sea view and rooms built further back across a sandy garden. At the time we stayed there it still had a raw, unfinished feel, the reception being in a shed-like structure adjoining the restaurant. The rooms are large and air-conditioned, reasonably furnished and clean. Once we had mastered the skill of turning the hot water on outside at a stop-cock, the shower was good.
There is no pool, and swimming from the beach is not recommended on account of the strong current. There are loungers under the palm trees on the sand and staff are available to deliver drinks etc. while you sit in the shade or sunbathe. The local fishermen inhabit the beach yards away from the hotel frontage, and can be seen going about their daily business.
We were there at the end of the season and the hotel was very quiet. So much so that our evening meal was taken alone in the open restaurant in a monsoon downpour and thunderstorm. We got wet at first, seated at the edge of the room, and had to suggest that we moved to the staff, who were happy to leave us there. Taking pity on the chef, we asked for what was good that day, and were served a very acceptable meal of fish and vegetable curry with rice and chappatti. The meals came from the kitchen under a large umbrella, carried by Jason, who was frightened of the thunder and put his hands over his ears at every roar.
The service was prompt, helpful and very efficient, and made this resort a good alternative to the more expensive places along this beach. Sitting on our veranda watching the storm made an exciting end to the evening.