Kovalam, Kerala 2006

A Trip to Kovalam, Kerala

For our second trip to Kerala  we went to  Kovalam, Kerala on a Saturday. We arrived there in the afternoon. The place we were staying was a country Club vacation resort on a hill. The resort is spread out and set apart with beautifully landscaped bushes, prickly palms and colorful bamboo plants. It was interesting to see that the young bamboo trees were bright red but, apparently,  as they grow they turn green. Fruits on the trees are like string of beads hanging down. We had a tree right in front of our porch where we had our meals.

There was a gate at the back of our resort which was kept locked and a security guard was on duty to let the guests in and out to go to the beach which was about 10-minute walk from where we were. Since there is no quick access to the beach, we carefully climbed down a treacherous hill strewn with boulder, and rocks which made for an uneven surface. The beaches were really beautiful but we were advised against swimming when the ocean was rough with dangerous undercurrents, but a lot of tourist go swimming during low tide when the ocean is calm to enjoy their swim. But we saw that during low tide, even good swimmers were having difficulty and getting knocked around a lot while swimming.

There are lot of stores along the beach supplying needed snacks, drinks, clothing, and costume jewelry. One little tea stall became our haunt for mid-morning snack and tea. The guy made his yard-long tea by mixing in a typical style before pouring into glasses. It was always delicious. I also bought T-shirts and some jewelry from one of the stores which was owned by a Kashmiri gentleman named Mubbishir Ahmad. He had some trendy dresses for the tourist. I bought two beautiful sets of jewelry, one black onyx set which included a necklace, earrings, and bracelet; and another set of chain with a pendant, a ring, and bracelet with Topaz and studded with tiny Zirchonia around it at a very reasonable price.

When the tide was low and the sea was calm, the local boatman took the tourist out for 1-hour boat rides on their log canoes.  These canoes were literally made of four huge logs using two logs for the base and the other two for the sides. Water seeps in through the spaces in the base logs. We took a ride on one of the canoe, but the water coming in the boat was somewhat alarming. , Naser,  the boatman, reassured that there was no danger. It was a fun ride on a warm, breezy and beautiful day. Gentle lapping of water against the boat while he pushed the water with a paddle which was nothing but a thick part of the bamboo stem split into half and cut to a required size. When we got back to the beach, Naser introduced us to his father who was busy with his fishing gear on his own boat. When Naser found out that my name was Rasheeda, he told us that his wife is also called Rasheeda. His two daughter were 4 and 6 graders and their monthly fees is Rs.4000/ and he thought it was worth it.

That part of Kerala has lot of Muslims. There was a mosque right on the beach and stores are owned by Muslims also. They were excited when they found out that we were Muslims. One of the guys brought us a newspaper to show us how they are trying to form a New Muslim Party. Since we did not know how to read Malayalam, local language, they communicated whatever they could in their broken English. They were really friendly. We walked around and bought some snack and miscellaneous things.

Next morning there was a lot of activity within the resort area. A lot of women were carrying dried palm leaves and bark of the tree somewhere, obviously, to dump it. This went on and on. Then I saw men carrying huge tokras (bowls made of wicker) full of coconuts were also coming from the same side and were headed where the women were headed with trash. A loud noise of falling coconut was accompanied with incessant loud noise of people shouting and hurrying footsteps.

I was curious to see what exactly was going on, so went down to find out what the commotion was. Just as I had already guessed there was a major cleanup going on. There were two kalals (thandans) on two coconut trees. As I approached, everyone started shouting at me in fearful excitement for me to stay well away from the area because the falling coconuts could cause injury. I stopped in my tracks and approached the people nearby to find out exactly what was going on. I was informed that that was routine bimonthly coconut cleanup when they cut dead leaves and bark from hundreds of trees in the resort area. All the coconuts picked up and carried to be pile up in a designated area. All the dead leaves and bark also was also piled up somewhere close by. The green palm leaves which I saw some people carry were not visibly piled anywhere near. All the resulting products of the cleanup was, apparently, recycled for various product for their own use. Certain amount of fresh coconuts were used to make coconut cream, and coconut milk. Even dried coconuts were sent to the mills to extract oil. All the products were used by the resort itself.

On our final morning when we went for a walk, we saw that Naser, our boatman, was sitting on some logs. I asked about his canoe because I wanted to take a picture, he showed me four logs lying on the beach. When I gave him a baffled look, he explained that every so often they disassembled the boat into logs to let them dry out. From being in the water  they absorb a lot of water and get heavy making it  difficult for them to carry the boat in and out of the sea. Therefore, a drying period was required although there was never any danger of it sinking.

On our last day there we went back and saw that a fishing boat had just come in. Excited that we would have a chance to see the booty of the ocean they bring in, we went closer. But unfortunately they did not have anything due to some unforeseen circumstance which they tried to explain in Malyalam and we had no clue what they were saying. All we could gather was that they had a problem. It was interesting to watch them bring in miles and miles of fishing net which they take on their boat to throw over a large area of the sea for their daily formidable catch, which was not there for us to see. They carried their empty net to their boathouse which was parked on the beach as a storehouse for their fishing needs. It was an interesting trip with lot of information.