by Elizabeth Crewes
My trip to India was four weeks of travelling. The first part was London to Kolkata, where Meena lives, we stayed with her for three days before setting off for the Andaman Islands for four days. What a lovely peaceful place, our hotel was a short walk to the beach which coconut trees surrounding it and lovely warm sea. There are many islands which make up the Andamans, few of them are open to visitors. We stayed on Ross Island which has the only airport, Port Blair. This island is also known for the Cellular Jail, which was a notorious jail for being cruel to the prisoners. We also visited Havelock Island which we sailed to, it took and hour and a half hour; we went there to visit the 7th best beach in Asia. The sand was like icing sugar, white and powdery, we stayed over night in a hotel and managed to watch the sun set on the beach. The next morning, we returned to the other island and hotel and took a dip in the sea, as we were returning to Kolkata in the morning.
We stayed at Meena’s again, this time preparing for our adventure to the very south of India. During the three days at Meena’s, we visited Mother Teresa’s convent and visited the sights of Kolkata. We spent some time trying to find the ‘Black Hole’ but didn’t find it. It was a dungeon type prison in the 18th century fort, which no longer exists. So on to the airport for the flight to Chennai which used to be called Madras, this in the state of Tamil Nadu. Once we had landed, we were driven to Pondicherry and out skirts to our hotel, which was lovely the rooms were like little villas set in a garden. Once we had checked in, we were taken on a drive to the French Quarter of Pondicherry which is also on the beach, so we walked along the promenade. We were only staying in the hotel for one night before we set off for Valkenkani. This small town is known as the Lourdes of Asia, many Catholics visit here on pilgrimage. There is a huge basilica dedicated to Mary of good health, plus numerous chapels for pilgrims to visit. The whole site is dominated by a statue of Christ. We stayed here for three days and attended the service in English twice and on both occasions the basilica was packed with people. They had services every hour from 8 in the morning to six at night in different languages. Following our attendance on the Sunday we headed back to Pondicherry and the hotel we had previously stayed in, again for one night as we were then going back to Chennai airport for plane to Kochi which is in the state of Kerela. Our hotel for the next few days was in the town, which made visiting other areas easier.
On our first day we were driven to Palayur to visit the sight where according to Christian tradition St. Thomas landed and established a church in 52AD. Then we visited the oldest Synagogue in India, which is also in Palayur. This may well account for St. Thomas going there, like Paul he first went to a settlement which would have been familiar to him. The synagogue dates to the time of King Soloman and was possibly established due to trading between Judah and this part of India known as Malabar. They traded in wood, spices and peacocks!
The next day we were off again, this time to Alleppey, on our way we stopped to look around a coir museum where we shown how the fibre from the coconut is made into rope and fibre for making mats. On display was a house entirely made of coir fibre, the walls and the fixtures and fittings. Our next stop on the way to our hotel was to a small animal sanctuary where we fed an elephant. Our over night stay was at a lovely hotel, very similar to the one in Pondicherry. After breakfast we made our way to the houseboat to sail along the paddy fields and mangroves in the backwaters of Alleppey. We spent a day and a night on the boat. After breakfast our driver collected us for the next leg of our journey to Kovalam. We thought we would explore the hotel and its surroundings once we had checked in. But had to wait while a heavy rain shower occurred. Once the rain stopped, I heard drums outside in the street, it was a procession of people in different costumes depicting Hindu gods, it was very colourful.
The next day we set of to explore further afield, and this time it rained for a couple of hours, fortunately we were in the car. Once the rain stopped, we visited a church dedicated to Madre de Deus (Mother of God). It was very beautiful inside with paintings of stories from the Bible decorating the walls and ceiling. Following this visit, we made our way back to the hotel to pack for our journey to the tip of India. We were driven to Kanyakumari to our hotel overlooking the very tip of India. Many people go there just for one day to see the sun set and rise at this point where the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal meet. While there we also visited the rocks which are connected by a see-through bridge called the Mirror Bridge. This was a real high light of the trip for me. We watched the sun set from the roof of our hotel and the sun rise which was wonderful. Then after breakfast we were off again, this time to Trivandrum to stay in a hotel close to the airport, as we were flying to Mumbai the next day.
Mumbai was our last port of call on our holiday, we spent three days here visiting the city itself and a town called Kalyan, where one of my companions grew up; sadly, it had change out of recognition, tower blocks and busy roads where before it had been a small town next to the railway. Our last day came, we all wanted to go to the Hanging Gardens, which were lovely, set in the centre of Mumbai, but we also wanted to see the famous shoe and viewing platform. We found them both, the shoe is a huge boot- like structure for children to play in. It is from the nursery rhyme, there was an old lady who lived in a shoe. We also looked at the very hazy view of the beach below from the platform, a combination of heat and fumes from the number of cars and motor bikes.
I rounded my time off in Mumbai by having lunch with some friends who had known me for many years. It was lovely to see them and catch up on all the news and family, but soon it was time to say goodbye to them and to India, as I had to be up the next day to be at the airport by 6am for my flight and 9am. I had a wonderful time over four weeks and so many miles. But it is also lovely to be home and in my own bed!