2-6-2024
After preparing a bit for the new school year, we still had a few days left this week. Now, we are not easily caught, but we do depend on the weather. Fortunately, that worked in our favour. A few reasonably dry days gave us the courage to plan a few hikes.
From Petta to Tripunithura
In search of some old buildings, we took the metro in the other direction, away from the river. We usually go to LuLu Mall, but not this time. After a 15-minute ride, we arrived at Petta station. The street we walked along looked a lot like the Kacheripady district, where St Albert's is located. Nothing wrong with that, but not really a spectacular sight. We were on our way to an old palace, according to the internet, so we strolled along nicely. We had our umbrellas with us, nothing could happen to us.
After a short walk, we came to the inevitable statue of Gandhi. Just as every self-respecting place has an MG road or lane or street (MG=Mahatma Gandhi), everywhere there is a statue - whether or not painted in gold - of the man.
Meanwhile, the weather had become more threatening. But when we came to a large Shiva temple, we still took off our shoes to take a closer look at it.
Temples in Kerala are not as lavish from the outside as the ones in Tamil Nadu, but this one had a nice gopuram, a gate tower.
After having a drink and a samosa, we headed for the nearest metro station. As we walked through a residential area, with many modern houses - each one bigger than the other - it started to drizzle again. So we were quite happy when we reached the metro station. It was the new terminus of the metro line, inaugurated only in early March. We had walked, via a diversion, the distance of three metro stations.
The so-called old palace that was supposed to be nearby, turned out to be little more than a big house. The entire street there was full of similar old, large houses with the typical Kerala roofs. And not just the street, but the whole neighbourhood, which made the walk a lot more interesting all at once. Unfortunately, we did get a hefty downpour on our heads. We even briefly hesitated to get on the next bus, but there was still more to discover in the neighbourhood.
For instance, there was an old clock tower, the Manimalika. The royal family of Kochi kept its own time, and so did the people. This clock woke everyone up on time in the morning. The soldier behind the window, saluted every hour to the people on the street. The tower was built in the 19th century, with the help of Dutch clockmakers. A little further down the road, there was another statue of the king who had this clock built: Raja Rama Varma.
Pallipuram Fort
For the second walk, we took the water metro to Vypeen. Then we rode the rikshaw 22 kilometres to Cherai Beach. Unlike other beaches on Vypeen, Cherai Beach is not a sandy beach, but has basalt blocks to hold back the waves. This works only partially. As we walked along the shore, we saw that large chunks of the sand barrier surrounding the island had already been swept away.
Around Cherai Beach, there are lots of hotels, holiday parks and homestays. Understandable, though. The sea there is impressive and the island itself is a very lively environment for tourists. Plenty of shops, bars, restaurants.... Our final destination was the furthest corner of Vypeen, Munambam viewpoint, where you have the opportunity of spotting dolphins. That was about a five-kilometre walk. Doable in itself, of course. The sun was shining, it was about 30 degrees with high humidity. In short: sweaty weather. We didn't progress as fast as we thought we would. After an hour's walk, the sun had disappeared, and thunderclouds appeared in the sky. We decided not to continue walking to the viewpoint,
but to return to the inhabited parts of Vypeen a little earlier. And we were in luck! Aa narrow bridge over the water, with views of Chinese fishing nets on both sides, was presented to us at the right time.
Then we went on to the remains of a Fort. Pallipuram Fort turns out to be the oldest European structure on Indian soil. All that remains of it now is a tower. This was refurbished in the 1909 on the initiative of the Maharajah of Travancore, so it looks smoothed and whitewashed. Next to it is a water basin and a boatjetty. In short, a nice spot, and I don't think it's very well known to locals either. Two boys who were playing nearby saw us walking there. They followed us and had a look around as well. I had a feeling they hadn't visited the place before.
After the Fort, we took the bus back to High Court. During the bus ride, it started raining gently and continued to do so until we got back to St Albert's. We were inside before the rain really let up again.
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