As soon as the bleak morning sun streamed through the thick window curtains, my eyes flickered and opened to the sound of the chugging and pulling train. Heavy-headed from the long night's sleep, I pulled up myself and drew back the curtains to see that which took my breath away. I was speeding across a beautiful, serene river, the rising red disc of the sun's rays perpendicularly reflected on the placid waves, forming a kaleidoscope of mirages and tiny drops of light. I could see in the horizon, a single shaft of a boat on which a fisherman was tugging along his line in hope for a good catch at the wee hour of the morning. The river was foliaged and fringed on the two sides by tall coconut tree bowing towards the river in all their humility, made the landscape so enduring.
As I write this piece, I realize that the train journey from Mumbai to Kochi has sixty four such rivers, big or small that are dotted with the tropical vegetation adorned with boats, jetties and fishermen. There are approximately 124 tunnels that I crossed in this route. The tracks are on an elevated land that twists and twirls along the coastal Konkan stretch and winds around the Western Ghats. The 24-hour train journey was one of the best I experienced in a long time. The superfast speeding train had efficient staff inside with an amazing scenic splendour outside to boot. So when you are taking a trip down south through the western ghats you wouldn't mind the konkan tracks.
On reaching Kochi, or Ernakulum junction, you are absolutely amazed at the spotlessly clean platform that you encounter. The pre-paid cabs are ready to take you to the best of the hotels in the new city. We, however preferred to say in the old part of the city, popularly known as Fort Kochi. The square around where Vasco da Gama landed in the country is abuzz with foreigners, street hawkers, tourist vehicles and crowds from all parts of the country. The busy old city has its characteristically pucca narrow roads that wind to the market areas, some of the by lanes disappear towards the oldest churches in the country and some to the beach. The city has its characteristic cultural programmes with kathakali art dances exhibiting Indian as well as foreign danseurs, markets full of traditional clothes and artefacts and the municipal markets boasting of the most exoctic, aromatic and medicinal herbs and spices that are the best in the world........
Boating in Vembanadu lake
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