Kerala trip - Day 4 :)

Day 4 - Last day of the trip and in the morning, we cruised to a nearby village. By 9am Prabhu was ready there and we bid goodbye to houseboat guys and started our travel.

Mararikulam Beach:

Our next destination was the beach at Mararikulam, Alleppey. Beaches are never boring. And this Arabian Sea – I love the color of the ocean. We stayed there for quite some time. But the beach is untidy as usual. I don’t think any activities happen to clean the beach. Trash everywhere.

Kerala Folklore Museum:

Then, we travelled to Cochin. We had no plans about places to visit at Kochi. Our first place was the Kerala Folklore Museum at Thevara, Ernakulam. It is the key place to experience the whole of Kerala – places, people, art, culture and everything. It is run by Kerala Folklore Museum Trust, a non-profit organization to preserve art and heritage.

Beautiful Kerala women in their traditional costume welcome us and explain us the significance of the museum. Entry fees is Rs.100 per person (Rs.50 for students) and you have to buy separate tickets if you want to take photos. The museum is open from 9.30am to 7pm.

The building is 9 years old but it is the outcome of 25 years of efforts of George Thaliath and his wife Annie George. The building is constructed by 62 carpenters and so many other workers for more than seven years. They have collected architectural masterpieces from everywhere and built this building. It combines 3 architectural excellences – Cochin, Malabar and Travancore. The building is with 3 floors each constructed following the architectural styles of Malabar, Cochin and Travancore respectively.

Masks, Sculptures made of stone, wood, bronze, costumes of traditional dances, manuscript of rare medicinal and astrological secrets, stone age utensils etc. are preserved here with utmost care.

Ground floor is constructed in Malabar style architecture and has the remnants of temples in Tamilnadu. Most of the statues are from Tamilnadu. The door and wooden windows were of Malabar style.

The first floor follows Cochin style of architecture and it is called as “Kalithattu”. This floor depicts the various dance forms of Kerala – Theeyam, Kathakali, Ottanthullal, Mohiniyattam. For each type of dance, there are hundreds of items collected including the stage articles, costumes etc.

The second floor is of unique Travancore culture. The ceiling has mural paintings. Without any pillars, it is a chiseled wooden ceiling made of 60 frames.

This museum is listed in 2010 Limca book of records as the best national level achievement. In 2013, British government selected Folklore Museum as the venue to visit and experience the culture and heritage of Kerala for Prince Charles and duchess of Cornwall.

Below pics were taken from Internet as I did not click any photographs there.

Cochin:

After the delightful sight at museum, we started to Cochin city. We had lunch at Edapalli as our plan was to go to Lulu mall after that. And that was a surprise plan that Prabhu invited us to his home at Edapalli. We were happy to visit there as in this four days, he became our best friend. His home was very near to Lulu mall. His mom, dad, sister, wife, son all welcomed us whole heartedly and we spent some time with his pet dog and the beautiful parrots.

Lulu International shopping mall:

Lulu mall is the largest shopping mall in India in terms of total area. There is nothing new except the area. It is too crowded even in working days. We spent some hours roaming the mall and visiting the food arena.

Then that’s the end of the trip at the Cochin airport – very small compared to our Chennai airport and at night it is too crowded. 

It looked like the Koyambedu mofussil bus stand with sofas for waiting. We had dinner at the airport and surprisingly food prices were reasonable. We landed at Chennai in the midnight due to flight delay.