Farewell to Kovalam

This is rather a fraudulent post since I am already back in Canada. But surely blogging has some poetic licence.

There are things about Kovalam I will not miss. It has become too noisy of a place for one so elderly and sedate as me. The beach is not that clean and I count myself very lucky that in a 9-week stay that saw me jogging barefoot every couple of days on the sand I didn't cut myself on any of the glass or other sharps present. The list of other items seen on the sand is pretty gruesome - cat and dog corpses, intestines of some creature one day and on more than one occasion dirty diapers.

Live dogs are also a problem at Kovalam Beach. Certain dogs are known to be aggressive - biting without provocation - but no one does anything about it. As a British tourist that was bitten in the upper thigh said to me it's only a matter of time before a dog bites a child in the face and does some really serious damage. That will be very unfortunate and is bound to happen. Apparently the nearby capital city of Trivandrum has an even more serious problem - one newspaper article said there were 25,000 stray dogs in the city - and this Indian Express article suggests that relief is unlikely to come anytime soon.

All these negatives aside I would still encourage anyone looking for a bit of rest and relaxation to give Kovalam a try. You can get some very enjoyable 'body services' (reflexology, ayurvedic massage, esthetic services) at prices that are a fraction of the cost at home. You can swim, eat some tasty seafood and enjoy cold beer while gazing out at the azure ocean. Just choose your hotel room carefully if noise is a concern for you and be willing to settle for further back from the beach if you really crave quiet.

It is hard to know what Kovalam's future is. Some articles point to Kovalam's dismal performance late last year and early in 2011 in terms of foreign tourist numbers. This Reuters article suggests that the problem is nationwide and another article (which I can't find online anymore) suggested that some of the blame could be laid at the feet of the international travel press which no longer included Kovalam and Kerala on their lists of 'must visits'.

The artificial reef project remains controversial. The picture below shows a boat that was offshore for several days in early March 2011. It is my presumption only but it certainly makes one wonder if there is something wrong with the large fiber bags, filled with sand, that make up the reef. A Finnish friend who is knowledgeable about the ocean, waves and surfing conditions told me that in his opinion the reef has not improved surfing waves and has in fact made the currents more dangerous for swimmers (especially poor/non-swimmers which Kovalam has plenty of). It will be interesting to see if the artificial reef helps to prevent beach erosion during the monsoon and if it is still intact after the rough waters of the rainy season.

So, farewell for now Kovalam. I don't know if/when I will be back but for the future well-being of all that work there and whose livelihoods depend on reasonable tourist numbers I hope that this place has a renaissance and regains its previous allure.

Bargain buffet for ladies

I know, I know, here I am posting about food again. But I think this will probably be the last time (for this trip at least). When I was here in 2009 the Taj Residency in Trivandrum (now renamed to the Vivanta by Taj) was offering a fabulous buffet at half price for ladies. And lo and behold it was still on now almost two years later. I went a couple of weeks ago and not only was the food fantastic but the people watching was fascinating.

The buffet is served in the Fifth Element restaurant which is a 90-seater and is open 24 hours a day. It does buffets for breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as a la carte. I am not sure if the other mealtimes are at half price for ladies but lunch definitely is - the bill was 368 Rs (or about $9 Canadian) and well worth every cent. My fellow diners on the day I visited (half price offer is only Mon-Fri) included an older couple from Bangalore who were being fawned over by the restaurant staff (I have no idea who they were - perhaps someone very important in business or politics although I doubt the latter), a few tables of extended families ranging from tiny tots to sneaker and track-suit wearing grandfathers, a table of about 20 professional types (IT conference-goers perhaps) and several strapping young men in coveralls who were from the Indian Air Force.

The meal began with a delicious chicken, coriander and lemon soup served with a basket of assorted breads - a couple of golf-ball sized rolls, a long narrow slice of yummy white bread and a tasty bite-sized, deep-fried UBO (unidentified bread object). Note the bottle of wine with the outrageous price tag on its neck - 3500 Rs is almost $80 Canadian. Certainly not a price most of us would think of spending on a bottle of wine I think.

Soup, bread basket and very expensive bottle of wine

At this meal I ate hardly any of the mains but instead concentrated on the salads and the desserts. The Spanish potato salad, made with new potatoes (or maybe just small, regular potatoes) and lots of grilled onions was fab as was the carrots cantonese (or something like that) which was carrots cut in to matchsticks and dressed with an Asian-tasting mixture of sesame oil, soy, vinegar and chilis. I also enjoyed the green mango salad with noodles (very tangy and 'puckerish') and the broccoli, tomato and cheese salad (though I admit that I had a couple of helpings of the latter so that I could pick out pieces of cheese and eat it with the bread).

Didn't try any of these salads which either contained meat or fish as I recall

From left to right - Spanish potato salad, carrots cantonese, green mango salad, raw veggies (including red and yellow bell peppers) and broccoli, cheese and tomato salad

channa dal masala (spicy chickpeas) and palak paneer

chicken with onion and vegetable stew

fish curry and lamb curry

The mains I did have were adequate but, in my opinion not fantastic. The real gem of the meal was the desserts. The galub jamuns were some of the best I've ever had - tender, sweet without being cloying, ambrosial - mmmm. The brownies were good but the chocolate gateau - which unfortunately disappeared at lightning speed once somebody plucked up the courage to make that initial cut into it - was superb. The peach mousse was also very good, the baked yogurt was creamy and sinful and the strawberry panacotta was rich and satisfying.

from left - in silver tureen are gulab jamun, then creme caramel, Indian sweets, brownies, peach apricot mousse

from left - the still uncut chocolate gateau, strawberry jelly, baked yogurt, panacotta, some cake (which I didn't try - chocolate quotient not present), and on the far right is a chocolate fountain

The only disappointment in the whole meal for me was the coffee that I was served at its conclusion. But, if you are familiar with the West Coast of Canada you know that we take our coffee very seriously indeed and - again just my opinion - we tend to like it much stronger than most people can tolerate and are very discerning (also known as snobby :-) ) regarding its quality. A British friend told me she had a very good cup of coffee at Caramel (the in-lobby cafe that has awesome looking pastries and gelato - the cafe manager told me the Taj imported a machine from Italy to manufacture gelato - $4 Canadian for two scoops) but as the price for coffee was almost half as much as lunch I didn't see the sense.

I may treat myself again for international women's day but perhaps the special 50% deal will no longer be in effect.

The wondrously weird jackfruit

The odd-looking jackfruit is not one of my favourites its flesh being - in my opinion - rubbery and with a subtle but not particularly pleasant flavour. It is eaten raw, its pieces are sliced up and deep fried to make chips, it is used as a vegetable in various savoury recipes (thoran, curry) and even the seeds are boiled and eaten.

When I say it is odd-looking I am not so much referring to it as it looks when you cut into it and take out its segments but rather how it looks on the tree. It is, when fully grown and ready for harvesting, about the size of a watermelon. But it is suspended by what looks, to my mind, as a completely inadequate stem.

Below are some shots of jackfruit in situ - am I the only one who thinks they look a bit odd? As if they have been placed there by someone who has no concept of physics and are being held up by some kind of alternative gravity field.

single jackfruit hanging from its slender stem

multiple jackfruit nestled against the trunk of the tree