Bait Seaside Restaurant, Kovalam beach

Taj Green Cove in Kovalam, Trivandrum opened a new seaside restaurant Bait. If you are craving for a good thin crust pizza then you should try Bait's wood chip oven baked pizza the best in town.

The restaurant is designed by local architect Vinod Mathew, he showed me around this amazing place. The restaurant is constructed on raised platform of solid timber away from reach of high tide. It has some of best view of the beach, the lake on the other side and Taj Bali village style cottages further inland.

Old wooden railway sleepers are layed all around the building adding texture with their weathered look, they are used because of their amazing resistant to sea water. The restaurant flooring is created with concrete mixed with gel and coloring agents, the bathrooms are great example of how you can use concrete to create great surfaces. The bar stools are created from single block of wood, the chairs are custom designed with bamboo string backs. The deck chairs are custom designed and built in Vinod's workshop. I won't blame you if you doze right away in these comfortable chairs. The ceiling is covered with elephant grass and grass hand woven mats covering inner roof.

Wooden Railway Sleepers

Custom Designed Furniture

Watch the fisherman bring in the catch

Meera enjoying in the children play area

Bean bags for adding comfort

Bar with wooden block chairs

Healthy Fruit Juices In Trivandrum

For most visitors to Kerala the tender coconut juice seems to be standard choice. If you are feeling adventurous visit Chitra Juice Palace near the Law College in central Trivandrum. This juice shop offers an uncanny assortment of fresh fruit juices at affordable prices. Watching the owner of the shop Suresh man the seven juice blenders at the same time like a samurai is a special treat.

Suresh returned from the middle east few years ago to open this juice shop. He soon started to experiment adding south Indian species to his lime juices. He created various combinations of fruits juices based on his clients taste, he is innovator with knack for creating new juices that appeal and sometimes shock your palate. Even the doctors of the city visit the shop to taste his special recipes that seems to cure bad common cold or relive the headache from the heat.

Solar eclipse India 2010

While waiting at Trivandrum airport I captured the solar eclipse with home-brew filters made of two strips of Xray sheets.

Swathi Sangeethotsavam 2010

The thunderstorm lasted all night, it was raining all sunday afternoon. The lake water is rising again, I resist the idea of going for a swim. First I need to finish the discussion about cultural diversity. We wrap up at 5:30 pm and its getting dark fast. I decide to head to town for evening of music and cultural at Swathi Sangeethotsavamn instead. The music festival is held every year in the magnificent courtyard of Kuthira Malika palace in Thiruvananthapuram.We spent the evening listening to carnatic vocal concert by Mavelikara P. Subramaniam. Sitting in the courtyard of the ancient palace, listening to the music from stage glittering with oil lamps, the sweet smell of flowers and the cold rain laded wind added magic to the evening.

PS: Reminds me of a musical concert yet another rainy day.

A Retort To Remember

Quickly recorded Sabriye's retort when Cornelia commented about my technical abilities 'But Arky should know how to do that right?'. Pat came the reply, you know what 'Arky doesn't know shit'
What a great way to start the new year with a compliment. :)

Have a wonderful New Year !!

Christmas Party 2009

Returned from workshop in Hyderabad on christmas eve. Took a long hot shower to recover from the 26 hour train journey and drove over to Thapovan for the christmas party.

Fort Cochin Heritage Walk Mapping party

Sajjad blogs about yesterday's Fort Cochin Heritage Walk Mapping party in Cochin. We had to wind up the two day mapping party on the first day itself. We had to leave the city immediately, a political hartal (strike) was due to begin the next day. The city transport system would grind to a halt leaving us stranded in the city.

Living on the fort cochin island itself was too expensive, the cost of rooms skyrocket around the fort cochin carnival time. Perhaps we hope return to the Fort Cochin soon to continue mapping the whole island. Perhaps better prepared next time guys! .

Fort Cochin is marked for one of the earliest establishments of foreign trade in Kerala. The heritage walk is an awesome 6 KM journey on foot, which takes us back to the 1700’s when the Dutch, the Portuguese and the English was busy trading the wealth. The island provided them a very wonderful place to trade and refresh. The heritage walk meets us at different monuments which reminds us of these historical landmarks. I met Arky at the Ernakulam Boat Jetty, from where we collected few maps and other resources.

Read more about the Fort Cochin Heritage Walk Mapping party

IISE Christmas Greetings

Its Christmas eve, the IISE campus is now a very lonely place. We miss our friends who returned to their countries to pursue the dream projects. I hope this audio greeting would bring joy and many warm memories.
Merry Christmas !!

12th Bar Beach Party

Beer, Barbeque's and Blues at the The 12th Bar beach party in Kovalam

The beach The Music The Blues And the food ! ( What more can one ask for) 12th Bar Band Johnny, You guys rock!

Kalarippayattu Video

I lived in Kerala for over an year now. Never had a chance of watching Kalarippayattu, the oldest fighting system in existence. Last evening I visited Thapovan to watch a demostration of Kalari.

Veli Tourist Village

Veli Tourist village on the other side of Trivandrum city is very popular with tourists. Thats one reason why I didn't visit it until now. The village was created by the kerala tourism is built on site where Veli lake flows into the Arabian sea. As you enter the Veli tourist village, there is park with couple of artificial ponds and huge fish in dirty murky water but it doesn't seems to matter much. Everyone around is happy snapping pictures and posing.

There are sculptures everywhere on the green grass. Some celebrating the beauty of female form other so obscure that no one gives them a second glance. And to top it all there is a huge power grid tower right middle of the park. Perfect !

Found a good spot on a stone bench and immersed myself in Philip Zimbardo's book The Lucifer Effect. It can be trying experience to ignore the crowds gawking at you. Its too hot to go walking yet, have to kill few hours before I start walking along the pathway on lake shore and then onto the mile long beach.

An Evening at Silk Estate

Its sunday evening and it started to rain. It been raining for three days now. Sipping hot coffee I remember the weekend with fellow blogger Tys at his family estate in Nedumangad.

It was a hot day when we left Trivandrum . The weather turned mild as we drove up the winding road to Nedumangad. As the car turned away from Nedumangad town, I caught a glimpse of massive Thirichittoor Rock. Thirichi means 'turn' or 'return' in Malayalam. The monkey god Hanuman lifted this rock seeking a life saving herb but realizing it was wrong hillock he put it back and the name stuck.

We turned off the narrow main road, the sign above the gate says 'Silk Estate'. Before the Indian independence this was a mulberry plantation, the estate still bears the name. We stopped before a beautiful bungalow, it is surrounded by a rubber plantation. About 10,000 rubber trees the plantantion worker giving me tour told me. I never seen how natural rubber is made, all I know is what I seen in books and on television.

Rubber is collected in small cocount shells from the tapped tree. It is mixed with water and few chemicals, allowed to conceal in large flat bottom trays. Later water is rinsed out mechanically and the rubber mats are cured in large boxes with wood fires. This process of making natural rubber must have remained unchanged in decades.

Later we started trekking up the Thirichittoor Rock to enjoy the magnificent sunset. There are few place where illegal rock mining was rampant before it was finally put to stop.

I hope to visit this beautiful place once again. For now I head out for dinner and a evening walk in rain.