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Going Dutch

Take advantage of the off-season discount and enjoy a heritage holiday at the 18th Century Bolgatty Palace in Kerala

A BONANZA A view of the Bolgatty Palace

So many interesting places and so little time in hand!

Having chosen Kerala as a destination for a short vacation, the first thing that hit us was, where in Kerala would we go?

With so many holiday spots in the State, it is difficult to choose one.

Taking easy recourse to the Kerala Tourism Development Board's website, we clicked on the icon, monsoon packages.

KTDC is well known for some of the most gorgeous properties it offers at modest rates.

Well, it didn't disappoint us. Rather, it came up with a pleasant surprise for budget travellers like us.

June 1, our holiday date, turned out to be the beginning of its annual three-month off-season, where vacation options at their properties are offered at almost half the cost.

A little surfing and we zeroed in on Bolgatty Palace, said to be the oldest existing Dutch palace beyond Holland.

Nested in an island off Kochi city, the palace dates back to 1744.

Kochi being the core of commerce then, the palace was built by a Dutch trader and leased out to the British in 1909.

It remained under the British till 1947 and became a State property after Independence.

Spruced up

Though KTDC has had it for many years, it was only a few years ago that the palace was spruced up to five-star comfort.

It now has a plush dining hall and a beer parlour overlooking the swimming pool, 16 suites (newly built but they gel with the heritage building), six honeymoon cottages on the banks of the backwaters, and four huge suites in the palace itself.

Having booked the room through mail, we were told to "give a call" to the resort from the Kochi jetty for a boat to ferry us to the palace.

But we chose to take the newly built crossway to Bolgatty.

Well, after doing it, here's a suggestion to a possible visitor to the palace... please listen to the manager and ask for a boat.

After the crossway, the road that forks off from the highway to the palace is very narrow, and God save you if you meet any vehicle coming from the other side.

Anyway, all excited about an impending good vacation, we lost no time to check out the place, the pool, the dining hall, the Ayurvedic massage centre and the view from the palace, etc., preening at one another with a sense of achievement, at getting what we were promised.

After an elaborate buffet lunch (all meals are included in the package) and a nap, we took the free boat trip to Kochi city.

Wandering through the hustle-bustle of the burgeoning metro, we ended up at a coffee joint called Cocoa Tree.

There, we had some amazing strawberry ice cream and Irish coffee, read a few visitors' notes, some funny, some not quite, pasted on a huge wall of glass, and watched the hip Kochi crowd.

We also took a half-hour barge ride into the sea and back.

A call and a boat ride after, we were back at Bolgatty. With much time left for dinner, we headed for the beer parlour but to our revelation, learnt that the archaic rule of dry day on every first of the month still works in Kerala. Anyway, a great Malayali style meal made up for the disappointment, though one wished the resort had paid a little more attention towards waiter training.

If you were not alert enough, the waiters would whisk away the plate before you were done with your meal!

Antiques galore

The next day, we headed for Mattancherry, the Jewish settlement in Kerala, 12 km from Bolgatty.

Passing through the ancient spice exchange and the oil exchange, still throbbing with activity, we were doubly thrilled to notice rows and rows of shops selling antiques. The way the shops were stacked with goods, it seemed all the churches, ambalams (temples) and tarawaads (traditional houses) of Kerala had been robbed to the last nail. We contributed to the damage by buying two old paintings at a good price.

Poorly maintained

Walking further, we took a peek at the synagogue and felt a tad disappointed by its state.

The Dutch Palace at Mattancherry, very close to the synagogue, was a further sorry site.

With more and more people leaving for Israel, there are reportedly only 11 individuals left in Mattancherry now and all of them are fairly aged. With the town getting touristy, the shop rents are rocketing, but the old Jewish families are reportedly getting the same rent settled with their tenants years before.

The rent money by the way, is the sole source of income for the community, and with tenants occupying their premises for so long and taking legal help now against eviction, it is a sorry state not just of the buildings but their occupants too.

Back at Bolgatty, and after exhausting our two night-three day package, we decided to extend the stay by one more night and found ourselves lucky to get a little discount on it too.

The last day was well spent with a free Ayurvedic massage (it comes with the package) and a good, leisurely swim.

Obviously, the great holiday ended with a glass of wine in the evening by the side of the pool.

SANGEETA BAROOAH PISHAROTY

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