Achankovil- Off the Beaten Path

Our first trip away from Mavelikara was the Achinkovil on the border of Tamil Nadu. Achinkovil is a small village where there is an IEM church. It is also the site of a large Hindu temple. And, as you can see from the map, it is not on any major road. Actually, it is barely a road at all…

We left on Sunday afternoon and drove to Punalur so we could get an early start in the morning for Achinkovil. It was our first real road trip during the daylight and it was so fascinating just to look at everything: stores, houses, people, cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, bicycles, landscapes. There just seemed to be people everywhere!

everything not marked with “post no bills” is plastered with posters 

typical shopping center in India 

With no garbage collection services, there is garbage everywhere. People just pile it up right in front of their home or business and burn it periodically. It’s actually amazing it isn’t worse!

Travel in India isn’t too speedy with all of the traffic and narrow, windy roads, so we didn’t get to the hotel until late. It was a very nice hotel! But we noticed some things that stood out right away…

  The hotel was very dark! Although they had lights, they only kept enough on to see or turned them on as we walked by. They also charge extra for air conditioning, which we learned we did not pay for when the bell hop came into our room, turned off our a/c and took the remote control with him. We were starving and exhausted but having no idea what to expect, we were very pleasantly surprised by our gorgeous room! 

We were in room 310 on the 2nd floor???

 

Even in such a beautiful room (with a bathtub no less), we were surprised that there was no hot water. Not pleasantly surprised, just surprised.

After admiring our room and watching a bit of Indian television, we met everyone at the restaurant for supper…

a bassinet for babies at the restaurant

After a late Chinese food supper, we were ready for bed. Unfortunately, it was also time for the nightly broadcast of the Muslim call to prayer from the local mosque. Not only was it very loud but also very long!

The accommodations made me forget where we were and I brushed my teeth with the sink water before bed. Thankfully, I was fine. Despite not having a/c we slept well until the morning call to prayer over the loudspeaker outside our window.  We were grateful that the 5:45am prayer was much briefer than the nighttime prayer!

the view of the mosque from our window

We checked out of the hotel and headed out…

  Vipin getting ready to hit the road

  

Right by the hotel was a famous suspension bridge built in 1877 by Albert Henry to aid in the passage of people across the river but too shaky for wild animals to cross from the forest into town.

We got a bit of breakfast before leaving town.

  Turned out it was their grand opening and we were their first customers!

Praying for their restaurant

 

The “road” to Achinkovil ran along the river where GV used to do baptisms for the believers from the church when he was younger. It also ran through miles and miles of rubber tree plantations. It rained off and on all morning. I’m not sure the van would have made it if it had rained too hard! The roads were like lakes in some places but Vipin is way too good to let a few mud puddles and oncoming buses slow him down! Yes, buses! I expected the jeeps and Land Rovers but was shocked to meet buses and pedi-cabs on the “road”! :o)

 Punalur is the 2nd largest city in Kollam

The scenery was beautiful but the very rough roads made taking pictures tricky. I wish we could have captured more…

rubber trees with their little “raincoats” to protect the taps and buckets from the rain

even in the middle of nowhere, they still have satellite tv

   

the “road”

 

We knew we were in the middle of nowhere when we saw warning signs along the road for wild elephants and tigers! I spent the entire trip watching, hoping to catch sight of some wild creature lurking in the forest!

Finally, we arrived in Achinkovil…

The Hindu temple is right at the entrance of the village. It is quite the impressive structure! All the more reason to keep the believers here in prayer!

Being there was no bathroom facilities at the church where the clinic was held, we all felt the need to use a toilet before heading back to Mavelikara. Reji stopped at the rest house at the edge of town and asked if we could use the bathroom in one of the rooms. I was sure this would be our first Indian toilet experience. I was thankful but sort of disappointed when we found a western toilet…

We drove back into a town for dinner at a hotel and even got to do a bit of shopping before going home (IEM campus)… :o)