The Raviz Calicut/Kadavu – Calicut Sightseeing

This is a multi part account of my stay at The Raviz Calicut and The Raviz Resort and Spa Kadavu, in collaboration with Panache, the travel designers.

This post is a narrative that covers some of the tourist attractions in and

around Calicut city.

As I mentioned in The Raviz Calicut – Part 1, the hotel lies in the center

of the city and hence is walking distance from restaurants, shopping etc.

However, if one wants to explore the surroundings or dig up some history,

the travel desk at the hotel is happy to arrange tailor made sightseeing

trips.

Calicut city is not the usual holiday destination as we know it, but it does

have its share of things to do within a 20 km radius of the city center.

One can visit the Pazhassi museum, the Planetarium, the Tasara weaving

center, the Sarovaram biopark, the Sargaalaya arts and

crafts village, the Thali temple and several Tile factories.

Kappad, Calicut and Beypore are the 3 beaches that are frequented by

holidayers, though they have relatively small stretches of sandy area and

more of rocks and man made walkways that project into the sea.

If one is willing to travel for a couple of hours further, one could also

visit the Thusharagiri waterfalls or the Peruvannamuzhi dam or even drive

into the hill station of Vythiri in the neighboring Wayanad district.

My 3 day stay at both the The Raviz Calicut and The Raviz Kadavu left me

with just enough time to visit a few of these attractions and guided by the

hotel staff, I had the Kappad beach, the Sargalaya crafts village and the

Beypore harbor on my itinerary.

Kappad beach –

This is situated 18 kms from the city and as I said earlier,

it not the usual large expanse of beach but a small sandy stretch

interspersed with projections of land constructed so that people can walk

across and view the sea.

It also has a paved walkway shaded by casuarina trees and lined by several

carts selling local snacks to beachgoers.

All kinds of fruits and vegetables soaked in brine and vinegar, peep out

through large glass jars and are picked up with tongs and sold.

And apart from the usual banana and other local fritters, I was quite excited at the sight

of the exotic Green lipped mussels stuffed with a spiced rice paste and

fried. This snack though rare for visitors like me, is a common sight here

and sells at a mere Rs 10 a piece. Since I wanted to take them back to the

hotel and click pictures, I had mine parceled in a sheet of white paper by

my friendly Mussel man, who quite redefined the term with his puny

appearance 😀 Have you seen my Mussels ???

Since there are very few beaches in Calicut, all of them can get badly

crowded and sadly littered and even more so during holidays like Onam.

Kappad beach was no exception and I had to jostle through the crowds to get

a few pictures. However I was interested in this place because this is where

Vasco da Gama touched India’s shores in 1498 AD and with the help of my

driver, I located the ‘stupa’ as he called it, that bore the inscription of

his arrival … Unfortunately this little memorial lies in a state of

neglect in the midst of trash and overgrown weeds.

Getting back to the present, an interesting point to note is that many parts

of the road towards the beach are lined with

stalls selling Kerala’s popular earthen ware pots and pans and these are

available at very low prices and I made sure to stop and add to my existing

collection 😀

Beypore beach –

Beypore situated 23 kms from the city, was a prominent port and fishing

harbor of the Kerala of yore and was well known for its ship building

industry. Even today, the Uru which is a Dhow like sail boat, is still

handcrafted here and exported to Arab countries. Being closed for the Onam

festival, I was unable to visit a Uru building yard, where one can view the

fascinating process as the boat builders work with the timber without using any modern machines.

Uru replicas however, were available plentifully on

sale along the road that leads to the beach but I did not stop for them

because I was gifted my own little craft by the lovely folk at

The Raviz Calicut … my personal Uru to take home to Bengal’Uru 😀

Beypore again does not have a very large stretch of sand, though it seems to

be bigger than Kappad. Here too there is a lamp post lined projection that

is constructed out into the sea and used as a walkway by visitors to the

beach. A lighthouse is visible in the distance and the horizon marks the

line where the Chaliyar river meets the sea.

Carts similar to those on Kappad beach, sell the usual brined fruit, stuffed

mussels and shaved flavored ice candy (golas).

The windy beach being conducive to kite flying, one can spot several of them

in the skies, powered by the Onam revellers 😀

Docked boats lie inverted on the sands and the crowds used them to clamber

on and seat themselves.

The amount of litter beats that of Kappad beach, though the surging masses

seem quite oblivious to trash, even while actively contributing to it !!!

One can choose to focus on the beautiful sight of the setting sun, as I did

and ignore the mess around 😀

Sargalaya arts and crafts village –

Situated 40 kms from the city, this is an initiative by the Dept of tourism, Kerala and houses 60 stalls where artisans create and sell local handicrafts including products made of banana fibre, palm fibre, seashells, terracotta, screw pine, coconut wood etc.

Tourists can also attend classes and learn to create their own handicrafts.

The stalls are located on the banks of the Moorad river in a picturesque

setting which also conveniently includes a cafeteria and clean washrooms.

The ticket was a very nominal Rs 30 but they did charge me Rs 100 for the

camera, which was quite meaningless because most people use their cell phones and those are not charged … even those that are charged (of course the pun was intended) 😀

Besides, photography is prohibited inside the premises, a fact that I discovered only after exiting.

There is also a handicrafts outlet where people can buy the products. The most interesting one was a Gold colored ship that was priced at a mere 25 Lakhs 😀