Neeleshwar Hermitage
At last there is now a wonderful beach and spa hotel in north Kerala, Neeleshwar Hermitage, so visitors to the area no longer have to traipse down south for a bit of beach life.
Neeleshwar Hermitage is stunning in every way and the attention to detail is superb. Not only is it supremely comfortable with huge rooms, beautiful woodwork and masonry and immaculate finish, but it also offers an excellent spa and unparalleled seafood. Fabulous for children, visiting forts, pampering and relaxing, or cruising the backwaters, and all in an area as yet to be developed or ruined by mass tourism.
Just three kilometres down the road from Neeleshwar Hermitage is the Bhadrakali temple, dedicated to Bhadrakali, a fierce form of the Mother Goddess. Set in a lovely spot overlooking the river estuary, the temple belongs to the Valans, a fishing community who migrated here from Cochin at the beginning of the twentieth century. Reconstructed some thirty years ago, the temple has a pleasant atmosphere and many colourful carvings depicting the major deities of the Hindu pantheon.
But, it is with its festival each February that the place really comes alive. Women from local Valan families have the tradition of acting as spirit-mediums for Bhadrakali in her form as the Snake Goddess, who manifests each year to instruct and bless her worshippers