Kerala 6-1-2010: Kanyakumari

I don't remember what this 400+- year- old palace is called until I looked back into the scrapbook. Slumbering neatly under the adhesive cover in the photo album is a pink 6cm x 7cm 'Chappal Tocken' paper, meaning a ticket given to shoe owner when the shoes are kept 'safely', that is until the clock strikes 5pm and the shoe-caretaker leaves the designated place to retire for the day.
Under 'Chappal Tocken' is printed the name of the wooden palace - Padmanabhapuram Palace, Thuckalay, Tamil Nadu.

I have a theory about the reason Malayalees, the residents of Kerala, are mostly light-skinned and resemble differently from their other South Indian denizens. Chinese ministers of ancient years gathered in Kerala for visitation and official meeting purposes. In fact, the Orient-eers also influenced the architecture of Indian buildings in Kerala. I'm sure the builders/architects/sculptures/carvers must have migrated from China and settled with the locals in Kerala, or at least had a mistress to accompany them.

Another unexplainable point is the palace is situated in Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu, South India; but is administered by the Kerala government's department of archeology. My best guess is that the kingdom of Travancore was previously located at Thuckalay before being shifted to Trivandrum, which also signify that Kerala could be a wider state 500 hundred years ago.

The palace is mainly built from wood, except for the visitors hall where Indian-like dancing statuettes are placed for decoration purpose. The floor in this hall was said to be polished until a person's reflection can be vividly seen.

It's ashamed my camera's battery died when I was about to take the primitive yet natural image of the royal place's toilet. Talk about hard, cold defecating at night. And also makes me wonder where did all the best fertilizer flow??

This photo is courtesy of Wikipedia.