Hi,

In February last week, I went to a trip to Kerala.

I, myself, with a friend Tejas went to Alleppey. We took a train on Thursday evening (16 Feb 2006) from Bangalore and reached there on Friday morning. Straight way, we went to a hotel, actually a heritage home (these are more popular in Kerala than hotels, it gives feeling of staying at home) called Gowari. We stayed there through out our trip.

Day 1.

We were in there for surprise. Contrary to our expectation it was hot and being close to sea it was humid as well. Whole day we roamed around in the little town of Alleppey (Allapuzha) and interacted with locals. By the evening we went to the beach. A nice, clean beach where Arabian sea was bouncing on its shore.



Day 2.

We were in for an adventure. We found out that the best thing to do is to hire a Kettuvalam, a big boat made like house, it has beds and one gets meals etc. on the board itself. The cost starts from 6000/- onwards per day! not our cup of tea arrrrrr... coffee.

We were anxious to see 'backwaters'. We hired a small boat, after a bargain, for Rs. 400/- for three hours (regular cost is Rs. 150/- per hour). Now starts the journey to mind-boggling, scenic beauty of Kerala. The area is full of waters and there are many small islands, man-made islands. People live on these islands and they do farming on claimed land which essentially should have been part of the sea water. Thus one has below-sea-level farming here. Watering the farm is not a problem, you have to just make a small hole in neighbouring canal. The whole area is full of lakes, network of canals and small islands spread over. Each of these lands are fertile thus people do farming here and coconut trees all around. This makes it most picturesque and scenic and I suppose calling it 'Venice of the east' is not too much of exaggeration.

Day 3.

We were caught in the fever of beauty of Kerala. Another adventure follows. This time we decided to go on one of the islands and spend whole day. After much effort (we do not know malayali) we concluded that we must go to 'R-block' where they have some place to eat as well. A perfect day full of surprises follows.

We took local ferry, Rs. 7/- which goes to Kottayam and drops local people living on the islands, its like a city-bus which stops at every few kilometer distance. On most of the islands people were getting down and one can always see people being around. 'R-block' comes and we were asked to get down, no soul around here. In the network of canals, one side a big lake, here we have an isolated island, greenery spread over, lot of coconut tress, banana trees and generally mind-blowing scenery around. Only concern was whether we are in no-mans-land and thus what will happen to our dream of eating sea-fish with 'toddy' on this island. We tossed a coin and started to walk in a direction. There were lot of little houses, farms but no-one around. We had walked about an hour and were tired. Anyway we decided to keep walking, luckily we had enough water, exploring the island, actually one has to walk on the railing made to separate the water from land, i.e., the boundary of canal is made of concrete blocks. After another one hour we met two locals, we asked them whether we can get something to eat. They pointed us in the direction we were walking and told that after 1 to 1.5 km we will get a place to eat. We were relieved. Tejas decided to take a plunge in the lake. Water was quite clean, one could see fishes moving around.

We reached our dream-place. In middle of nowhere almost in no-mans-land we have a small shop selling fish-curry (of 2-3 types), Karemeen (a sea fish) fry, prawns and above all fresh 'toddy'. Nothing could have been more satisfying under the circumstances. These kind of things you only imagine in dreams. We drank 'toddy' and got flat (slept) under a tree for an hour. The JOKE of the trip happened here when we were having our meals.

Just imagine the kind of day we were having. There were some typical 'Jat-kind' of characters, must have been from Delhi, came by a boat and wanted something to eat. They guy asks to the shop-keeper, " edhar kuch veg khanne ko milaga kaya". Oh gosh! I felt like drowning him or rather myself.

We stayed there till evening, till sunset and took last ferry, the ones which come from Kottayam, back to Alleppey.

Day 4.

We wanted to have land excursions. We went to Ambalpuzha where they have a famous Lord Krishna temple. We attended 'Aarti' at noon and got 'Payasam' to drink. We had some meals and decided to go to another temple in Haripad, the famous snake temple over there. But temple opens in the evening at 5 pm. We had whole afternoon to spend. We went to a nearby village and walked around 2-3 hours in sun. It was quite exhausting and tiring. But anyway we took the bus to Haripad and went to see the Snake Temple.

Day 5.

There are tourist boats going to Kollam, Rs. 300/- which has eight hour journey. We talked to them and decided that half way we will take the ferry coming back to Alleppey. It was again a very nice trip, scenic, through canals, lakes and watching locals on their work, paddy fields all around on each little islands. The ferry stopped at a place where we had lunch as well. One could buy water, cold-drinks and beer on board. In all, a perfect river cruise.

Day 6.

We checked out in the morning and kept our luggage their at Gowari itself. We argued for a while about what to do. Not that we did not have anything to do but which one of the trips we should repeat and satisfy ourselves on the last day. We went for a boat-ride again in canals and back waters. After all, we wanted to capture all the beauty in our mind for time to come. In middle of nowhere on a small island, Kainkary, there was a nice Restaurant. On this island they have a school also, Govt. High School, imagine we use to go to school in a rickshaw or in a cycle here you go to school in a boat. We had lunch there and finally we came back to Alleppey and back to Bangalore.

With best wishes,
--
Anupam