Kerala - Kumily and Alleppey - Paradise

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Well, we've landed in Paradise. Kerala is awesome.
Best food on earth, beautiful country. I want to retire here.

Left Kumily on Jan 3rd to go down to Alleppey. Stopped at a tea plantation and saw the tea factory. Pretty neat stuff. Gave an old crippled begger woman Rs. 100. Good karma eh? Aroma of the tea was amazing. Unfortunately they use tons of wood to roast the tea, hopefully they're not cutting down virgin forests for this. That's my tree hugger speach.
The drive from Kumily and the cardomon hills to the coast is amazing. Starts with tea plantations everywhere. Then the hills get real steep and we begin the decent. Sheer cliffs, terraced gardens everywhere. Crazy roads. Stopped at a local restaurant that the driver picked. We ate "meals" again. Cost to stuff our faces was a whooping Rs. 177. About $4 for the 6 of us. We figured it out now. Avoid tourist restaurants. Eat "meals" whenever possible instead of a la carte. We've averaged about Rs. 350 for the 5 of us. About $9.
At first we tried to order parathas for breakfast, but no luck, then we tried meals after 4pm, no luck. There's a specific order you follow to eat proper in India
So breakfast - dosas, idlis, sambar
lunch - meals - rice, some vegis, chutneys in a thalli plate. yummy
dinner - chapatis, fish masala, currys, and of course parathas
We're pro's with eating with our hands. Now when they offer us silverware, we shun it. Much more fun with the hands.
Coming into Kerala everything is a little different. There is much less litter. There are lots of big house everywhere. And a lot less cows on the road. Maybe that's because they beef here. We stopped at a pinnaple stand just opposite a cattle feeding lot. Great pinnaples, bad view. Just don't like looking at cows heading to the slaughterhouse. Plus the cows looked like they were real skinny and starving. Not sure how much meat they're going to provide. Maybe we'll stay vegitarion.

We had a slight change in plans, we ended up staying at Kaits Home homestay in the backwaters.
Said goodbye to our driver for the last 3 days Raj. He's with AVL tours in Kodia. Great guy. Took good care of us.
At Kaits Jossy took excellent care of us. We felt like royalty. His wife made the best chicken curry I've ever eaten. Had banana curry, parathas, plantain flour mungbean dish. Great coffee, wonderful family. Oh, and a wonderful pinnaple coconut dessert. We stayed in little cottages that open right onto the backwaters. His house has been handed down to him for over 15 generations, about 550 years. Really neat inside. Old polished wood with these really funky doors that gives the place a kind of Japanese feel.
Woke up to a blood red sunrise over the backwaters. Showered in the outdoor bathroom. Ate breakfast on the pagoda overlooking the water. I could write another paragraph on how good breakfast was but I won't.
Claudia is making me write it anyways:
Traditional Keralan breakfast:
coconut rice cakes, channa curry, banana chutney, and of course tea and coffee.
Used Jossy's canoe and we paddled into the little estuaries and entertained the villagers who were looking at us. Everyone is so nice and gentle here. The water in the levies is higher then the rice paddies around us. The land is 50ft below sea level here. This reminds me of a tropical holland. Levies everywhere with fields of rice. And of course coconuts.
By the way, I'm writing this blog at the same time that we're downloading pictures from Austins camera to his IPOD. What a great way of clearing up the SD cards. And of course I'm typing between bites of pinnaple. Hey!! We just devoured a pinnaple.
We returned to the homestay and said our goodbyes to Jossy as we left his homestay. If anyone wants to know it's:
www.kaitshome.com with email at [e-mail]
mob: [phone]
Took a ferry along the backwaters from the homestay to allepey. It ook about 2.5 hours. agreat inexpensive way to see the canals and all the locals. passed lots of sunbathing tourists on their house boats. give me a paddle and canoe over a lounge chair anyday.
Looking forward to tonight's dinner at pozhyoram beach resort. Another great find. beach front cottages and a feeling of peace that prevades the place. Yes this is heaven on earth.
goodnight for now.

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Comments

[Pami]

Man...you are making me hungry.......
.....and i really envy you now ..having all that fun !!! But I'm so glad you are enjoying it!! Till next time..be safe!!

[Pami]

Oh...don't forget !!
If you are still in Kerela...don't forget to get a traditional aurvedic massage....you'll love it and thank me :)