Cruising through Kerala

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We arrived at Poovar Island Resort on the 7th, and had booked in for 2 nights at this overly luxurious resort, after all this backpacking i think i more then deserved a treat! We were so excited about coming here, and we were not let down in the slightest! As our taxi dropped us off we were nicely suprised as we were left at a boat port and found out that we needed to catch a boat to bring us through the backwaters to our floating cottage! We reported at the resort reception and given arrival drinks of coconut water (vile) and then shown to our room. As the guy was walking us there i suddenly realised we weren't heading for the floating cottages, that we had been so looking forward to, but towards the land cottages- when i voiced my concerns to the man, i must have been too busy stressing over not getting what i wanted that i missed him say a few vital words including 'free upgrade' but as soon as he opened the door to our suite my face suddenly changed from brat to embarassingly pleased within seconds. (later afer visiting one of the floating ones i realised what a better deal we got!!) Our room was huge, with a massive double bed- clean pristine sheets- seriously you cant take these things for granted here- a tv (wow!!) mini bar, lounge area, patio, a high tech control panel next to the bed which had buttons for everything on it, so gave me the perfect excuse for being a total slob and not leaving my bed! you could control the lights, aircon, maid service, tv you name it! and then the bathroom.... wow TWO sinks, a normal toilet, none of this squatting malarky, a wetroom and a massive jacuzzi bath with.... HOT WATER!!! I'm guessing noone is really going appreciate what an absolute treat this was but believe me i thought i had absolutely died and gone to heaven! We spent that afternoon by the pool, had a few drinks at the swim up bar and caught a little more sun, then had dinner and retired to our room for a comfy nights sleep!

The next day we woke up had breakfast and caught the boat to take us out to the beach. The hotel is situated where the backwaters meet the sea, but we were seperated from the beach by a narrow river (backwater) and so needed a boat to carry us over! It was beautiful, pure white soft sand and turquoise sea! The sea here was really rough though with a strong current so you werent advised to swim in it. I'm sure you can all sympathise that its so hard sunbathing when you cant just nip in for a quick dip to cool off!
We wondered why the beach was so deserted, there were hardly any tourists, just a few locals either pulling thier fishing nets in, or the young boys trying to chat us up- which was very amusing, or the smaller children begging- which wasn't. We were both amazed at how many eagles we saw here, groups of sometimes 10 or more of them it was amazing to see. We got a boat back to the resort a few hours later and resumed positions by the pool. That night we had dinner again and had yet another early night in front of the TV (there wasnt really anything to do here anyway, the fellow guests were all midle aged couples so we were kind of out of place especially at dinner when they were all being serenaded by the musicians and they kept skipping past our table, rudeness.) We were supposed to leave the next morning but made a decision that we deserved another night here, Marianne STILL hadnt done any yoga- I had long given up any notion of doing it as it involved getting up far too early and besides I'm on holiday now! so we thought we should treat ourselves. Well, no suprises when she slept in again and missed yoga for about the 10th day running! SO we treated ourselves to more Ayurvedic massages. These are a specialty in Kerala. Ayurvedic basically tries to restore the balance within your body hence resulting in good health principally through two methods: panchakarama (internal purification) and massage. The herbs used for both types grow all over Kerala thus making it more authentic to Kerala.

We left the next morning, and decided to make our way up to Varkala which is a little further up the east coast of Kerala. Still at the south of India. We arrived in the afternoon and found accommodation, this time a guest house on the cliff top which absolutely stank of damp. the heat was almost unbearable and we had looked around quite a few places before finding this one, so decided to take it for just one night so we could look around without having to carry all of our luggage with us. We stayed 4 nights here, although we did have one night away. We had yet another few lazy days on the beach, and then on the 13th decided to take a trip up to Allepy to do a backwater boat trip. This meant we had to get up at 5.45am, which wouldnt have been too bad if only we hadnt booked the trip at 01.30 the same morning! So after not a lot of sleep we woke and caught a train for 2 hours up to Allepy. We made our way to a guest house there where our taxi for the boat was due to pick us up- and whilst having breakfast who should walk in but Heather and Jess- my friends from Palolem! They were staying at a hotel down the road but just came here for breakfast, was a real coincidence, and they were also heading down to Varkala the following day so we arranged to all get a taxi back there together!

We arrived at our houseboat which was absolutely stunning- I was expecting it to look nothing like the pictures but we were both amazed at how beautiful it was. We had tried to get the agent to book us in with other people but to no avail so we ended up having the boat to ourselves which was even better!

There were 3 male staff onboard, 1 boat captain, another man beneath him, and the chef! Things didnt exactly go to plan when the boat had a collission within minutes of taking off. Wasn't really a suprise when you've witnessed their road habits!!

We relaxed on the sofas that afternoon, watching the sights and reading our books, the backwaters were palm fringed lakes, with villages studded along the sides where you can be a voyuer to villagers going about their daily chores. Sleeping onboard on the peaceful lake was a million miles away from the clamour of the rest of India. At night time we moored up by a cluster of little houses, which turned out to be the captains wife and their extended families, so it was really special to meet them all! The children were fascinated by the boat- although they must be so used to them, they were still so happy when we invited them onboard for photos, and one of the girls taught me how to fish! It took a while but a couple of hours later, I caught my first fish ever! I was so proud, and granted yes, he was small, I would like to take this oppurtunity to let you know he was a rare breed and i have it on good authority that they are the hardest to catch, so any comments regarding the quality will be disregarded. Marianne was very jealous i could tell. She tried numerous times and failed. You've either got it or you haven't! By the way my fish did get re-released back into the water still alive, I'm good like that!

We slept in our little cabin, that had its own attached bathroom, and woke early at 7am to our breakfast and the last leg of the boat trip. We passed by mosques, churches, schools, along with people bathing or washing their clothes or dishes in the water. It almost felt a little intrusive at times but was a novelty to see none the less.

After we left the boat we met the girls back at the guest house and got our taxi back to Varkala beach. We spent our last afternoon sunbathing. We came in before sunset and made our way to watch a Kalthakali performance. This art was started around teh same time as Shakespear. It literally means a 'story play' which covers all the great themes such as evil, fraility & courage, poverty & prosperity and war & peace. Drummers and singers accompany the actors. The script is vocalised through the singers but its the actors who tell the story through their precise movements specifically hand movements and facial expressions. Apparantly preperation for the performances is lenghty and disciplined. Paint, fantastic costumes, highly decorated headpieces and meditation transform the actors into the gods, heroes and demons they are about to play. It was actually really amazing to watch, even if it did drag on a bit too long!

We had our last meal here, with Heather & Jess and then went up to our room to pack those bloody backpacks for teh 2nd last time (hurray!!) and then went to a bar for a few drinks before we left. Typically seemed that the bar was heaving withloads more young travellers on the night we left as it had been really quiet every other night we'd been. Good job I'm such great company hey- who needs other people!!!

We got a taxi at around 0130 to take us to Trivandrum airport to catch our flight up to Mumbai. Flying was definately worth the money as a trip by train or coach would have taken in excess of 40 hours compared to a 2 hour flight!! Now only 3 days left of my trip and although I am sooooo looking forward to coming home, I'm actually really sad that its coming to an end!

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Photos

Cat- fish
Look at that little beauty!!!

Comments

[Jimbo]

She's almost home!
Give my love to my gran!!