Kerala God's own country - April 2018
Our first night was spent at the idyllic Poovar Resort Island which can only be reached by boat transfer and gave us our first view of waterways, birds and tropical trees and vegetation along its banks. The resort has its own Ayurveda village specialising in Ayurvedic healing and treatments as well as a lakeside Yoga centre. The following day we set off up the coast visiting Kovalam beach and on to our next stop at Varkalla, another lovely beach resort with Red Cliff and a spectacular sunset. Fortunately, we had a driver during our trip which was invaluable, especially when navigating the roads being simultaneously used by pedestrians, animals, scooters, tuk tuks, other cars, buses and trucks.
Our next port of call was the Lakesong Resort at Kumarakom. Kumarakom is a truly beautiful and peaceful place on the shores of Lake Vembanad Lake and surrounded by Paddy Fields. We took a boat trip and visited a Bird Sanctuary full of migratory birds calling to each other. The bird sanctuary was founded by George Alfred Baker and is now managed by the Kerala tourism development corporation.
We travelled north to Kochi, the capital city of Kerala, which has a long history of colonial power from the Dutch, Portuguese and English who operated power along with the Rajas of Kochi. Fort Kochi is the old town and Saint Francis church, Santa Cruz Basilica and the Jewish synagogue are all located here along with an array of gift shops, as well as the iconic Chinese fishing nets which are believed to have been introduced by Chinese traders in the 14th Century.
We travelled to Alapuzzha for what was to be the highlight of our trip as we boarded our own private houseboat built in traditional style with a covering of coir. We had a driver perched on the front of the boat and an air-conditioned cabin and cook for the next two days. Not only did this give us our best insight into the waterways slowly drifting by but towards the end of the day we disembarked and went by canoe into the smaller side canals where excited local children swam and played while their parents washed clothes on the river bank and the beautiful lotus flowers and mangoes, jack fruit and cacao grew in abundance. We chose crayfish caught fresh that morning and enjoyed them for dinner, sat on the front under a canopy watching the lighting show over the still waters. We enjoyed Ayurveda massage treatments which left us relaxed and pampered.
The food is a rich mixture of spices, coconut and sauces and there is a wide choice of vegetarian options. As our trip drew to a close we returned to busy Trivandrum for a final night before flying back home full of memories of a quite wonderful culture and country.