Jul 30, 2006 04:48 PM
3054 Views
A five day break and we decided - it has to be Kerala. For all those who have been, I don't need to describe it and for all those who plan to go - I won't describe it ... it's just undescribable.
I write this review not to praise Kerala...enough has been said about it's beauty... and it's all true.
I thought of telling you about our experience on a houseboat!
We had gone to Kovallam and Kumarakom. Stayed at the Leela at both places (there was a great package) and we chose one night on a houseboat as part of the package. At first I was skeptical...what the hell are we going to do on a boat all day??!!! I am so glad now that we did.
The boat was arranged by the resort (Kumarakom Beach Resort) but one can book the boats directly from the company (Muthoot is the best) and that turns out cheaper... (naturally) The resort has their own jetty and so we boarded from there... there were 3 crew members on the boat (1 cook, 1 captain and the 3rd is the waiter/standby captain or reliever). When we got on board we did the obligatory tour... the houseboat had 2 a/c rooms with attached bathroms, a dining and lounging area and the kitchen at the back. The frst thing that struck us was how clean the boat and the crew were. The lounge area had a HUGE fruit basket which is left there for snacking...
We were served lunch almost withing 30 minutes of being on board as we boarded at lunchtime. The food...what can I say??!! simbly awesome:-) We were served local fare which was sambhar, rice, 2 vegetables and a fried fish each... just amazing. For dessert, he served us some fruit salad.
The package included all food and board but not drinks and thats not expensive at all!
They served us tea/coffee with some snacks at around 4pm...and then at 5pm, they surprised us by making us get off the boat and get into smalled rice boats!!! We went through a couple of villages on the boat - a truly cool experience.
When we got back, there was cold freshly squeezed juice waiting for us!
The chef asked what we'd like for dinner. We chose fresh prawns and vegetables and a dal. Lip smacking.
The evening was magical. We saw the sun set on the backwaters and I'm tellin' you...it's just awe-inspiring. It was the most romantic experince... the moonlight... a few houseboats all anchored for the night....its as close to nature as you can get. The houseboats all anchor around 6:30pm so that the local fishermen can then cast their nets...
We woke up after a very very comfortable nights sleep at 5:30am..we wanted to see the sun come up.... it was still dark and we saw a couple of fishermen sitting alone in their small rice boats with just a lantern for company... waiting to get the catch of the day.... slowly around 6:15am...the sun peeked out... and with it it brought out the spleandour of kerala....
The captain even let me steer the boat for a while and I have pictures for posterity :-)
Breakfast was served...appams or toast and eggs or both.... and at 9am...they dropped us back to the resort...
we loved it so much that we're going back fro round 2 in 2 weeks!
i would recommend this trip.... truly. It's an experience you will not forget.
