A Sojourn in Backwaters

Tender coconut water, ‘Toddy’ in the bottle, a hammock ready to get on, laidback river with canoe resting on it,  fresh air inviting blowing all the way, a houseboat making its way into the lake, a herd of growling ducks with their disciplined captain and a hospitable host waiting for another dose of delicacies. This is one of the cuts of the 48 hours of our backwater sojourn.

It all started with our taxi making way to the Yeshwantpur railway station after battling 2 hours of traffic from Marathahalli in Bangalore. We had around 45 minutes for our dinner. Soon we opened our food packed in foils and thulped it in no time. Train in this part of the country do not get late very often, so we headed right to platform number 4 to catch Garib Rath train to Kottayam. We were just thanking Lalu for his brain when we felt that AC was too cold to bear. We soon got 4 blankets on rent for 100 rupees (on the lines of paid food in no-frill aircrafts). The train journey was smooth till Ernakulam which then became slightly painful due to 3 stoppages. We finally checked-out of Kottayam railway station around 9.45 am on sunny Friday morning. I immediately called Mr Xavier (our host for next 2 days) for the help in getting taxi. Soon we settled on some amount for our rest 13km journey from Kottayam station on Ambassador taxi. In about 20 minutes or so, we made our way into the quite heritage home. My first impression was “awe” to see the place.

There was freshness in the air with quiet river in the backyard. We got sweet coconut water as welcome drink from fresh red coconuts served in the glass waters. The mood just got set for the thrilling time ahead. We soon unpacked ourselves with our luggage. Our host called us for a short visit to Snake Boat. I was very confused about it till the time I actually saw what it was. Snake boats are very long boats used in the traditional boat races in Kerala. “One boat is around 1 crore”, according to Mr Xavier. We headed back to our home with a brief stint of canoeing. It was bit late for the breakfast and we were unlucky to have just breads and bananas to stuff ourselves. Thankfully we had some more food to complete our first dose in Kerala. We took bath immediately after breakfast. We had wholesome Kerala special meals in the lunch. Still, there were running noses (train’s AC effect) waiting for attention. Sharad had hard time breathing which forced him for a immediate visit to the doctor. Our host came for our rescue. In no time, Sharad got counseled and medicated by a doctor. We decided to rest to store energy for the day ahead. We spent good time interacting with Mr Xavier in the evening. Our host was very excited to disclose his plans about adding more cottages in the property. We decided to get into Mr Xavier’s old Maruti 800 for our evening trip. We saw rubber plantation and its processing in one nearby property. We came to know that we are actually in Ayemenem village (place where God of Small things was written by Arundhati Roy). We saw Arundhati Roy’s huge bungalow property soon after the plantation. Mr Xavier took us to his alma mater, a very old college(not able to recollect its name now) in Kottayam. Lastly, we did some spice shopping from our shop in Kottayam. We retired after having light chapati dinner and scrabble game.

I got up early, around 6am next day and took some awesome shots. Massage lady came with a oil in a bottle to freshen up females. We had coffee and coconut water after taking bath that morning to start activities for the next day. We were served hot idlis..Charu loaded herself with extra dose of them. We packed our luggage and Mr Xavier got us an auto to reach jetty for our houseboat. The journey in the auto was rough and it got hot by the time we reached Kumarakom boat jetty.

We soon made our way in the houseboat which was still being cleaned. Our houseboat started at 12PM, almost after 1 hour we boarded it. We had coffee and coconut water on board. At around 2PM, we were served another dose of nice Kerala meals. We were cruising in Vembannad lake (largest lake in Kerala). Shruti gave us some nice time driving the boat for around 10 minutes. We thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Soon, we retired for sometime in our makeshift rooms. Sharad and Shruti found themselves stuck in a small room (which was meant for kids as we later discovered!). Soon, our day’s journey came to halt near to a small village. We went out to a temple and asked for “toddy”. We spend some good time quizzing Sharad and Shruti on the eve of their first anniversary. We again had chapati meals for our dinner with some “toddy”.  After sometime, we decided to call it a day and headed towards our rooms.

Next day, we were served appams on request. Thanks to Cook! We thulped literally. The morning was simply awesome to be in a houseboat.  Soon our houseboat stay came to an end. We exchanged pleasantries and had a photo session to leave the pleasant memories. We had a quite day shopping and roaming around in Cochin before we took our bus from Ernakulam’s KSRTC bus stand.  It was simply one of the best sojourns I have ever had.

For more snapshots , please visit following Facebook photo album link - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=139165&id=652431043&l=119a49d02a

If you are interested in the home stay, please visit (http://backwaterheritage.com)