Floating Around the Keralan Backwaters

"Kerala - God's Own Country" claim billboards on every roadside here, with what seems to be, at first, a slight exaggeration. However, after traveling around this state for the last week now, we can attest that there is some truth in the claim. With its abundance of water, delicious food, butterflies the size of hummingbirds, and coconut trees as far as the eye can see, this does seem to be as close to a paradise on earth as it gets. The people, too, are the nicest we have met so far and best of all: Autorickshaw drivers ask for a decent price and never have to be bargained down!

Our goal in coming to Kerala, apart from all those attractions recently mentioned, was to find some nice homestays, meet some families, experience their lifestyles and (of course) their cooking, and to collect as many tasty recipes as possible for future reference. Kerala has an extensive network of "homestays" which is sometimes a bit of a catchall expression ranging from 'you will sleep in the spare room and help the kids with their English homework' to ' resort accommodation involving only one or two cottages run by a family'. Obviously we were more interested in the first option, but the difficulty was extracting the information from the guy at the tourist office, from whom getting coherent suggestions was as difficult as pulling teeth from a chicken. For the entire region, he told us, there were only 3 homestays....well maybe there were more, but until the tourist ferry started running in the "season" there was absolutely NO way to get there. As if all of the inhabitants are stranded in their houses until enough tourists come. After a long discussion, and a visit to the "rival" government stall (we are not sure how that works, but there seems to be more than one official tourist office in town) we managed to come up with three nice-sounding options.

We first stayed near Kollam, just a few stops on the PUBLIC ferry away from town, in a very quiet village where we entertained ourselves by relaxing and doing nothing (a first on this trip), taking a romantic sunset paddle (there was some one who did this paddling) seeing Chinese fishing nets, and having one of the best sleeps ever, with little fireflies flitting about the room. From there, we took the PUBLIC ferry to Monro island, a location apparently only accessible to tourists by 300 rupee rickshaw rides, and where it is "not safe to spend the night", according to our host at the first homestay. Thus forewarned, we ventured into the unknown, only to be dumped two hours later at the end of the ferry line, where we were supposed to meet someone from the homestay (who, naturally, wasn't there). In the meantime, we followed some other people across the railway tracks (yes, there is also a train) to a TODDY SHOP (read: den of iniquity). A toddy shop is an infamous Keralan invention, where people (read: men) go to eat very delicious and spicy fiery fish curry with cassava, all the spiciness being an excuse to drink toddy. Toddy is a fermented coconut palm sap beverage, in the morning it is like juice and as the day progresses it gets steadily more alcoholic. It doesn't keep for more than a day. We had a very small glass at around 3 o'clock and it seemed to be as strong as wine, with a sweet yet fermented taste. We could easily become regulars at this kind of place on the edge of the water, so peaceful and with much better wildlife than in bars back home (see photo below). Saving us from too much Toddy, someone eventually turned up to collect us and bring us to our homestay.

This was very much a family homestay, with two very sweet children who spoke English rather well and used our interest in cooking to further their interest in getting their mother and grandmother to make their favourite foods. We spent an almost sleepless night on a small sagging mattress and then went on a morning canoe trip where we got to see many local coconut-based industries such as coconut picking, coir rope making and coconut drying. New career prospects were also in the making as Kim tried her her hand at coir winding (for woman only) and Boaz learned how to canoe with a pole (there is a paddle, but that's only for when it is deep).

We continued on by bus to our current boat-accessible only homestay, which is definitely the nirvana we have been seeking. Facing the broad canal that connect Allepy and Kollam, among tall swaying trees, it is a quiet, remote retreat, as the name Riverside Retreat suggests. We got a small "cottage", a spacious bungalow made of wood, a few meters away from the main house. There were two main attractions: first, the bed is exactly twice as big as the one in the last homestay, and second, at the back there is a little secretive shower, outdoors, under a banana tree. We have tea and delicious meals overlooking the river, watching the canoes and fishermen go by, and if that gets too stressful, there is also the possibility of an ayurvedic massage at a real ayurvedic "hospital" where you start by having a consultation with a doctor, and then are vigourously massaged by two people and about 3 liters of herb infused coconut oil. This is not the sleazy and cheesy faux ayurvedic massage that people try to lure you into in other touristic locations, but actually requires an appointment! The massage table is made from wood with edges running around to catch all that oil (and to catch you, it gets pretty slippery). It is probably one of the best oiled pieces of furniture we have ever seen! It was followed by a visit to the steam box (it looks more like a medieval torture kit, but was actually fun).

Only a few days remain in our little backwater idyll, and then it is off to our "Keralan daycamp", but first we are going to go to Allepy for the yearly "Neru trophy snake boat race" from which we are hoping to report back to the faithful readers of this blog.

Barfi: Another contest with fun prizes! Who can tell us what this plant is (hint: it is edible).