God’s Own Country

God’s Own Country, is a phrase that is used to refer to several places such as the Australia, United States, New Zealand, Kerala (India) and Yorkshire.[source: Wikipedia]. We have been to Kerala recently. We visited Kochi, Kovalam, Komarukam, Alleppey and Kottayam. When I looked out of the window from the car, on either side of the road, it was so green and very difficult to tell that there is infact a house behind it. They left so much place around their houses and planted so many trees. 

Kerala has a lot of coconut trees. It is not a hyperbole to say that there is no house without a coconut tree there. We stopped by the roadside to have some coconut water. We were shocked to know that the price of one coconut is Rs.35/-, which is more than twice that in AP where u hardly find any coconut trees. In the hotel, the menu price of coconut is 99/- Out of curiously, I asked my cab driver, when u have so many coconut trees all around why is the price so high? He said the person who climbs over the tree and fetches them charges a lot and hence the coconuts are costly. 

We have been to Poovar village where we saw the merging of river into the sea. It was a very different experience. The beach is called golden sand beach because the sand was really golden brown in color. We were there in the afternoon and the waves hit us so strongly that I hardly managed to stand inspite of holding onto Vijay. I have been to many beaches in India. But this one is unlike any other. You cannot go to this beach and come back without getting wet. I think the speciality is not because it is huge, but because it is a merger point. 

Anantha Padmanabha Swamy temple was very good, couldn't take a look at any gold though :P. I went into the temple with lungi on top of jeans :D. Women could choose either a saree or lungi.. I chose the later ;) 

Though the literacy rate is very high in Kerala, managing around without Malayalam was very tough. At the end of one week, we started talking to each other like - 'we eat, then we go', 'we no eat here. not good. we go hotel and eat', thanks to our cab driver. 

Alleppey houseboat

I was always fascinated by the idea of travelling in boats locally.. as in having boats as a day to day medium of transportation. Alleppey in Kerala, is just the place in India to satisfy what I wanted. We set out on a houseboat at around 11:45 AM in the backwaters. To begin with, we were equally excited and a bit worried to know that it is a single bedroom houseboat, meaning there will be only us along with a captain, driver and a chef for the next 24 hours inside the boat. As the boat started, we were too busy looking around enjoying in the cool breeze. It was a very pleasant day with the weather favoring us in its true sense.

In the evening we were transferred into a small motor boat which took us into the small canals peeking into the lifestyle of the local people. I was excited at pretty much everything during the 1 hour drive in the boat. There were school boats like we have school buses and boat stops like we have bus stops. Fishing seemed to be the favorite hobby of most of the people. All they had to do was to take one step out of their houses and just start fishing. There were small boats parked outside their houses in the water with sheds on top of few of them, like we have bikes/cars parked before our houses. Backwaters have become an integral part of their lifestyle. There were coconut trees everywhere.. But for the fear that some coconut might drop on us, it was awesome! 

Time for the sunset.. lying down in the boat on your back, staring at the beautiful sky, gentle swinging of the boat now and then like a cradle, with nothing else visible in the line of sight to distract us from the beauty of the nature, just the right breeze, with water below us and a few trees far away, we were in the middle of no where.. my baby sleeping... and my better half next to me... At that minute, I couldn't have asked for more from life. I cannot describe how peaceful it was. After sunset, we were served a candle light dinner which was the best I had so far.. Totally an amazing experience. Loved every bit of it!