In God's own Country!

It has been a while since I wrote a blog – but I did not want to miss writing about a great trip that I had been to this summer.

Getting straight on to the trip to “Alappuzha” in God’s own Country – after some hiccups on the train ticket confirmation, we (Neela/ Divya and Yours faithfully myself)reached Alappuzha on a Cloud cast Friday – seething from the close to 40 degrees “Kathiri Veyil” in Chennai, this was a welcome change.

As we stepped out of the small and serene station, we faced our First surprise – government regulated pre-paid autos – people standing in queues and (think) it was a common ticketing station for bus/ autos. After collecting a nominal service charge of Re.1 (You read it right – it is Rupee ONE), we moved on to our Auto - the fares were very reasonable relatively.

As we were going in the Auto, my mind was drooling in the wonderful – rain carpeted roads making it dust free, water bodies, colorful flowers blanketing canvas green trees, unhurried lifestyle, fewer cars, traffic free roads.. Hmm… maybe in the future, we can think of settling down here and enjoy this life more regularly!

The auto driver while giving the change spoke in Perfect English (with a wee bit of accent) and wanted to check our travel plans and whether he could be of help. Getting down and thanking him for the offer and politely declining (as we had made our arrangements), we reached “Ashtamudi Homestay”. Neela was mentioning that Kerala was 100% literate and we had our first taste of it.

It was our first experiment with “Homestays” and we were not sure what to expect. We were greeted by a very pleasant couple to a nice compact furnished home. As we were waiting for our room to get ready, seeing Divya playing with a smartphone, the owner reminded us that “Sir, Wi-Fi is free” – Wow! Was now Divya’s turn - to call out one of her favorite dialogues “Technology has improved very much”.

After refreshing ourselves, we enquired with the Homestay owner on places to see around – the options were plenty -- sea shore, boat ferry, temples, shopping, Light house, temples, City center, restaurants, etc.

Feeling hungry, we ventured into “Hot Kitchen” (best “Vegetarian hotel” ~ house owner) in the city center which was about a Km away. After a heavy “full” meals, we were loathing around lazily in the city-center window shopping on the roadside and decided to take a break on the steps of a corner shop – to relish the scenery and observe the lifestyle of the people.

We realized there was a water-body close by and walked up to see a plant/shrubs grown ‘no water’ stream, with a lovely park with nice seating places. Chilling out for some more time there, Neela suggested why not we see any of the special places in/ around Alappuzha.

Having Googled the previous day, did know that there was a Palace/ museum nearby – but the auto driver could not recognize this place – he caught on to the word “museum” and informed us that there was a museum some 2-3 kms. away – so we decided to venture and see this museum, not knowing what to expect.

As we were going in the Auto, expecting to see a combination of – kings armor, swords, dinosaur bones (?), etc. we were in for next surprise – we reached a private museum called “Revi Karuna Karan Memorial museum” built by his wife, in honor of Revi, a third generation Coir exporter who had made it big.

Entry fee was Rs. 100/person and nothing until that moment seemed expensive – we went to see the museum and were in for our next surprise. One of the staffs took us around the museum explaining about the family and then the collections – “Largest private collection of Ivory crafted items”(Sir, Ivory is banned now, but our Sir collected this earlier with proper licence), ‘one of the largest private collections’ of “Swarovski crystals”, hand-made expertly crafted shells, Jade Buddha’s, 200 St Ft. murals of the world painted with traditional vegetable dyes, and much more – well maintained and worth every Rupee!! (Of course, we were politely told “No Photos please!”)

See more in http://www.rkkmuseum.com/ or better still, visit the museum to relish the beauty of the collection.

Neela’ s remark as we were walking out, “thought we are getting to become upper middle class, but now I realize that we have some way to go!” (Such was the richness of the collection – Value & rarity)

On to the beach – usual stuff -- waves, Sweet cup corn, popcorn, ice creams…and then the next surprise – Camel ride. Neela is very keen to go –– three of us on a camel, was indeed a sight to see! That was our surprise…to Alappuzha! 

Tired, after a long day and getting a great sleep, we wake up next day to the claps of thunder – it is raining Cats and dogs for over an hour and we are worried about our office colleagues who would be arriving. Luckily the train reaches safely albeit 15 minutes late.

Part II of the Great trip starts… we get on to the houseboat – our group of 17 is broken into three – “heavy rains expected, so smaller houseboats Sir”…ok! Fine and then the Joy ride starts – being the first stay in a houseboat, I am coming to grasps with the comforts of the houseboat generator operated Fridge, AC, power backup, running water, furnished kitchen….Cool!

The Boat keeper announces that Lunch is ready – a quick shower and change of clothes and we are all set – great Lunch – Welcome drink, Rice, Sambar, Poriyal, Pappads, Fresh curd, pickle, dessert – Pineapple! (there is some debate whether it is Sambar or Rasam with others as the menu is the same in the other boats – finally we reach a compromise and find out the reason – Kalaki uthana Sambar, mela-la appadiya rasam…(on the lighter side!)

We are still awed by the scenery and then it starts – rains like as if it had reserved the shower for us to start the trip – in the safety of the boat, the sceneries look even more beautiful. The five of us in our boat just keep chatting and relish clicking away and then the boat keeper announces it is time for Chai...options are available – Coffee / tea and Divya prefers fresh Lime juice…all made available in a jiffy along with tasty Hot Nethram pazham bajjis – in that weather sipping the tea and eating the hot Bajjis…Wow, life could not be better!!!

It is soon evening and the boat is docked and we take a small trek out on the land path in between water bodies. Kids seem to love the location even better. Time for photo shoots – all of us turn models and everyone is busy clicking away. With all 17 of us on the same boat now for the evening, it is time now for some great games organized by Archana and Lakshmi --- fun evening passes fast and the boat keepers announce it is time for Dinner…kids relish on the tasty chappathis and we attack the other items (hungry from the trek and games and more importantly posing for the photos!  )

Time to hit the deck and retire to our respective boats / rooms...we start to snore away – the boat is still docked and so not much of a rocking motion. In the middle of the night I wake up to see a small flashlight at a distance – still half asleep, I try to see from where the light is coming only to realize that the skies have cleared and the moon is shining away gloriously for us.

Great tea/ coffee and the boat keepers ask us to hurry up as the breakfast would be ready and we would be dropped back sharp at 9 AM. We continue to click the sun rise (West coast – Sun rise?) – Yep the sun rose over the lake bodies, only thing it was already up by the time we got up! After a Salt water shower bath, we get to eat another great breakfast - finishing off with a fruit dessert and tea/ coffee.

We dock and then the third part of the journey begins – it is a package tour and we are off to Cochin/ Ernakulum. We go to the sea shore and do loads of sea side beach shopping - bags, rings, mementos, picturesque fridge magnets, etc., and eat away on the side shops – tender coconut, masala chai, ice creams…the food fun continues, as well.

Later in the afternoon, we go for a Sea cruise…a one hour chartered boat ride into the sea – great view and next set of great photo shoots – the sea, the cochin dockyard, eagles flying low to catch fishes, the fishing nets, the export containers, the Port trust offices, Indian Naval academy offices..

Other interesting things about Alappuzha!

     * Cell phones – hardly used; everyone had it, but on the whole of the first day, we probably saw only ONE person talking on the cellphone while walking on the road.

     * Local specials – Kerala is famous for so many things, but we wanted to try the local food – Puttu/ avial, etc., and we got Dirty stares when we ordered these items – most of the hotels did not serve these, we continue to search and finally find a road side eatery which serves Puttu avial – Wow! Wasn’t that different and yummy!

     * Small restaurants were serving herbal hot water in attractive colors (Pink, green, etc.)– in that weather, it seemed not only healthy, but also so tasty!

    * Coming from a water starved place and not seeing much of water saving (e.g. Rain water harvesting) made me wonder how all states can work for equitable distribution of ALL resources! (Electricity, water, etc.)

    * Lottery – TN has banned lottery ages ago but it was interesting to see Lottery tickets being sold at various places; was very tempted to buy, but wiser sense prevailed!

Time to go back home…the first batch leaves; we are booked for a later train and so there is time to go around Ernakulum – some more shopping and then we take the train – a great trip with Cool friends / Family and baggage’s of memories to carry!

The trip was wonderful -- only because of the organizers Kannan, Sangitha and the friends/families that made it – Ramya, Bala, Bavanthi, Vidhya,P rem, Sahana, Prajin, Archana, Lakshmi, Sasi, Janani, Ranjith.

See some of the cool trip snaps in:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbsmzlszcN2zjA

http://www.shutterfly.com/lightbox/view.sfly?fid=3a696c4dde32c4030031ecd658bfd733

https://plus.google.com/photos/116895324871472058451/albums/5882655184483894065?authkey=CL331djH6L7xdw

https://plus.google.com/photos/115081439666059971748/albums/5885180057459299345?authkey=CKrDjryOkcPBUQ&cfem=1#photos/115081439666059971748/albums/5885180057459299345?authkey=CKrDjryOkcPBUQ