Growing a Beard

We arrived in Alappuzha (Allepy) from Munnar by car around 5 in the afternoon. The town is the largest entry gate to the famous Keralan backwaters and most tourists usually come here to jump on a houseboat or any other of the many boat trips available. I heard somewhere that some call the town “Venice of India”. There are definitely canals just like in Venice, but that’s probably the only similarity between the two cities!

The driver dropped us of next to one of the canals where the houseboats are parked and waiting to find costumers. As fast as we got of the car we were surrounded by people trying to sell us a trip on one of the hundreds of houseboats. I managed to ignore the touts trying to catch my attention and went directly to the boat owners who mostly sat in their boats and chilling. The first houseboat we saw was a double-decker with two double bedrooms, each with own bathroom. The price he offered was 4500 rupees for two nights, including all meals. This was far cheaper than what I had expected and I didn’t find any other boat for the same price while looking around. They were usually not a double decked and the price was usually 1000 rupees more for the two nights. I made the deal with the boat owner who jumped on his bike to go shopping groceries for our meals and we went to buy some beer and snacks for the trip. We left Allepy at seven on a boat full of food and drinks heading off to the lake where we would park for the night.

Sunset over the backwaters, Kerala

More info about the houseboats here: Houseboat on Wikipedia.org/

The crew consisted of an older steer man, a chef and the brother of the owner who also baked bread and helped in the kitchen. The chef cooked at least 4 different dishes for each meal, not to mention the fresh baked chapatti and rice and other side dishes. I can without a doubt admit that the food on the boat was by far the best food I had in India. Fresh coconut is used largely in the Keralan kitchen and there was no short of it in our food. Our chef also made a couple of dishes with sugar beets which tasted heavenly. We stopped by a fish monger along on of the canals the day after and got fresh fish as well as king prawns which we later barbequed for lunch. We were also served snacks and fresh fruit between the meals.

Lunch on houseboat, Kerala

There is not much to do along the canals than to relax and watch people going on with their everyday lives; bathing and washing cloths in the water, school children hoping on the boat home after classes are finished etc. We came back to Allepy early in the morning on our second morning on the boat and jumped on a taxi which took us further south to the heavenly beaches of Varkala.

We left Fort Cochin early in the morning by car, heading towards Munnar to spend one night in the tea country. The trip to Munnar was pretty pleasant with lovely scenery consisting of rice fields, banana and coffee plantations and of course palm trees everywhere. We spotted also many natural rubber plantations as well as cocoa, cardamom and pineapple plants. We arrived in Munnar in early afternoon and the first thing we noticed was the difference in temperature from the rest of Kerala. The weather here was much cooler then what I was used to in India, which was nice since I didn’t have to constantly sweat for a while. There are tea plantations pretty much everywhere you look and pretty much everyone who live in the area work on the plantations. Almost all plantations are owned by the large TATA Corporation which produces everything from cars to phones, and tea of course.

Tea plants everywhere, Munnar

We stayed at Olive Brook Hotel which is located on the hills outside the town and is a slightly more expensive option. It’s surrounded by cardamom and coffee plantations in a very quite area. Included in the room tariff of 63-88 USD is breakfast and dinner. They also demonstrate how they cook the dinner (they like to call it “cookery class” which is kinda pushing it) and the food was generally very good and came in loads. Since Olive Brook is small in size, the service is very personal and friendly and I think it was worth the price. They also take you for a trek to the surrounding plantations but one needs a driver to go to Munnar town. There is not much to see in Munnar, except for all the tea, but I recommend it for people with a loose time schedule. I was initially thinking about skipping Munnar due to the time it takes to get there and back to the west Kerala, but I’m glad to have seen it. There is unfortunately not much to see and do between the tea country and the western Kerala where most tourists spend their time. I did however spoke to some people who were heading to the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary which is further east.

Olive Brook Hotel, Munnar, India