Kerala – Page 3 – An American in Kerala

Hangin’ Out on a Houseboat

Apparently, going on a houseboat, or kettuvallam, cruise is the thing to do when you’re in Kerala. Really. Check out any Kerala/South India tourism website; they’ll be including a houseboat cruise in your itinerary. For my poor husband, this meant months of listening to me cajole him into going on a houseboat. He had already been on one and thought it was boring. And hot. And full of mosquitoes. I said, essentially, “Too bad, you’re still taking me.” So, in celebration of our first first anniversary, we arrived in Alleppey for a houseboat cruise.

Generally, the houseboats are long, narrow hulls that have almost all amenities. Ours was an air-conditioned one-bedroom boat with a fully modern bathroom. Adjoining the bedroom was the TV, dining and lounge area, and we also had an upper deck on our boat. We had requested the honeymoon package, so we had our bed decorated with flowers, a candlelight dinner, and a honeymoon cake.

For the first day of the cruise, check-in is at 11 am or noon. We had hired a driver to take us from Thiruvalla to Alleppey, and he took us to the wrong jetty first. Thankfully, that was all corrected before we lost any time. When we arrived at the right jetty, two members of our houseboat crew were there to haul our bags onto the boat.

Our houseboat was behind that big one; we had to go through the first boat to get to ours. I was only a little afraid of falling in the water as we were jumping from boat to boat.

Once we got settled and explored the boat, we got our welcome drinks, which was some delicious fresh juice concoction. They either serve juice or tender coconut, and, because I drink coconut water all the time now, juice was a nice change of pace. After finishing, Zac and I went to our upper deck to enjoy the view as our boat started the cruise from Alleppey to Kumarakom. The views were breathtaking.

I should have mentioned earlier that when you book a houseboat, it’s like booking your own personal mini-hotel. The boat has its own crew, including a captain and two cooks. After cruising for an hour or so, the captain stopped the boat so we could be served lunch, which was traditional Kerala-style lunch with rice, Karimeen fry, sambar curry, bhindi fry, cabbage thoran, and pappadum. Unfortunately, ours wasn’t served on banana leaves. 😦

After eating, we started cruising the backwaters again, enjoying the sights and sounds of southern Kerala. We did see some fishermen, diving in and out of the water, trying to catch some fish. We also saw St. Mary’s Church, which is right along the backwaters.

At this point during the cruise, you have the option to stop and do things, such as touring a bird sanctuary or shopping in a village. We, however, stayed on the boat and relaxed because that’s what we are good at doing. And I felt the scenery was too beautiful to compromise by doing something that could easily be accomplished once finished with the cruise.

Next on the agenda was tea time. So I got to sip tea and relax and enjoy the scenery. What a life.

Tea and banana fritters, and the cook served it to me on the upper deck.

After tea time, the boat cruised for another hour and a half, and then anchored for the night. This was when it got boring, for me anyway. The houseboat stops at 5:30 pm, and then dinner isn’t served until 8 pm, so we had a couple hours to kill. When it was finally dinner time, we had our sweet, honeymoon candlelight dinner, complete with our cake. To top it all off, we watched a horror movie, and then finally retreated to our air-conditioned bedroom.

Flower covered bed in the air-conditioned bedroom

The next morning, we were served breakfast and then cruised back to the same jetty from where we left. On the way to the jetty, some locals caught up to us in their boats and held on to the sides for a quicker ride back to the mainland (check out the photo at the bottom). If we had to do it all over again (and who knows? We might do it once more before leaving Kerala), we wouldn’t spend the night on the boat. For Zac and I, it was uncomfortable because the boat kept rocking in the water all night. I feel it’s better to cruise all day and then get off the boat at evening and stay at a resort. Another thing, our cruise route was supposed to be Alleppey-Kumarakom-Alleppey, but we were pretty sure our captain took us halfway (if that) to Kumarakom and then turned the boat around. So, next time, we would do a one direction cruise, such as Alleppey-Kumarakom.

Another tip – be wary of the shops that the houseboat stops at. They have a tendency to overcharge unsuspecting tourists. Zac was furious when he figured out that the locals were charging double price or more for fresh fish and prawns.

So, yes, the Kerala houseboat. It was an overall good experience, and I’m super glad we went. The scenery was beautiful, and the cruise was relaxing. The food was very tasty, and our crew was very nice. There are just some things we feel we would do differently next time.

Breakfast - idli, sambar, and coconut chutney — Breakfast – idli, sambar, and coconut chutney

Ayurveda Makes You Feel Better (Bettah?)

Or at least Ayurvedic massages do. To read details about all of Ayurveda, I would check this out because it’s a whole system of traditional Indian medicine. Zac and I had three Ayurvedic massages done in the Andaman Islands at Barefoot resorts. Up until then, Zac had been insisting that Ayurvedic massages bring nothing but problems because he had gotten sick each time he previously had one. However, after our first massage at Barefoot, we both felt like brand spankin’ new humans. We then decided once we got back to Calicut we were going to find a good place to go for semi-routine massages.

We decided to go to Kadavu Resort for our next experience in Ayurveda. This place by itself is totally relaxing; it’s right next to the Kallai river and the traditional Kerala style buildings just add to its charm.

We booked for body and face massages and also a steam bath. Here’s what my massage room looked like:

I had a gorgeous view of the river. I only had a few seconds to really take it in before my massage therapist told me to get naked. And here’s the thing – it’s not like in the US where they give you your privacy so you can slink under a nice soft blanket with your underwear still on. Nope, my therapists have watched me strip down completely. And, once you’re nude, they put on what I can only describe as a disposable sumo wrestler diaper. I’m sure that is not what it’s called, and it makes the whole thing sound bad, but it’s not. I’ll get to that. After you’ve come to terms with being naked in front of a total stranger, they make you sit on a stool and begin by massaging your head and neck. My massage therapist began by saying a prayer and blessing me by touching the top of my head, my palms, and my feet with coconut oil. She told me she prayed for good health.

Having my head rubbed or massaged is one of my favorite things in the world, so when my therapist began rubbing my head, it was amaaaazing. She put coconut oil all through my hair, and then rubbed my scalp in circular motions. As if that wasn’t good enough, Ayurvedic massage therapists do this technique where they tap your head with the sides of their hands, almost like a karate chop. If you have long hair, they also do a technique where they twist and pull the hair lightly. If it sounds painful, let me be the first to say that it is sooo not. I had to keep from drooling on myself as she was doing all of this.

After this was done, my therapist had to help me get on the massage table because I was already a little too relaxed. More warm coconut oil (and I’m talking lots) was put on me and she began a traditional Abhyangam massage. Abhyangam massages involve a lot of rubbing in repeated motions, especially if a sore muscle is discovered (or at least that’s what my therapist did). I won’t bore you with details of this, but my fave parts were when she ran her thumb directly up and down my spinal column, when she rubbed my feet and all of my toes (individually!), and when she beat up my calf muscles.

Normally, this is when the experience is finished and the therapist helps you to the shower and lets you rinse off the gallon of oil, but we had booked the steam also. So, my therapist had to help me off the table and to the sauna for two reasons: 1) I was slippery and 2) I was almost comatose from being so relaxed.

In the small bowl is the "gallon" of oil — In the small bowl is the “gallon” of oil

The sauna was exactly what was expected – hot and steamy. I was sweating so much that when my therapist opened the sauna, she actually laughed at me. Then, she had to wipe off my feet (sweaty, ewww) and assist me to the shower. At the last place I had an Ayurvedic massage done, my therapist helped me to the shower and then let me go on my own, but not at Kadavu. My therapist there first scrubbed me down with a green gram dal mixture and then shampooed my hair. What.

My experience of getting a massage at Kadavu was great, and it was an awesome way to celebrate our second first anniversary (we had two weddings for those who don’t know). We stayed and had dinner on the balcony at Oottupura restaurant, and that was delicious, especially the chocolate mousse that came inside an edible chocolate cup. I was like a kid on Christmas morning with that.

Relaxed and unbelievably happy.

Elephant Wonderland

When Zac and I had gone to the Andaman Islands, we were under the impression that the beaches on Havelock Island were going to be chock full of at least one elephant. We were sorely disappointed, in that respect. So, a couple weeks after we got back from our honeymoon, we were still itching to see some elephants. Then, I did what I do best – got on the internet and found the closest place in Kerala to see, ride, and bathe elephants. It was only a two day trip – we left way too early the first morning and then returned the following evening. Our first stop on our trip was Punnathur Kotta in Guruvayoor. Punnathur Kotta is an elephant sanctuary where many of them are trained to work and perform in Hindu ceremonies and festivals at temples.

My first impression of these gentle giants was how expressive their eyes are, and most of them, I thought, looked terribly lonely. They still seemed to enjoy themselves when possible, especially during shower time.

Punnathur Kotta holds about 50-60 elephants at any given time. It was a good place simply to see elephants, but no one really lets you interact with them. The elephants go about their business, and you walk around and watch them (they are chained up unless they are working, another bad part).

Our next stop, where we stayed the night, was Kodanad. When I had found the resort I wanted to stay at, I didn’t realize that the resort was directly behind the elephant sanctuary there. Every morning, the elephants pass by our resort’s front gate, and this guy –

– goes to the front gate, knocks, and gets a piece of toffee. Just take another look at how cute this little guy is –

I’m pretty sure in that last photo he’s trying to get my scent. He tugged a bit on my arm, and I thought I was going to fly in to the water. So, little guy was definitely the fan favorite, and I think he knew it too. Next on Zac’s and my bucket list was bathing an elephant, since that was one of the things we had hoped to do on Havelock. We had to wait until all of the less cool people left the riverside, and then the mahouts (the guys who work with the elephants) beckoned for us to come bathe a ginormous male elephant.

This experience was astounding. His skin felt like wrinkly, hairy leather, and when I was briefly using the scrubbing brush on him, he flopped his ear closer to me so I would massage him there too. Unreal.

After the bathing was finished, we walked up to the sanctuary to ride one of the elephants. While we were waiting, little guy came through again, after getting blessed at the temple –

Seriously, I could look at his photos over and over; he’s so cute. When our elephant came, we loaded up, and she took us for a very short “safari.”

Like I said, the ride was brief, but it was great. Half of the exhilaration comes from sliding around on the seat. However, Zac and I decided if we ride an elephant again, we’re doing it mahout-style (sitting near the head). It’s kind of overwhelming to be near a creature so large. We were putting our trust in an animal that could have simply swiped its trunk to the side, and we would have been seriously hurt. They are amazing, beautiful animals that I noticed have a lot of human-like characteristics. Little guy kept wandering off and getting in to trouble (not serious trouble, but his mahout would get frustrated – hilarious.), and there was a 16-year-old male in Punnathur Kotta that was rebelling against his mahout by refusing to shower or pose for a photo, just a human teenager would rebel. But maybe all of that is just wishful thinking on my part. I like to personify animals.

We also did a pilgrimage in Malayttoor on this trip – climbed up a mountain to see the apostle Thomas’s footprints – but that is a whole post on its own.

And now, just for giggles, here’s a photo of little guy sticking his trunk in my hubby’s armpit.

Heehee.