We left Varkala with some trepidation and caught the train to Kottayam about 100km to the north. The journey was slow but we had lovely people in our carriage and the conversation turned quite philosophical. We took yet another auto-rickshaw to Kumarakom on the banks of Lake Vemabad ( my spelling may not be great) and settled in to our heritage homestay...We have struck gold. We are the guests of Soni and Crispin who are possibly the nicest people we have ever met in our lives. The house is a traditional Syrian-Christian, Keralan house and it is airy and spacious. We are surrounded by rubber trees and coconut trees and the small little channels of water that make up the backwaters. The food is all home cooked and as expected, delicious.
Soni is an English teacher at a girl's catholic school in Kottayam and on Saturday morning we went to school with her and gave some impromptu English lessons. What a reception we were given...lots of smiling, fresh faces all desperate to talk to us and ask questions- not quite the same as my experience in England. In the afternoon we were the only guests on the homestay's houseboat and we spent 4 hours on the lake and some of the smaller canals, we swam, lazed, ate more delicious food and took in the beautiful scenery..think palm trees, green paddy fields, and lots of water.
Today I got up early and went to the local bird sanctuary and was paddled around by a friendly guide on another part of the lake. I saw various kingfishers, open billed stork, pond and purple heron, moorhens...it was magical..there was still a mist rising off the lake and it was quiet and still. After breakfast we attempted a swim at a local hotel but were thwarted, by cost and in one case by the sheer rudeness with which our request was greeted. This has been the only blot on the otherwise lovely landscape. After lunch we set off on a mission to find the town and the house featured in Arundati Roy's novel 'The God of small things'. This was a mission indeed but Raji our rickshaw driver was like a dog with a bone, we saw the river, what we assume is/was the pickle factory and finally after much stopping and asking of passers by, the house itself. It was a lovely thing to do, I'm rereading the book at the moment and to be a stone's throw away from where she set the story is quite a special thing and has brought everything to life. It also makes me appreciate just how powerful her descriptions of the place are, the colours, the heat, the smells. I'm really glad we made the effort and if you haven't read the book and want a real sense of what it's like here then get it quick!
I have taken loads of photos but unfortunately can't upload any here- there's no wifi so I'm using the homestay's old computer, which doesn't appear to have any jack points ( not sure if this is the right terminology).
We move on tomorrow to Kottanad elephant sanctuary, where Liz is hoping to wash a baby elephant.
Soni is an English teacher at a girl's catholic school in Kottayam and on Saturday morning we went to school with her and gave some impromptu English lessons. What a reception we were given...lots of smiling, fresh faces all desperate to talk to us and ask questions- not quite the same as my experience in England. In the afternoon we were the only guests on the homestay's houseboat and we spent 4 hours on the lake and some of the smaller canals, we swam, lazed, ate more delicious food and took in the beautiful scenery..think palm trees, green paddy fields, and lots of water.
Today I got up early and went to the local bird sanctuary and was paddled around by a friendly guide on another part of the lake. I saw various kingfishers, open billed stork, pond and purple heron, moorhens...it was magical..there was still a mist rising off the lake and it was quiet and still. After breakfast we attempted a swim at a local hotel but were thwarted, by cost and in one case by the sheer rudeness with which our request was greeted. This has been the only blot on the otherwise lovely landscape. After lunch we set off on a mission to find the town and the house featured in Arundati Roy's novel 'The God of small things'. This was a mission indeed but Raji our rickshaw driver was like a dog with a bone, we saw the river, what we assume is/was the pickle factory and finally after much stopping and asking of passers by, the house itself. It was a lovely thing to do, I'm rereading the book at the moment and to be a stone's throw away from where she set the story is quite a special thing and has brought everything to life. It also makes me appreciate just how powerful her descriptions of the place are, the colours, the heat, the smells. I'm really glad we made the effort and if you haven't read the book and want a real sense of what it's like here then get it quick!
I have taken loads of photos but unfortunately can't upload any here- there's no wifi so I'm using the homestay's old computer, which doesn't appear to have any jack points ( not sure if this is the right terminology).
We move on tomorrow to Kottanad elephant sanctuary, where Liz is hoping to wash a baby elephant.
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