Kumarakom and Alleppey- The backwaters of Kerala

Our journey to the God’s own country began soon after the monsoon season. My husband and I as mentioned earlier are great travel enthusiasts. Our urge to travel to the most unusual places in this world often arises when we get exhausted with our mundane lives. Our enthusiasm goes to the extent of doing immense amount of research about such places. We both finally share the research with each other and zero down a place that we haven’t seen or heard before. The idea of Kumarakom happened in a spur of the moment. We wanted to see water this time, a choice that we preferred over the hills or the mountains. Kerala, we never ever visited before, people often discussed places like Alleppey, Bekal, Verkala, Munnar, Wayanad and  Kovalam etc. but Kumarakom is lesser known to people across India. I was overwhelmed by the thought that my husband wanted to take me to a beautiful place to celebrate my first birthday post marriage. Kerala is famous for its backwaters and hence we finalized Kumarakom as the destination for our haunt.

The day came soon by when we boarded the flight from Bangalore to Cochin and reached Kumarakom by a two to two and half drive from Cochin Airport. The drive was beautiful as the landscape started to change the further we moved towards Kumarakom. The landscape included hills and canals and gradually we entered the city of Kumarakom. Before I forget I must include that we stopped by a little at Cochin to buy few food munching items and drinks as we were informed that Kumarakom is a village and we would not find much assistance there except for the hotel in which we booked to stay.

We finally reached Kumarakom where we could see the canals, bridges, the lake, the beauty of God’s own country before our eyes. On our way we saw many house boat (Kettuvallam) booking agencies, Taj Vivanta Hotel, Lake Kumarakom Resort and many others etc. We had booked Zuri Kumarakom, this time and were beautifully greeted by the staff. Fresh coconuts drinks were served in jute baskets with straws, it was a welcome relief to us as we traveled a long way since very early in the morning and reached there in the afternoon. The staff took us to our rooms and on the way we crossed a wooden bridge that separated the great Vembanad Lake from the private lagoon that surrounded the hotel property. Post the afternoon lunch we slept and woke up at 5:00 pm to witness the evening drizzle all over the lake and the property. Our cottage was cozy and had a lovely view of the lagoon from the little balcony that had a chic tea table and chairs. The cottage was beautifully ornate with Kerala handicrafts and the washroom with bath, shower cubicle and little rustic outside shower faucet that we utilized early in the morning and post swimming.

The fantastic aspect about Zuri was its food, they served various cuisines including Kerala cuisine that we savored on lunch and dinner time. It was slow cooked in typical earthen pots. With our stomach filled with buffet lunch, we merrily walked in the light showers, with our own umbrellas (a saving grace rather) and moved all around the property. The infinity pool was filled with the laughter of young children who enjoyed the swim along with the heavenly evening showers. We had carried our costumes and it did not take us a lot of time to enter the pool to enjoy the rainfall. The best thing about the pool was that the water was warm and exactly the temperature that we desired.

After a great swim, we decided to go back to our room and enjoy a warm bubble bath in the bath tub of our washroom. The warm bath was followed by the amazing dinner buffet at the dining hall that had prepared some exquisite Kerala delicacies. There were a bunch of musicians who sang some good old English numbers. I could see people from across the globe sitting and enjoying the music, the only language that united all sitting there.The strumming of the guitar and candlelit dinner tables built up a quite romantic atmosphere. Thereafter we retired to bed early to wake up fresh in the morning.

Our hotel room balcony was adjacent the lagoon. The sun rays penetrated from the curtains and made me wake up at 6:30 a.m. I was greeted by my husband on my birthday.A little chit chat by sitting in the balcony was followed by some instant English breakfast tea. We immediately decided to take our tab, camera and tea mugs outside. The idea came quickly to us, basically to capture the early sun rays on the Vembanadu lake. With a lot of fun and frolic we walked over a wooden bridge inside the hotel and reached sitting place to overlook the lake and have the hot tea. With my crazy enthusiasm to capture shots through tab and camera…I cannot describe how mesmerized I was by the view. There were fishermen putting the net into the lake. The Kettuvallams (houseboats) sailing in the water, the quite lake, the sun rays on water, coconut trees…the typical Kerala landscape stood before my eyes. While taking the shots I often paused a while to catch the glimpse of various activities going on the lake. These were the moments that seemed to me  like “a host of golden Daffodils”(Daffodils by William Wordsworth), that would give me happiness in a pensive mood. That is the least to describe how beautiful Kerala was to me.

We decided to spend the birthday more fruitfully by quickly taking the open showers provided in our room. The breakfast was good and we were filled to the brim of a glass. Couples lay down and sun bathed near the pool that tempted us to take a swim at 11:00 a.m. in the morning. The water was wonderfully warm and we felt relaxed. We swam, sun bathed, drank some chilled beer and soaked up the sun for a while. Post the swim, we changed and decided to see and move around the village of Kumarakom. We walked down outside the resort a few miles and reached the main road. From the main road we found an auto and asked him to take us around and finally drop us for lunch at Lake Kumarakom Resort. We reached the resort in a few minutes. It was this resort that we had intended to book for our visit. Due to peak season it was fully booked and we had no option but to book the second best Zuri Kumarakom in which we stayed. After three meals at Zuri, we had decided to explore a bit and eat some authentic Kerala cuisine in a typical Kerala restauraunt. To our disappointment, we could not find any restauraunt but resorts one by one.  After much of thoughts we zeroed down on Lake Kumarakom diner. We ordered fish and lobster with rice and that was cooked perfect. The swimming pool of the hotel was booked by a group and pool party with blasting music was going on. The resort was constructed according to typical Kerala architecture. The ceilings, pillars were carved out of wood. The walls were ornate with various paintings of Kerala women dancing etc. wearing Kerala saris and dresses. The dinning hall was open from three sides and one could see the greenery all around the property. The canals were running through the property and various objects and handicrafts were decorated all around the hotel property. The staff including men and women was dressed in typical Kerala sari and lungi (long cloth wrapped around the waist to toe of men). After a sumptuous lunch we called our auto driver and roamed around the village to book a houseboat for the next day. After much of research and adventure we were finally able to book a single bedroom houseboat. We picked up a few munchies and drinks for the next days trip.

We reached Zuri amidst the usual evening showers and asked the auto driver to pick us up tomorrow for the houseboat trip. We went inside and reached the dining space to have some hot coffee, a perfect combination with the rains. After the rain stopped, we reached the room to immediately reach for the Asia’s largest spa -the Maya Spa of Zuri Resort to try the Kerala massage technique followed by some steam and sauna bath. After the relaxation, we reached the hotel room to change into our evening clothes for a formal dinner hosted by my husband. When we finished dinner a cute birthday cake arrived followed by a happy birthday song arranged by the hotel. The day was made with the lovely cake and dinner. We retired to bed to wake up early for the next day activity.

Zuri had a small island that provided complimentary yoga at 6:00 a.m. in the morning. The instructor told us to practice some stretches, bending exercises, followed by meditation. The background music was Om Shanti and the birds chirping from the trees in the early morning sun rays that fell into the lagoon and the bordering coconut trees brought a lot of mental peace and calmness to the mind and body.

We took our bath and breakfast to prepare ourselves for a houseboat trip at 12:00 noon and carried the munchies, drinks and camera. The auto driver came on time and took us to the jetty. As we stood before the booked houseboat, our excitement mounted and we quickly boarded to see it from inside. The boat consisted of a dining and lounge area on the front and the bedroom, kitchen and staff room at the back. As the boat started it moved from the canal towards the lake. The houseboat trip was to Alleppey and Virchur. We boarded the houseboat with our goodies and camera. They gave nice welcome drink obviously coconut water in coconut shells, the one thing which is available in plenty. The lake looked so beautiful, calm and serene and we could see all the exotic resorts around the water body. What is most striking about the water was various migratory birds could be seen sitting on water lilies and the vegetation floating on the water. The lunch was served with the famous started “Karimeen” (the pearl spot fish) abundant in the Kerala backwaters. What is to be noted that the fish does not have that fishy smell and if cooked with proper condiments and masalas it becomes quite tasteful. It was followed by Kerala chicken curry, dal, rice, two kinds of sabji, salad and rotis. We had a sumptuous meal and as soon as we finished lunch the heavy afternoon showers created mist in the lake. The beauty was unimaginable. The fanstastic cook on board served us hot pakoras and filter coffee in the evening. We preferred the day trip and after visiting Alleppey en route to Virchur reached Kumarakom by 5:00 P.M.

With great thanks to the auto rickshaw driver we reached the hotel premises. We didn’t have any whatsoever interest to dive into a buffet dinner as the taste of the lunch served at the houseboat lingered in our mouth as well memory for the whole evening. However, under a persistant compulsion of the mind to have dinner we indulged in pasta and salad meal late in the night at the dining hall. On the last night at the hotel property, there was a strange attachment to the beauty that was bestowed by nature in Kumarakom. The memory that will be cherished forever in our hearts and that “one” birthday celebration most worthwhile in a lifetime.