Alleppey is located about 65km south of Kochi and it took us over two hours by NH47 highway to reach there.

Alleppey is a town in Alappuzha District of Kerala with picturesque canals, backwaters and lagoons. It is also known as the “Venice of the East”!

Cruising on the Alleppey backwaters on a traditional houseboat amid tranquil and scenic surroundings is the most pleasant and enjoyable experience in our sojourn in Kerala.

Houseboats are huge, slow moving, exotic barges designed for sheer leisure cruises. The deluxe houseboat we took has three fully furnished and air-con bedrooms with attached bathrooms/toilets. In addition, there is a dinner/sitting room in the front and a covered lounge above it. We had a captain, a chef and an assistant accompanying us in our cruise.

A Three-room Houseboat

Villages along the Backwaters

Hundreds of dckks frolicking in the water

We spent half a day cruising, covering beautiful canals, lakes and backwaters with coconut palms and village houses lining the banks. We stopped at a village and bought some fresh prawns for our dinner. In the evening the houseboat berthed near a village and we bought two liters of fresh Toddy for our happy hours.

We had a peaceful night sleeping in our air-con cabins. After a sumptuous breakfast the next morning, the houseboat went for a short cruise and at 10am we disembarked and continued out journey by road to Munnar.

Munnar

Munnar is over 100km east of Kochi. We travelled north from Alleppey and after more than half way to Kochi, we branched off to the right on NH 49 highway.

Munnar is situated near the confluence of three mountain streams and located at about 1600 m above sea level. This hill station was once the summer resort of the British Government in South India. Munnar is a picturesque hill station and is surrounded by tea plantations.

The road to Munnar was narrow and winding with trucks and buses driving as if they owned the road. We stopped for lunch in one “hotel” along the way. The “hotel” was actually a small restaurant. In small towns and villages in Kerala, restaurants are called “hotels”!

By the time we reached Munnar, it was late afternoon. Before we checked into our hotel (Westwood Riverside Hotel) we went to a reservoir to admire the beauty of its surrounding environment.

The 3-star Westwood hotel is nestled among the majestic western mountains with a stream flowing by its side. But its access road was in a deplorable condition. The next morning I went for a walk and discovered that the flooded unpaved road in front of the hotel was caused by a leaking water main. I was told by a nearby resident that the whole development in that area belonged to Tata and no action was taken to rectify the prevailing problem for over a week!

In the evening, we went to an Ayurvedic Centre & Clinic for a special relaxation massage and steam bath. The process took 90 minutes and the cost of one whole secession was Rs1200-00.

Ayurveda is the ancient Indian medical science. Today it is considered to be a form of complementary and alternative medicine where the use of herbs and massage are applied.

Ayurvedic massage therapy aims to integrate and balance the body and mind. This balance is believed to lead to happiness and health, and to help prevent illness. A chief aim of Ayurvedic practices is to cleanse the body of substances that can cause disease, thus helping to reestablish harmony and balance.

The massage was carried in a small room which had a massage table, a chair and a steam box. Lying on the massage table, the massage therapist used warm herbal oil to massage my whole body. In addition, warm herbal oil was made to drip in a tiny stream onto my forehead supposedly to relax the nervous system. Finally, I sat in a medicated steam chamber with the whole body enclosed in it except the head. Within ten minutes I could feel that my whole body was sweating, supposedly to rid the body of impurities through the sweat glands. I had a normal sleep that night after the Ayurvedic massage therapy.

We left Munnar after breakfast the next morning. Along the mountainous road to Kochi, we stopped at a few places to photoshoot some beautiful scenery like waterfalls, steep precipices and tea plantations.

But I was feeling quite lethargic and tired all along the journey back to Kochi. My travelling companions, when told that I had lost my positive Qi after the massage, told me that it could be due to excessive dehydration. I was not too convinced as I also sweated a lot playing my regular golf in Saujana and did not suffer from dehydration. However, at lunch in a “Hotel” I asked the receptionist whether the restaurant sold any “100 Plus” or isotonic drinks. None was available as nobody understood what I was asking. After lunch I told the driver to stop at any stall selling young coconuts, as coconut water is a natural alternative to “100 Plus”.

Before arriving at Kochi City, the driver stopped the van by the road side where there was a store selling young coconuts. We bought one each and drank the coconut water in the van. I bought an extra one for my happy hours instead of my usual Kingfisher!

In the evening though my condition had improved, I went out with Lucy to the main street trying to purchase some dehydration salts. We looked for a pharmaceutical shop but could not find one. Instead, there were a few medical stores but their attendants did not understand what I wanted. Finally after half an hour of searching I finally found one medical store which had what I wanted.

In the restaurant for dinner, I dissolved half a package of the salt in a cup of water and gulped it down. I was back to normal the next morning. So Ayurvedic massage and steam bath had not only cleansed my body of its impurities but also its essence.

Epilogue

All in all it was quite a pleasant sojourn in Kerala, my first in India. In particular, the backwater cruise in a comfortable houseboat was most enjoyable and it reminded of a similar experience I had in Halong Bay, Vietnam.

However, from our travels in Kerala, I’ve formed the impression that the state is well backward in spite of its long history of civilization. The towns and villages are crowded, dirty and their infrastructure, if any, is badly managed and maintained.

The merchants in Kochi began trading in spices with the outside world more than 600 years ago. Portugal was first to establish its base in Kochi followed by the Dutch and English. Its history of colonization by the western nations is quite similar to that of Malacca which rose from a humble fishing village to become a major centre of spice trade with the West. In 1511, the first foreign invasion took place when the Portuguese arrived to control the E-W trade. In 1641, the Portuguese surrendered Malacca to the Dutch. In1795, Malacca was ceded to the British. Though the histories of Malacca and Kochi are similar, the historical city of the former has been listed as a World Heritage Site since 2008. What about Kochi?

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