Travel Memoirs - Kerala

Well, it was not "Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya" that inspired me to visit "God's own country". The real reason was that, after being in the US for a couple of years and watching fellow native friends visiting different parts of the country for vacation , it struck me that having grown up in a beautiful country like India, I had literally pretty much never stepped out of the borders of Tamil Nadu. And that's only because of the cultural reasons when you either travelled to your grandparents' or cousin's home for the holidays (but I don't regret that, since those were one of the most enjoyable times of my life).
And so, I decided to start to explore India better, and the first place we chose to visit was Kerala. We travelled to Allepey by car. Our driver was the most knowledgeable person when it came to driving (Or so he thought because he never listened to us asking him to drive slower). We reached the city late at night, stayed at an inn and the next morning, drove to the back-waters where our REAL journey was to begin. As a kid, I dreamt about living on a house-boat, and lo, how many beautiful house-boats I saw! We rented a house-boat and then took a tour of it. The exterior had a lot of bamboo work on it which added to its beauty. The HOUSE had an open drawing room with a coffee-table and television, a bedroom with a nice window looking out to the backwaters with an attached bathroom, a wash area, and a kitchen. And we had two people travelling with us who were going to cook for us!
The boat started to move and as we travelled along, the beauty of Allepey with its backwaters and the majestic tall coconut trees was breath-taking! I couldn't decide if I wanted to catch the beautiful sight on camera or with my naked eye! Ashvath enjoyed what he was best at doing-sitting at the edge of the house-boat(it was safe with small walls) and playing with the water. We crossed the back-waters and then merged into what seemed like a large lake. We seemed to keep enjoying the scenery, and it was a couple of hours, before we stopped at the shore and saw a line of shops which seemed to sell all kinds of sea-food. My husband being a sea-food lover, selected the shrimp/fish that he liked the best , and the two people who were helping us, started to cook the dishes for us. Also, they were already cooking some yummy vegetarian dishes too. After they had done cooking, the boat was tied to a nice shady place, and we sat around at the coffee-table, and all the scrumptious dishes were brought to us, including but not limited to rice, shrimp, fried fish, sambar, rasam, beans, cabbage and papad. Began the feast , also simultaneously enjoying the scenic view with the boat dancing gently in the waters.
After we emptied the plates, we resumed our journey, and I retired to the bedroom to enjoy a small nap before I joined my husband and son again. We then slowly got back to the backwaters of Kumarakom where our boat finally stopped and our boat journey ended.
We then went to stay at this resort at Kumarakom. From our check-in point, we were taken by a small boat to this resort as the resort was mostly surrounded by water. Need I say what it looked like? Indeed the view was amazing, that it almost felt tranquilent. The building with its rooms was built in an L-shape looking out to the large lake, and the land in the front was structured like a park, with green lawns, haddocks, a swimming pool in the centre, and a small shelter meant to be a restaurant. Most of our day was spent in the lawn area, lying in the haddock and viewing the sea, taking a small walk. We had dinner in that out-door restaurant. We retired to bed that night, and the next morning, we left the place.
I was sad that we had to return, but also happy that I got to enjoy this visual treat of Allepey and Kumarakom!
I hope India is explored better by its natives. Not only would we get to know the beauty that the country has to offer, but it will be a great token to help improve tourism and hence the overall economy.