Fresh Tracks: Kerala Paradise

We had a fantastic week in Kerala! From Mumbai, we headed south (this time by plane) to Kovalam in the southern state of Kerala. Our home-stay with our hosts, Sally & Ani, was definitely the highlight. Both 77 years old (but act not a day past 30), they split their time between Kovalam and the SF Bay Area. They have a gorgeous house set right on the beach with a 5-star hotel sprouting up all around them. We left our windows open all week to hear the waves crashing on the beach, which proved to be rather loud at points (rough life, we know). The setting alone was a perfect get-away, but our hosts made it that much better. As we sipped on our sundowners each evening, we got to know more and more about their children, their 35-year marriage, and all sorts of interesting stories from their lives (we heard about shark attacks and losing passports in Spain to name a few).

Pete, Sally, & Ani

Each morning we'd wake up to a coconut with a straw in it (yum!)

View from the balcony (where we'd have our sundowners)

Kovalam Sunset

While we were in Kovalam, we took two trips to see more of beautiful state of Kerala. Our first trip was to the southern tip of India. Along the way, we stopped at a palace and a temple (cameras were not allowed at the temple, so no pictures). The palace was gorgeous and looked like it could have been in Thailand. The architecture of southern India is far different from that of the north.

Entrances, ceilings, and doors were intricately carved out of wood

Column carving

We continued south until we arrived at the southern most tip of India to a town called Kanyakumari. Just off the coast there are two islands, one with a temple and one with a very large statue. We took the ferry out to tour around the two islands.

Two islands off shore

Close up of the foot of the statue

Elephant & me

Me & Pete at the tip of India

Once we were back on land, we headed for the Gandhi Memorial and then to Sunset Point.

Colorful Gandhi Memorial

Boats at Sunset Point

Our second excursion was north of Kovalam to head inland on the backwaters. We hired a houseboat for the day with a great crew. After a couple hours on the boat and a feast of a lunch, we arrived at a little village where we changed to a canoe and punted into the smaller rivers to explore the little communities along the waterways. Our canoe driver, Vijeesh, was quite the character and we laughed and laughed at his jokes. He let us punt for a little bit, but Pete was much better than I was! After the canoe, we hopped back on our houseboat for some tea as we made our way back to the dock.