Jan 12 to 18: Alleppey, Kerala State

We have just finished a 5-night stay in Alleppey, Allepy, or Alappuzha depending on who you ask.  We left Mumbai and travel 30+ hours by train in AC 2 tier class to Ernakulam, in Kerala State. Ernakulam is the main train station for Fort Cochin (Kochi) and points south. This class of train car has air conditioning, a big plus compared with having the windows open and the dusty air blowing in.  The 2 facing seats we had were nice during the day and converted to bunk beds at night. The provided bed roll (2 sheets, wool blanket, and pillow) were clean and adequate. The only downside was that the bed was several inches short for Dean to sleep in comfortably.  We learned that the best viewing location from which to see life along the railway tracks was at an open door between cars, because the windows beside our seats were very dirty, both inside and out.  We both have learned the technique of taking pictures with one hand while the other is gripping the hand rail to avoid falling off the hurtling train.

  

Water Buffalo

The best part of the over night stay in Ernakulam was dinner at Frye’s Family Resturant where we both had fish that was very tasty and had been cooked in a banana leaf.  (The fish dinner cost less than our 2 beers at the hotel!)  The next morning while waiting in Ernakulum for our train to Alleppey we were treated to the official launching of a new train service. There was much official fanfare, a speech by the Minister of Transportation, and a raspy but enthusiastic brass band. The  brightly painted new train drew out of the station with adornments of tinsel fluttering in the wind.

Sona Homestay

After a additional 1 ½  hour train ride, we reached Alleppey and taxied to our accommodations at Sona Homestay.  We were greated by Joseph on our veranda.  Joseph is a retired Calcutta business manager who returned to Kerala State (where he had grown up) in about 1996, bought a heritage house and started the homestay.  Joseph is joined by his son, Sona, and their wives, Anya and Preethi, in running the homestay.  Both Joseph and Sona are very informative on any issue from what to do each day while in Alleppey to Indian family, history, culture, religion or politics.  We had several interesting discussions daily while we sat in the dappled sunshine on our verandah. They were most welcoming, and are themselves involved with, and intrigued by, to the comings and goings of their foreign visitors. Also on the verandah, we were served delicious black coffee and wonderful banana-filled rice-flour pancakes or masala omlettes each morning. Sona claimed that we were the first ever visitors to request a second pot of coffee in the morning.

Alleppey is reminiscent of other Indian towns of similar size, but the signage is less likely to include English, and the local language, Malayalam, is written in a more rounded script than is Hindi and Marati around Mumbai.  The local beaches and backwaters are spectacular.  Through Joseph, we hired James who took us for a 9 hour backwaters boat tour.  James was also very informative about local history and life, and piloted us through lakes and large and small canals in his boat.  We stopped and walked through several small villages.  Over the past hundred years or so, large areas of the shallow lake have been diked and drained to make rice fields inside, and canals outside, the dikes.  The lake and canal water level is the same, and the rice fields are several feet lower.  James said the lowest points are about 15 feet below sea level. 

 
 
  
 
 

There are many natural islands that have from 1 to 500 houses on them and as well, many houses have also been built along the dikes.  There is electricity, water and cable TV to most.  The children go by boat to school and most areas are only reachable by boat.  When we passed along through the canals, daily life unfolded before us: people and goods being ferried to and fro, clothes and eating utensils being washed at the side of the canal, kids being washed and swimming, and adults washing.  Each house has an area along the dike with several steps down into the canal water level to access the water more easily.

 

James and Alison

Very large houseboats, state ferries, goods transfer boats, fishing boats, fishing corries, small one- or several- person canoes, and swimming kids all share the waterway.

Ellie and Harry

We stopped for lunch at a small restaurant and had tiger prawns and small fish with many delicious sauces to put on the rice.  All very tasty.  Another stop was to see the rice field irrigation system (open the pipe valve and it floods; water also is actively pumped out of the rice fields as they are below water level) and to have coconut milk and some raw coconut flesh from a freshly opened coconut.  For afternoon tea we stopped at a small one room resturant that still used the original wood stove and copper hot water heater from many years ago.  After we returned to Alleppey we had several beers, good food and much fun with Ellie and Harry, a young couple from London who had arrived to stay at Sona homestay, and were in the room next to ours.

The following day we spent a leisurely morning hanging around the homestay and then went to Marati Beach, about 10 km north of town. It was a massive, long white sand beach with palm trees planted along the top of the beach to provide much wanted shade. A steady wind made the otherwise hot and humid afternoon bearable. The ocean was very warm: as another guest at our homestay described it, “barely even refreshing”. On our way there, from the rickshaw, we noticed open sheds with large wooden looms and spools, but noone was working them on that Sunday. The next day, thanks to Sona’s arranging, we went with our rickshaw driver, Naufal, to see how the coarse woven rugs and floor mats are made from coconut husk fiber (coir).  We saw the whole process. First the short fibers are twisted into cord, then the cord is dyed in huge vats over bed of coals. Then, up 10 or 12 cords are arranged together onto a very large spool, the fibre source for the large foot powered looms to make rolls of  floor matting varing from about 2 to 6 feet in width.

If you or someone you know are ever looking for a very nice homestay in Alleppey consider the Sona homestay www.sonahome.com   It was the best stay we have had sofar on the trip.