Kerala, God’s Own Country – 4

Date: Oct 11, 2014

The morning was beautiful, slow and cold breeze was blowing which soothes the body, sky was clear, the plants and trees looked clean and fresh due to the drops of dew at night which relaxing the eyes, birds was tweeting and no noise of vehicles was giving comfort to the ears. This was the beauty of life when one lives close to the nature away from the hustle bustle of metro cities. My belief was getting stronger day by day that God’s home resembles something to this. The peace scattered in the atmosphere was absorbed into the body. This is the reason due to which I already decided to visit again.

After breakfast, we left Thekkady for our next destination Kumarakom – a tiny backwater hamlet, spread over 900 sq. km, perched on the western banks of the Vembanad Lake. The either sides of roads on the way was covered by tea plantation. We stopped at a tea plantation at Pambanar. The place was surrounded by beautiful rich green tea garden sown in terraced fields. The leaves of the tea plants were washed by dew drops.

After spending sometime at Pambanar, we continued our journey to Kumarakom. On the way, there was a beautiful waterfall at the turn of road, nature’s water park, a perfect place of taking a bath. There were some shops near the waterfall where the visitors were get rid of the hunger. As, I was mentioned in my earlier blogs of the series about the unpredictable weather, it was continued to day four. There was rain in between the journey. Due to which, we did not stop some places where we wanted to take a halt.

We had arrived Kottayam. The city is an important trading center of spices and commercial crops, especially rubber. On the way, there were many places found where polythene was wrapped around the tree to collect the rubber. Kottayam is India’s first country to achieve 100% literacy rate way back in 1989.

We reached our resort, ABAD Whispering Palms, in Kumarakom by the time hour hand of the clock strikes two. Our previous hotel was also belonged to the same group where our stay on previous day was not so pleasant(Read: Kerala, God’s Own Country – 3). The location was beautiful, it was situated on the bank of the Vembanad Lake in natural back water surroundings. The garden area of resort was covered by coconut trees. Jalkhumbi (जलखुम्बी) had grown on the lakeside. One can choose a canoe, motor boat or a houseboat and devour the beauty of this backwater paradise at its best.

After check into the rooms, we spent rest of the day in the resort as the woman (some man too) in the group were observing the fast of Karva Chauth and were very tired due to the long journey. Karva Chauth is the festival celebrated by Hindu women in North India in which married women fast from sunrise to moonrise for the safety and longevity of their husbands. The time declared of rising of moon in sky was 8:45 pm, but we had to wait till 9:30 pm as there was clouds in the sky. After completing the rituals of breaking the fast, we went for the dinner and our fear was right, the food and service was same as the last stay. There was no improvement, it seems like the management did not took care of the training of the staff. There was arrangement of tabla and flute outside the dining area. The artists played music of Bollywood songs.

After the dinner, I met a guard in the resort, his name was Rakshak and he was from Gorakhpur. He told me that in the morning around 4 am the lake was filled with the fishermen boats who came for the fishing. I noticed that the resort was also covering a small area of lakeside for fishing purpose.

If you want to get relax, you should visit here. Spent some days on the lakeside before going back to your normal life of hustle bustle. It was a beautiful and lifelong experience to watch the sunset sitting on the lake side.