Lazy Days and Kerala Cuisine

I'm starting to write this final Kerala blog post on the second leg of our journey home from Kochi to Heathrow via Dubai. In around 4 hours time we will be landing back in England, and I've just changed my watch back to UK time. Sadly our holiday is nearly over.

Our rice boat

Our final three days saw a change of pace as we left behind the plush surroundings of Aanalavisam and were driven to Alappuzha (also known as Alleppey) where we boarded a two bedroomed rice boat for a cruise around the Kerala Backwaters. These waterways are scenic and tranquil and offer a glimpse of the simple but seemingly happy way of life of those who live at the water's edge surrounded by paddy fields.

A typical view along a narrower part of the Backwaters

Our subsequent two days at Nelpura Homestay developed our insight into this aspect of life in Kerala, but our time on the boat was really more about chilling out, reading, snoozing in the sun, taking the occasional photograph and aligning ourselves with the peace and tranquility of our surroundings.

Our three man crew of Joseph (the Captain), Jos and another Joseph (the cook) were attentive and looked after us very well. The food was surprisingly good and, continuing the trend of our holiday, plentiful. The day was hot and steamy, but the breeze coming off the water made the conditions bearable.

The sun sets on the Backwaters

Although small and fairly basic, both bedrooms were air-conditioned, albeit noisily, which allowed doors and windows to be closed to mosquitoes and, against the odds, my bite tally remained at 31!

Sunrise after a good night's sleep.

I was out of bed early the following day in time to photograph the sunrise, and the morning shortly became even more memorable when I turned on my phone to receive a text confirming that my contract at the Open University has been extended for a further three years. This had been in considerable doubt until now due to the savage government cuts to University funding and I started the holiday not knowing for sure whether I would still have a job from 1st May. Although I was not going to let this get in the way of my enjoyment of the holiday, the news brought about a massive 'phew' all the same.

'Our' bridge and two traditional wooden canoes

The rice boat dropped us off next to a small bridge where an old wooden canoe containing three whicker chairs and a wizened old boatman was waiting to ferry us and our luggage under the bridge and along a narrow shady canal to our final holiday accommodation, Nelpura Homestay.

Nelpura Homestay

The owners, Mr Chacko and his family have converted the granary (Nelpura means granary) of their 150 year old ancestral home, Edayady House, into three bedrooms. The accommodation has a very traditional feel to it and retains many features of old-style Kerala architecture and woodcarving. The well-tended gardens are lush and colourful and the location of the village within the small village of Moncompu provides a real taste of family and community life.

In the garden at Nelpura

Home-grown Mango, not quite ripe yet.

Guests at Nelpura are the only tourists in the village and, although the local people are friendly and welcoming, they have not yet sought to overtly profit from their visitors. The only 'shops' are a handful of ramshackle food stalls with not a trinket or souvenir to be seen anywhere.

All-in-one washing machine, dishwasher and bath.

Although the lifestyle beside the waterways appears rather primitive, it is characterised by some interesting contradictions. Many of the villagers have mobile phones for example, and voting in the State elections on the final day of our stay generated far more enthusiasm and involvement than for any election I have witnessed in the UK, and was carried out via an electronic system. No crosses in boxes here! I'll write a little more about the election later.

Every house on the canal has its own steps into the water, where clothes, dishes and bodies are washed. The water itself didn't appear to be particularly clean, but with rigorous use of soap and elbow grease the local people and their clothes always looked clean, happy and colourful.

Festival time - a colourful procession to the temple

The children in the village are delightful. Their waves were the most enthusiastic and their smiles the brightest; the older ones would often ask where we were from. Unfortunately, our visit coincided with the start of the school summer holidays, which ruled out a visit to the primary school, something I was really looking forward to with my professional hat on. Visitors to the school are encouraged to leave a small donation (about 500 Roupees / £6) to help the school buy new equipment or to take pens and pencils to distribute to the children. We hadn't picked up on this prior to our trip, but it soon became evident on our first wander around the village when sometimes children came up to us saying 'one pen please!' Certainly this appeared to be the fee for taking a photograph with some children, although others were quite happy to pose for free. Before our next village walk, I raided Hannah's pencil case and was able to make a few children very happy as I made my way around. It was very moving to see how handing over such a small, but useful, object was rewarded with such lovely broad smiles.

Local children - with pens!

Word must have got around of a 49 year old tourist distributing gifts, as when I was relaxing on the lounger in front of our accommodation shortly afterwards, a tiny girl's head appeared above the outside wall followed by a little finger beckoning me closer. As soon as I was within earshot, a little voice piped up 'two pens please'. That's inflation for you!

It was extremely hot and humid during our two days at Nelpura - another slight drawback of going right at the end of the season, although as I've mentioned before this also brought benefits. Even Mr Chacko admitted he was struggling a little with the heat. The conditions did restrict our ability to be active to some extent, but this was compensated by being able to take it easy and relax in the shade in such delightful surroundings.

Mr Chacko is a real character. Large, loud and jovial, he's a Professor in Pharmacy at the Mahatma Gandhi University and runs Nelpura as well as other tourism related enterprises on the side. Well most of the running of Nelpura is done by his wife, Saleema and yet another Joseph, the caretaker who has the main responsibility for making sure the guests are happy. Mr C tries to spend some time with his guests every day over dinner, and on our second night he talked to us for a long time about the State elections which had taken place earlier in the day. Throughout our stay evidence of the election was everywhere - posters glued on almost anything that didn't move and candidates with loud hailers in cars and vans at almost every turn. Mr C explained how each candidate is represented by a symbol, which appear on the electronic voting device, and adorn all of their posters. The two main candidates in 'our' local ward were represented by a leaf and a clock. Mr C had spent the whole day and much of the preceding month working on behalf of the 'leaf 'candidate. He'd also supported him at the last election, which had been won by the 'clock', a very wealthy man living overseas who had made many promises (in particular to improve the roads, which Mr C feels is crucial for the future prosperity of the area) but palpably failed to deliver according to Mr C, who was very hopeful that his man would come good this time. Mr C had hired a motor boat at his own expense for the day to help with ferrying supporters of the 'leaf' to vote. He then arranged for us to hire the boat for an hour and a half sunset trip after he had finished with it, which made us feel very much a part of of the day's events.

Throughout the holiday we have experienced some delicious cuisine. Apart from the chocolate samosas that featured in my first post from Kerala, I haven't found the time to give a flavour of our culinary experiences. Many spices are grown in Kerala, and the best way I can think of summarising the cuisine is to say that it is spicy without being hot, although some dishes possess a definite kick. It has been possible to savour all of the ingredients in every dish. The following run through of one day's food offering at Nelpura gives just a taster of our overall food experience in Kerala ('run through' being potentially an unfortunate choice in this context, although apart from Hannah's short lived upset tummy halfway through, this aspect of the holiday was trouble free).

Breakfast (note the endearing 1970s design plate)
Curried boiled egg with cardamom, coconut and onion sauce
Rice noodles
Small bananas (quite different and tastier from bananas I've eaten before - very sweet)

Breakfast

Elevensies

Tea
Water melon slices

Lunch
Tandoori Fish
Dahl (lentils) sauce
Fried Okra (lady's finger)
Chopped beans and coconut
Something else delicious (I can't remember what was in it)
'Fat' Kerala rice
Popadom

Fresh pineapple slices

Lunch

Afternoon snack
Tea
Banana fritters

Snack accompanying afternoon tea

Finally .... Dinner

Mince and potato cakes
Tandoori chicken
Curried coconut
Kerala vegetable curry
Chapattis

More fresh pineapple slices

Our final meal in Kerala

Every mouthful was delicious, but it makes me feel full just listing it all again.

This has been a fantastic holiday. Kerala is a beautiful part of India with a lot going for it. With a relatively effective education system,  91% of its population literate and rich natural resources, the extremes of wealth and poverty are nowhere near as shocking as in other parts of the country. Nevertheless many of the people we saw possessed very little, and alongside enjoying some wonderful accommodation, hospitality and experiences, an enriching part of the holiday for me was being made to reflect on how fortunate I have been in my life so far in so many ways, and that in fact having lots of money does not necessarily bring with it happiness; it is possible to find contentment whilst possessing very little in material terms. A lasting symbol of this for me was the poise, elegance and beauty with which the colourfully clad women of Moncompu (often holding high an umbrella to protect themselves from the sun) carried themselves gracefully along the dusty paths of their village.

Thank you, Kerala, for having me.