3/15/2014

Kerala: day -1

Five hours to Dubai, five at the airport and four more on the plane and welcome to India. I arrived at the airport with a name too difficult to pronounce for a guy at Okecie Airport ("your luggage will fly straight to…eee…destination"). In Thiruvananthapuram (the name was shortened by Brits for convenience so you can say Trivandrum instead) KBE people, Rutavi and Kenney were waiting to pick me up along with two other bloggers: Shawn, American from Las Vegas (when I told him we were in Vegas last March he said he was in…Warsaw at the time!) and Michelle from Denmark, who arrived on the same plane that I did.


I hardly remember anything from our transfer to the hotel, after a night without sleep it was difficult to stay awake. We drove for a while meandring smoothly among yellow tuk-tuks, hundreds of scooters and old buses using mainly horn and a large dose of assertivness. Then we took a boat which soothed our nerves shattered by the traffic and rocking slowly like a cradle took us to our hotel.


Kovalam area is famous for its backwaters, which, as I just learned, in States is a word used for rather low-end areas, here it just means a network of waterways, rivers and lakes spreading for about thousand kilometers along the shore. Backwaters are really picturesque, peaceful and quiet, there are palm trees, mango trees, pineapples, it’s also a good place for birds watching. There are over 300 species of them and our "driver" would stop every once in a while to show us some specimen sitting quietly on a palm tree. 

I managed to notice that for the first time since December I wasn't cold, and I rested on a huge bed with a swan-shapped towel covered by flower petels. The room was huge with huge bathroom and a bathtub looking almost like a pool. Unsure whether it was already a dream I fell asleep right away.


Phone call woke me up after just couple of hours ("would you like to schedule ayurvedic massage?" asked Rajeesh from Big Bang Theory) so I decided to have a look around. I decided to skip the massage for now.

Estuary Island Resort is a very pleasent place, I would probably never go to if it wasn’t for that trip. Huge rooms, clear-blue swimming pools, hammocks hanging among the trees… While travelling on limited budget we usually choose cheap places we use only for sleeping and as a base camp. It’s not only a matter of money, even if we can afford something more we’d rather spend this money on somehthing else. Our selection criteria is easy - there has to be a bed and we need it to be close to places we want to see.

But with every winter more and more I can imagine a week of sweet laziness in luxury, more as a part of longer journey than entire holiday - I wouldn’t like to spend all vacation in a golden cage. If I ever decide to do this, Estuary for sure will be on my shortlist.

Having said all that, let me just say dear readers, that I will do this for you - I will accept all that luxury and give you a detailed report :-)


In Estuary there is all you need - comfortable rooms, delicious food, swimming pools, massages, wi-fi, playground for kids, even a gift shop. Resort is on the island but it doesn't mean there you cannot get there by car - if you miss the last boat there is a way around, it is longer and really bumpy though. 


Boats are  useful not only to get to "the real world" but also to get to the beach situated across the backwater. We went there (there were more of us by then) for our first Kerala sunset. Beach was full of people: families with kids, couple posing to Bollywood-style pictures, young guys showing off with their acrobatic skills.

 
After the sun went down and after an ice-braking beer (by that time maybe a third of bloggers arrived - I hope to write more about my fellow-travellers later on) there was one more attraction waiting for us in the hotel: Kathakali. It's a traditional dance/religious play telling the stories from gods’ lives. Kathakali originated here, in Kerala in 17th century. The movements of the dancers are very precise and their make up takes up to a few hours. It definitely felt like a good start of our Kerala adventure.




1 comment:

  1. Kerala is perfect place for the tourist and honeymoon couple. You can plan with https://www.keralatourssale.com/kerala-honeymoon-tour-packages-ernakulam here. The place is beautiful and exciting for the honeymoon.

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