Kerala Dec 28th

Sreedhar, Vijay, Angela, Greg my mom and I arrived in Kerala last night. It is so beautiful here. They call it “God’s own country.” The hotel we stayed at was right on the water with private decks that you could sit on and check out the water with the coconut trees surrounding it. It was totally romantic, especially with the 7 of usJ Actually, the group honeymoon isn’t too shabby. I get the best of all worlds- family, friends and my new husband. I’ll never get bored. Today we jumped on a beautiful houseboat which is apparently all made by hand.

It is constructed primarily with the leaves of coconut trees and rope. The top of the boat had a nice little sun deck that we could lie on soaking up sun and plenty of beer. For lunch they made us a fabulous array of curries. Beet root, one of my favorites, was on the list. We had stopped to pick up some fresh prawns . Well that is what they called them. They were about 2 feet long. The food was some of the best I have had in India. Although I have had some really good food over the past few weeks. I had the best Dal of my life in Delhi, then we had some really good food at praveen’s grandparents the other day. Then there is the chef that has been cooking at praveen’s house and she also does a good job…Anyway, the food on the boat was good for sure. It may have seemed better because the hotel food was pretty lousy. It’s funny if there is one white person in a group the restaurant will usually totally kill any spice or flavor so that the whitey can handle it. It drives me nuts.

The cruise was about 5 hours long. We floated along very romantic little water ways. Along the way we saw lots of local villagers doing laundry, swimming and building boats. It was pretty fascinating. I loved to see how people live in small villages here. The kids are always totally fascinated and happy to see white people.

About half way through the boys and ang went for a swim. I had ripped open my foot the evening before and I didn’t want to risk infection so I just watched.

We also stopped along the way to pick up a local liquor called toddy. It is extracted from the coconut tree. I think it comes from a kind of sap like stuff that is near the top of the tree. They collect it in the mornings and evenings and it ferments very quickly. We had some old and some new. The older stuff I couldn’t handle. It was quit vinegary. The fresh stuff was very sweet and coconuty. It was really nice. One of praveen’s friends had tried to get some for me in Tamil Nadu, but he couldn’t because it is illegal there. It does something controversial to the trees. Or maybe they just don’t want people drinking it. I was reading the back of a beer label the other day and it said, “Liquor kills, country, family and life.” Wow! I was shocked. Drinking in the south is generally not seen as acceptable. I guess in a country where you either make it or you don’t many things are live or die and you don’t want to risk anything by dabbling in something that may destroy your life.

Anyway now we are in the middle of a four hour drive from Alleppy to Kovalam.