December 25th Christmas Day

We were lucky, Santa managed to find the resort, and Bethan woke at about 5.45am to find her stocking full of presents and Santa’s beer glass empty!

John and Bethan on the beach on Christmas morning

John bought me a “Lensbaby” a totally non precision lens to fit on my completely precise digital camera, a Fossil watch, which I’d chosen a few weeks ago and some cosmetics from Lush which are, apparently, the same price (or more) as those in the UK! Sadly, in the final packing rush before we left to go on holiday, I totally forgot to pack John’s presents – whoops!

After the presents had been opened, scrutinised and played with we made our way to the breakfast shack which overlooks the beach. After a delicious breakfast we wandered to the beach but decided that the sea was too rough for Bethan to have a swim. We spent an hour or so in the swimming pool instead.

Christmas lunch began at 1.00pm. There were two other guests, Andy, the owners, Jacob and Rose and, importantly for Bethan, an Indian family with four children. There was a huge buffet and we all ate copious quantities. Bethan and the other children played with boats on the canal, fished using the small scale Chinese fishing net and finally went paddling in the sea under the careful scrutiny of the lifeguard.

Punting on the lake

At about five o’clock I wandered to the beach in order to make some Christmas phone calls home – mobile phone reception at The Beach at\nPollethai is rather limited! As I was talking to Mum and Doug on the beach about five dolphins swam past – not a bad way to spend Christmas!

Sunset taken with the Lensbaby

December 24th Thekkady to The Beach at Pollethai

We set out at 9.00am for the journey back to the coast. Bethan had her third Lemony Snickert story tape to listen to and John and I were more than happy to look out of the window at the passing scenery. The journey passed without incident with only a couple of near death experiences involving overtaking buses on hairpin bends!

More tea plantations on the way back to the coast

As we gradually descended the Western Ghats on our way towards the coast the tea plantations were replaced by rubber and pineapple plantations and then finally coconut groves and backwaters. The Beach at Pollethai is actually about 10 km past Alleppy close to the Mararai Beach Resort. Mr Ravishankar, our travel agent, had informed us although the Mararai Beach Resort was full over Christmas he had found “a suitable alternative” for us. We had seen the website http://www.oldcourtyard.com/ and read a couple of very positive reviews on Tripadvisor but the reality far exceeded all our expectations.

The entrance to the property, a stone and whitewashed wall with an arched door, gives little indication of what lies beyond. There is a very spacious open plan reception area behind the wall and then via a small wooden footbridge over a canal, a few minute’s walk away through sandy lawns and palm trees, are the cottages. The resort is still being developed and only about four of the planned eight cottages are currently in operation. We were met by Andy, the English/Cypriot manager who showed us around and made us feel very welcome.

Our cottage

Our cottage is probably the nicest place we have ever stayed. It’s a converted fisherman’s cottage and I’m sure a great deal more luxurious now than it ever was in the past. We have a small entrance room or hall which has doors to both the front door and the door to our terrace. The hall leads to the main room which is large with a lovely high ceiling. This has two beds, a huge wooden wardrobe and a beautiful writing desk. The main room leads to a smaller dressing room and then on to the bathroom.

The bathroom

The Bedroom

From our balcony we overlook a canal and beyond that, through the trees, we can just see the sea. Bethan’s bed was originally in the main room but she decided that she’d rather have to her own room so we moved her bed though to the entrance hall.

December 23rd An Ayurvedic massage and yet more culture….

Tea plantations

As we were staying in the heart of tea plantation country in the morning we visited a tea factory to see how the green tea leaves were processed to become the tea we know and love. On the way back we saw a seven day old baby elephant which was, apparently, one of the first to be born in captivity in Kerala. bethan was very impressed.

Baby Elephant

In the afternoon John and I treated ourselves to a 90 minute Ayervedic massage which was, apparently, designed to cleanse our systems of toxins, restore energy and vigour and increase our sexual function!

I was surprised by the sheer amount of oil used – within about five minutes I felt like a deep fried mars bar. The masseuse was non too gentle either – was it really necessary for her to dig her knuckles quite that deeply into my calves? The treatment concluded with a ten minute session in a steamer, a large cabinet in which you sit with just your head poking out. I had a mild panic as I realised that there wasn’t an emergency release catch inside the box and if I was to be left, in the event of any emergency, I would probably be well cooked within an hour. Fortunately I was let out without incident and Bethan and I treated ourselves to a drink and cake at a small hotel called the “Wildernest” on our way back to the Taj Garden Retreat.

The Wildernest was an interesting building, quite rustic in style, and made of local stone. When we had finished our snacks I had a look at one of the rooms. It was spacious, beautifully designed and spotlessly clean and less than half the price of the Taj. I made a mental not to stay there if we ever returned to Thekkady. Two days later I discovered that it belongs to a cousin of the owner of “The Beach at Pollethai” of which I will write more later.

Fighting with no weapons

In the evening we went to a performance of the Keralan martial art form called Kalarippayattu. This seems to be an athletic form of judo or karate that includes the use of swords, spears, daggers and staves and involves quite a bit of athleticism. The grand finale consisted of someone throwing himself through two burning hoops. We had a tasty Italian style dinner at a hotel called Chrissies. Bethan ate a huge plate of tomato pasta – we have obviously deprived her of European food for too long.

Jumping through hoops

December 22nd Thekkady

In the morning we met with our guide who took us on a tour around a spice plantation. In addition to seeing all the usual spices, pepper, cardamom, ginger, cloves, coffee etc we also learned all about how rubber is collected and processed. Following the tour we had an elephant ride on “Meera” around the plantation and Bethan later fed her pineapples, pumpkins and papaya. We had a brief lunch in a coffee shop and returned to our hotel for Bethan to have a well earned holiday sleep.

Feeding the elephant

Periyar Lake

At 3.30pm we left for our boat trip on Periyar lake. About five or six boats of varying sizes all set off down the lake together in a convoy and I was sure that any wildlife in the vicinity would be keen to make a hasty retreat in the face of such a flotilla. We had been told that the chances of seeing a tiger were very low, apparently there have only been one or two sightings this year so we were not overly disappointed when none materialised for us.

A snakebird...

and a wild boar

December 21st Alleppy to Thekkady

Last view of our houseboat

It was our final morning on the boat. We woke to a beautiful sunrise, had another traditional Keralan breakfast and said goodbye to the crew.

Sunrise

It’s difficult to believe that it’s only four days to Christmas and England will be well and truly swept up in yuletide frenzy. There are quite a few large paper stars being sold in stationery and ‘fancy goods’ shops and we have decided to buy some and put them up in our hotel room in Allepy. We made a quick stop at a government liquor store (apparently the only places that you can buy alcohol in Kerala) to purchase a few bottles of Kingfisher at a mere 44 rupees per bottle in anticipation of exorbitant mark ups at the hotel!

The 150km journey took about four and a half hours, just as Sreelish had predicted. The main road to Thekkady is narrow and winding with precipitous cliffs and hairpin bends. There seemed to be hundreds of small buses festooned with flowers and packed with (exclusively) male pilgrims careering down in the\nopposite direction. They had been visiting the Shri Ayappa temple which is only open for about 41 days a year. We often passed parked buses and saw their\noccupants squatting in a line at the side of the road having a communal pee. Sadly I did not manage to get a photograph as we were driving too fast!

The Taj Garden Retreat consists of about 40 individual “cottages” in a jungle type garden. Bethan was especially thrilled to discover that it had a proper bath and had her first bubbly soak since we arrived in India. John and I were thrilled to discover that the bottles of Kingfisher that had cost us 225 rupees in the Taj Malabar were only 100 rupees at the Taj Garden Retreat.