Tuesday, June 14, 2005

G.O.C. - DAY III

The day started out very well! I had onion uttapam for breakfast, and it was delicious! In all the tours that we have been on, I would drive my mother up the wall when it came to eating breakfast. Till now, we had traveled only in northern India, where dosas and uttapams were not on the breakfast menu, and I don’t care much for toast and jam or aloo parathas for breakfast.
But now, breakfast was a much looked forward to meal!! I just love dosas and uttapams, and can never get enough of them!
We were greeted by a new driver, Anthony, who could speak decent English, and also, thank the Lord, a Qualis!
We set out for our next destination, Allepey (or Allapuzha as the locals call it), which was three hours away. We reached Allepey at 12 noon or so, checked in to our hotel, Prince Allepey, and then went for a cruise on the backwaters. Aah! This is exactly why I wanted to go to Kerala, to see the famed backwaters of God’s own country.
So we headed towards Kumarakom. On the way we saw quite a few people standing on the banks with fishing poles, fishing for their lunch! The scenery was truly awe-inspiring! Shady avenues of coconut and banana trees, and brilliant coloured flower bushes lining the banks.
As we neared more open waters we saw birds (species unknown) gracefully flying in tight formations. And I also saw to my right great big billows of clouds framed by a violet-tinged sky! I’ve never seen this colour in the sky!
After a while I dozed off. I was half awake, half asleep, not being able to differentiate between reality and dreams. After roughly 2 ½ hours we reached the Taj Garden Retreat, where we had lunch. The resort was very pretty! Small individual bungalows standing in shady avenues, with names like Kingfisher, Woodpecker and so on. Hmmm… I think I’m sounding like I’m plugging for the resort, so I’ll stop the description here! But it truly was a beautiful place!
After lunch, D had to got to the bathroom to do (ahem!) you-know-what, and we had to sit in the lawn waiting for him. Our boat driver (or is it captain?) came to get us, as it was getting late, and no traffic was allowed on the water after 6 pm. So I went on giving my brother missed calls to make him hurry up! I had no wish to get stranded on the resort, however picturesque it was!
On the way back I slept for more than half the journey. We came back to Allepey at about 7 pm.
Dad bought a pair of silver earrings for me from the little gift shop in the hotel. Also bought another pair for a friend.
Then had dinner, which was strictly O.K., except for the murgh malai tikka, which was yummy!
D was more obnoxious than usual at dinner! Allepey air must really agree with him!

2 comments:

AmitKen said...

Oh.. reading posts on 3 days at once was like a bonus :)

u had all the fun... on train journeys i think we definitely meet atleast one person who is quiet an 'item'.. I mean there is something peculiar about them.. no wonder you met mr McScream.

Urvashi said...

I seem to always be stuck with wailing, howling kids when ever I travel by train, but this time, I was stuck with a crude, man.

Thanks for the "bonus" part!! :D