Chris & Kerala, pt 2!
- Anita Charles
- Mar 7, 2023
- 2 min read
This post is being written hurriedly before Chris and I head off to Delhi for a few days... So it may end up as more of a photo dump!
Chris and I hired a driver from the conference in Kochi (see last post) to Alleppey, where we boarded a houseboat for a private overnight tour meandering through the backwaters (very extensive fresh water channels that flow in and out of a huge lake). The houseboat was amazing -- sheer relaxation! Chris was forced to slow down, sit for a while, and contemplate life in the slow lane. (As our kids say, we had to get him to India to make all of that happen!) The meals were gourmet, including local fish, and the weather was lovely.
Once off the houseboat, we had a driver take us about 2.5 hours to Kottayam where Midhun is originally from and where we met up with people who had known him when he was younger, including the orphanage director named Elizabeth. We stayed at Elizabeth's house, and took a day to head into the Western Ghat mountains where we saw rubber trees, pineapple groves, tea plantations, coriander groves, and more. The drive was a hair-raising sequence of hairpin switchbacks up and down the mountains. Yikes!
Elizabeth's house has an outside courtyard INSIDE THE HOUSE! I want one. (But maybe not in Maine.)
On our final day there, we saw the coconut oil factory where Elizabeth's husband (now retired, mostly) and son Zach work. The factory was started by Zach's grandfather 75 years ago, and it ships its high-quality products internationally. The tour was quite impressive, and we saw the process of turning coconuts into cooking oil, hair oil, and other products. No part of the coconut is wasted there, and Zach continues to work on expansion of "scale," and on "green" practices (such as solar power and electric vehicles).
Upon our return to Pune, we have had a few other adventures together which I will relate in the next post. In the meantime, I will close with an assurance that Nini is doing GREAT! She is quite the little busy kitten these days. Chris adores her, of course.
Nini looks quite content in The Knees' arms. I hope she's able to return with you all. This looks like a marvelous trip. although I don't believe for a second that Chris isn't looking around seeing something he could fix. Lyman
Beautiful, magical, exotic. . thank you for taking us with you Anita!
(and the nose ring looks fabulous :)
Ell
It was wise choosing the house boat over that “hotel! “. I love seeing your repeat visits with Elizabeth. Thanks again for taking us along for the ride!(Sue)