On our third 6 month visit to India We are trying a different form of accommodation. Having lived in the city of Trivandrum we have moved to the tourist resort area of Kovalam. We are now settled into our new rented house in Kovalam
Front view of house
Dining room - lounge
and I have got a broadband connection at last. Our house is at the top of the hill from Kovalam beach and we can see the sea through the coconut trees. Last Saturday a man came to harvest some of the trees in the garden. It was great to watch him from our roof, shimmy with great skill and agility up the trees. He will be back in about 2 months, it’s important to keep the trees harvested or the get dangerous. A falling coconut would kill someone below He was proud to pose for a photo.
Coconut man
He prepared several coconuts for us to drink the milk out of. The rest he stacked in the servant’s galley under the wood stove.
Coconut store
We don’t have servants just a Dhobi Walla, see below
Modern man
The house is surrounded with various fruit trees. On Wednesday night we ate Passion fruit plucked from a tree near the roof.
We have been enjoying the local fish down at the beach at night, I had some of the barracuda on the left of the photo below Cooked in a clay oven with garlic and lemon and spices it was delicious last week. Last night for the second night running I had calamari’s cooked in garlic, lemon and butter MMMMM.
tonight's menu at the Malabar cafe
It is nice and quite at the house a great change from the city flat at Kowdier. You can hear the pounding of the waves from our roof top sit out at night. The roof top sit out has a palm thatched roof cover , typical of this area and i have wired some lighting up so we can enjoy the cool of the evening on the roof (Drifters style).
Our Roof top shade
Anita has had a sari made for a works function tomorrow I will send you some photos later. I am going to get spammed up.
The weather out here is best at this time of the year. Its not to hot for the 15 min walk down to Kovalam beach in the afternoon. And nice and cool in the evening on the roof.
We went to her company for lunch on Wednesday to celebrate Onam (harvest festival). The new office reception was decorated with traditional petal leaf design on the floor.
Reception area
we dressed for the occasion, in traditional costumes and the staff were very please to see us both enthusiastically taking part.
Anita's office
We ate lunch in the new office canteen. The food was delicious; we ate with our hands, impressing everybody. I had three helpings.
Onam Lunch
Terry Alberts 29th August 2007