After Darshana came and settled in Palghat,we decided to have a holiday away from Pallakad. We zeroed in on Kumarakam. This brings lots of old memories for me and Uma . First posting assoon as I joined HPC,got married while I was posted in Kottayam, Deepak was born here and 7 long years as Sales Officer. Those days we used to go to Kumarakam and stayed in the Baker’s house there ,at 40 Rs per day. This same place has now been converted as Taj , Kumarakam. I took a driver and we left in the morning, reached Kumarakam at around 12 o clock. We were booked at KTDC’s Waterscapes. Being off season there were hardly any body. All the rooms here are made like Machans and are on the first floor. Beautiful rooms and wonderful views from each room. Downstairs they have hammocks for you to relax.
As soon as we landed we were hungry and all three of us were in a mood to have typical Kerala food. We went to the restaurant at KTDC and were highly disappointed as they were serving only North Indian dishes, Chapattis, Mutter panner etc. Strange!!. Since we had the car and the driver we took off. Kumarakam has totally changed. There are hotels and hotels everywhere. We saw some wonderfully decorated hotels, but highly expensive. When I suggested visiting TajHotel, both my partners, Uma and Darshana immediately protested as they felt they have not dressed enough to go there. Anyhow finally we found a place where we were able to get what we wanted. Rice, Pulicherri. Thoran, Pappadam etc. After the sumptuous sadya we had a nice siesta in the tree house. Evening we went for a walk, yes even Darshana came with us. We could see plenty of birds all coming home from wherever they go during the day. You can see varieties of beautiful birds in huge numbers flying in patterns in the sky. The entire atmosphere was full of bird chirping.We came back and relaxed for the day. Dinner at KTDC only Day two started with a walk and then we decided to go on the houseboat ride. This was the highlight of the entire trip. We reached the boat around 10’ o’ clock and were stunned to see the houseboat.
This was a huge one with three bedrooms, a nice sitting room and a dining table. The boat also had a very modern kitchen with even a microwave. There were four persons apart from the three of us. A driver, cook and two helpers. You will have to tell them what we want for lunch. Typically we decided to have a Kerala Sadya at 1 o clock. Exactly at 10.30 am the boats took off and believe me it was just too good to describe. These are the times when even in people like us poetry comes. The weather was wonderful with sky overcast, gentle breeze to cool you down, birds, varieties of them, chirping and fishing in the lake, ladies washing on the lakeside, men fishing. The boat had a soft violin music being played on the background. We just relaxed and were immersed in watching the beauty of nature of this Vembanattu Lake, Drinking cold beer in this atmosphere was the ultimate bliss. Suddenly we found that the overcast sky became dark and it started poring rain. What a sight! The boat was covered on all side and the rain stopped exactly in ten minutes and we were back to clear sky. One o clock, the lunch on plantain leaves was ready . Sambar, Puliserry ,thoran, mezhukkuvaratti , mango sampanthy these were the main dishes and of course Jaguary payasam as a desert. At 2.30 PM we landed back shore and headed back to Hotel for a well earned siesta. Remaining in next part
As soon as we landed we were hungry and all three of us were in a mood to have typical Kerala food. We went to the restaurant at KTDC and were highly disappointed as they were serving only North Indian dishes, Chapattis, Mutter panner etc. Strange!!. Since we had the car and the driver we took off. Kumarakam has totally changed. There are hotels and hotels everywhere. We saw some wonderfully decorated hotels, but highly expensive. When I suggested visiting TajHotel, both my partners, Uma and Darshana immediately protested as they felt they have not dressed enough to go there. Anyhow finally we found a place where we were able to get what we wanted. Rice, Pulicherri. Thoran, Pappadam etc. After the sumptuous sadya we had a nice siesta in the tree house. Evening we went for a walk, yes even Darshana came with us. We could see plenty of birds all coming home from wherever they go during the day. You can see varieties of beautiful birds in huge numbers flying in patterns in the sky. The entire atmosphere was full of bird chirping.We came back and relaxed for the day. Dinner at KTDC only Day two started with a walk and then we decided to go on the houseboat ride. This was the highlight of the entire trip. We reached the boat around 10’ o’ clock and were stunned to see the houseboat.
This was a huge one with three bedrooms, a nice sitting room and a dining table. The boat also had a very modern kitchen with even a microwave. There were four persons apart from the three of us. A driver, cook and two helpers. You will have to tell them what we want for lunch. Typically we decided to have a Kerala Sadya at 1 o clock. Exactly at 10.30 am the boats took off and believe me it was just too good to describe. These are the times when even in people like us poetry comes. The weather was wonderful with sky overcast, gentle breeze to cool you down, birds, varieties of them, chirping and fishing in the lake, ladies washing on the lakeside, men fishing. The boat had a soft violin music being played on the background. We just relaxed and were immersed in watching the beauty of nature of this Vembanattu Lake, Drinking cold beer in this atmosphere was the ultimate bliss. Suddenly we found that the overcast sky became dark and it started poring rain. What a sight! The boat was covered on all side and the rain stopped exactly in ten minutes and we were back to clear sky. One o clock, the lunch on plantain leaves was ready . Sambar, Puliserry ,thoran, mezhukkuvaratti , mango sampanthy these were the main dishes and of course Jaguary payasam as a desert. At 2.30 PM we landed back shore and headed back to Hotel for a well earned siesta. Remaining in next part 
sounds like a wonderful vacation. Esp the houseboat part. Wish we ahd been there! Kuttigals would have loved it..actually they love Dosai and paneer makhanwala, which they could have had from KTDC ! Anyway, the earth-shattering news was really that Darshana went for a walk !! This must have made the front pages..
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