A much more relaxing day

Monday

So yesterday after our not so relaxing massages and lunch at Thaff (a restaurant), Ale and I made our way over to our new residence, Palm Grove Lake Resort. Lets not get this confused with Palmy Lake Resort who we hate (except for Ale, who is a sell-out. see below.)This resort was on a nice canal and plenty of houseboats were driving by all day long. They were not only a nice backdrop, but they also provided a little breeze. Kerala is hot! Like Florida humid. Lets just say we should have sprung for the AC here. Jk, that would have been 2000 rupees more. But, alas, I spent the rest of the day curled up with a trashy novel as I gazed at the backwaters. Not too shabby.

Ale, meanwhile, completely gave up her first born to go use the wifi at Palmy Lake Resort which was nearby. The good news is that she says it wasn't as nice as Palm Grove and it wasn't even on the backwaters. I boycotted their establishment and couldn't even look Ale in the eye the rest of the day. We went back in town for dinner. The food was pretty good, but mid-way through my first bite, the electricity went off (which is not uncommon in India) and didn't come back on until 20 minutes later as we were paying our bill. Let me just say eating hot prawns while I'm sweating isn't my idea of paradise. When we got back to our cottage, we both proceeded to sweat ourselves to sleep. Luckily we had a nice mosquito tent around our bed, so I magically woke up unscathed from the Mosquitos. Take that dengue.

The morning was spent lazing around with my feet in the air (aka a palm tree) and a book (aka a kindle) in my hand. I forgot to mention, our bathroom was outside.Which was awesome. The bathroom could only be accessed through our little cottage and was blocked off by walls with some netting as a roof. My father has always frequented an outdoor shower (thankfully with walls) by our pool at home, so i kind of felt at home.

After checkout, Ale and I went over to the beach to go to what lonely planet called the finest hotel in Alleppey. We had lunch there, and omg was it awesome. I ordered a veggie kerala meal and it was mmmmm so good. It was a veggie curry with rice which was yummy, but my heart was really with the lime pickle. It competes with Mrs. Thacker's pickles (obviously hers win though.) It also came with pappad (a thin crispy bread) and a baby banana and along with my kingfisher I was in heaven. Oh ya and it had a pretty nice view of the beach and there was a fan and a breeze! I even went down to the bathroom and found an adorable little pool where the guests were all lounging. Inside backpacker Lauren is a princess Lauren who likes fancy Ritz Carlton massages and fancy pools. I tried to barter Ale's ipad for a stay at the resort- Please adopt me Rathaham Resort! Needless to say, Ale and I hung around there for several hours and then found our way to the beach to dip our toes in the Arabian Sea. We got to watch the sunset and eat some ice cream and before we knew it, it was time to go get on our train!

Which brings me to now, laying on my bed in the AC (glad we sprung for that!) in our first train ever in India!