pakdoktergolfblog: The Spice Village, Thekkady...

Monday, 18th January 2010

After 4 hours of drive down the narrow and winding road from Munnar, we finally reached Thekkady for an overnight stop before proceeding to our next destination, the backwaters of Aleppe where we were booked for a 3-day-2-nights cruise on a Keralan houseboat.

We were not expecting much at Thekkady as it was only meant for a stop-over and a break from an otherwise a very long drive. We were told that there would be opportunities for shopping and a visit to the spice plantations. But what a surprise the Spice Village Hotel was!

This boutique resort of about 40 thatched-roof villas won the Asian-Eco-Resort Award for 2009. In 2008, this award was given to the Six Senses Resort on Koh Samui which pakdokter had visited last year. The Europeans have obviously discovered this corner of Kerala for apart from us, the other guests were mostly a group of French tourists.

The resort has a cool and green foresty feel to it. Most of the trees were of some spice plants or trees and the hotel had taken a lot of effort to label each tree with its name and species. The villas were generously spacious with all the modern comforts.

Upon arrival we were welcomed with cold herbal frangrant towels and cold mint drinks and a local musician played classical Indian music with his violin.

We had a light lunch of various types of dhosa ( thosai) before proceeding to the nearby Periyar Natural Reserve and Park. Due to shortage of time we gave the planned tour of a spice plantation a miss. The ladies wanted to go shopping and some of us wanted to check out the Ayurvedic Spa for a treatment of our tired body.

A cooking demonstration of Keralan cuisine was put up late afternoon. Dinner was a buffet of Keralan cuisines and a performance of Indian Classical Dances was put up in front of the restaurant.

We adjourned to the hotel pub before retiring for for the night.

As an afterthought, had we known it, we would have planned to stay here for two nights. The spice village should be interesting to visit and the Periyar Reserve Park should also be explored in good time. The park covers 700,000 hectares? and is a sanctuary of animals that range from elephants to tigers and many species of birds. There is a huge lake in the centre of the park and there is a cruise on this lake which increases your chances of viewing the animals in the wild.

And you can while away your time quite easily in this very plesant and pretty resort.....