| Hotel
Coconut Lagoon
Kerala's famous
backwaters comprise of vast lakes and a system of narrow canals
and waterways linking them to one another. Not so long ago, these
waterways served as the backbone of Kerala's transportation. And
Kumarakom is the ideal place to experience the backwaters. Coconut
Lagoon has rightly carved its place among the top 10 heritage
resorts of the world. The resort is on a small island and can be
reached only by boat. The accommodation consists of individual
cottages built in the traditional Kerala style, relying heavily on
wood and some with private pools. The bathrooms are open to the
sky and the restaurant specializes in Kerala cuisine peculiar to
the region. Activities here are just lazing in the swimming pool
with Jacuzzi, walks in the nearby coconut groves or paddy fields,
sunset cruises etc.
Muted as the dawn
itself, the alarm cry of a solitary pond heron breaks the early
morning stillness as a dugout canoe, paddled by two fishermen,
glides across the water at a determined but unhurried pace. The
scene is idyllic, the mood dreamlike. Kerala’s back country
waterways seem far removed from the universe most of us inhabit,
yet they are linked to the rest of the world in a very real way,
and have been for at least two millennia. In earlier times, if
less so today, these waterways were the staring point for the
transport of South Indian spices, which eventually found their way
to the distant shores of Europe and beyond. Formed by the 40- odd
rivers that flow down to the Arabian Sea form the Cardamom Hills
in the Western Ghats, this network of rivers, canals, lakes and
estuaries compromises one of India’s most beautiful areas a
rural, river in expanse of verdant coconut groves and rice
paddies. In Malayalam, the language of Kerala, the backwaters are
known as Kuttanad, "the land of the short people," a
reference, perhaps, to the face that the farmers seen working here
are often knee-deep in paddy fields,
For centuries the backwaters have provided a safe and efficient
means of transportation for goods and people moving between the
interior and the port towns along the coast, Even today, coconuts,
pepper, coir, rice, and other such products of the region are
carried along these waterways in traditional boats called
Kettuvallam (stitched canoes), and village children are ferried
off to school in all sorts of country craft.
Location:
10 Kms from Kottayam,
78 Kms from Cochin. Direct ferry from Casino Hotel, Cochin, also
travel half - way by road and take the ferry from Tanneermukkam
jetty or Kumarakom.
The
Restaurant: Cited in Arundhati Roy’s
Booker Prize – winning best-seller, "the God of Small
thing," the restaurant at Coconut Lagoon is renewed as much
for its superb Kerala cuisine (vegetarian and no vegetarian alike)
as for its authentic setting, and is housed in one of the
resort’s most impressive Tharavadu. Known as Ettukettu,
the building incorporates two atriun-like courtyards under an
expansive tile roof supported by dozens of slim columns, a design
that enables the space within to benefit from the slightest
breeze. The restaurant is the oldest Structure at Coconut Lagoon,
and it, too, formerly belonged to a prominent Malayalee Family
living in a nearby village. Cuisine: Ethnic and international
(buffet).
The
Accommodation: 14 Heritage
Mansions, 28 Heritage Bungalows. Though some of the cottages are
of more recent vintage, many are well over a century old and a few
actually date back to the early 1700s. The resort can only be
reached by boat and its accommodation consists of individual
cottages called Tharavadu, the traditional wooden house of Kerala.
Coconut Lagoon's cottages feature ultramodern bathrooms, each
located in an inner courtyard boasting its own banana tree.
Through all the cottages vary in configuration, and some of the
air-conditioned units are newly built replicas in corporation only
fragments of old Tharavadu that could not be saved in their
entirety, Coconut Lagoon offers two basic types of accommodation:
Heritage Mansion and Heritage Bungalows. The former has two
stories, the upstairs bedroom gallery offering particularly
magnificent views of Lake Vembanad.
Recreation
: The Cashew Shaped pool, slightly elevated to give a
commanding view is popular including the honeymoon couples who
swim there in the early evening to the sounds of Indian classical
music drifting across from the Garden Café. For those who prefer
not to venture beyond the bounds of the resort itself, there are
plenty of things to do. Simple bamboo fishing poles are available,
too, and though the restaurant offers many fine seafood dishes on
its ever-varied lunch and dinner menus, the chef nonetheless
promises to cook any fish an angler catches from the lagoon. Be
warned, however, that no prizes are given for catching a monster
from the fish farm within the confines of the hotel, though no
punishment is meted out for doing so, either
Please
Click here for:-
Coconut
Lagoon Hotel Reservation Form
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