A Brown Bear Wanders: "God's Own Country"

I spent this past weekend on a houseboat in the region of Alleppey. Everyone said I needed to go if I wanted get "unplugged" and just relax so I booked a flight from Bangalore to Cochin. Then found a nice looking houseboat and was off! Relax I did. There is something so peaceful about being on the water. I was by myself on a 2 bedroom boat with a great crew and a fantastic cook.

Yes, it is as peaceful and beautiful as it looks.

That's a lot of birds in one tree.

I thought these were water lilly fields

Nope. Look closer.

It was hundreds of ducks.

This church was built by the Portuguese over 500 years ago.

Rice fields as far as the eye can see. Stunning.

And now.... for the food. My cook made quite frankly the best food I've eaten in India. It was phenomenal. He is self-taught and just "thinks of it" and makes it. If I ever open a restaurant, I'm relocating him to the US. He would make me a very wealthy man.

I requested "non-veg" so I got the usual vegetables plus fish and chicken with every meal.

Mind you, all this food is for ONE PERSON. Thankfully, once I learned that they eat the leftovers, I didn't feel as guilty trying not to eat it all and purposely left some of everything for them...most of the time.

Lunch day 1. The best thing was the cabbage salad in the top right bowl.

Dinner day 1. The best thing was the fish fillets at the far left and the okra in the far right bowl.

Breakfast day 1. Those are fresh coconut pancakes. TO.DIE.FOR.

Lunch day 2. The best things were the fish again and the beet root salad in the bowl right above the banana leaf. That's a fresh banana leaf BTW. He literally cut it 10 minutes before serving on it. I was a little worried that it wasn't clean but I was fine after eating off it.