A Lazy, Refreshing Holiday

My wife and I lazed, and rejuvenated ourselves at Coconut Lagoon for a couple of days. For those who are interested, the resort does offer several activities. But I was primarily interested only in wandering around, taking in the sights, photographing, and sketching and I did a lot of these. My wife's interests were the ayurveda centre, the curio shop, cooking lessons, and music lessons. Of course, we were also well armed with iPods and enough reading material.

I have always been an admirer of the traditional style of timber construction of Kerala, and it was wonderful to see so many examples of this form of construction, so well preserved, and in such a nice setting.

The cottage that we stayed in had a very comfortable, shaded verandah. I was therefore able to sit and do a detailed sketch of the view outside - a luxury rarely available in a hot, humid, dusty, and crowded land like ours.

During our stay at Coconut Lagoon we discovered that the resort was also hosting a national painting workshop. This was a two week workshop attended by artists from all over India. We were able to go to the venue and watch the artists at work. Most of them were working in acrylic and were quite willing to talk to us about their paintings and the techniques they used.

We also found that Coconut Lagoon had set aside 5 acres for farming. Two crops are raised on these 5 acres - fish and paddy. That's right. For about 6 months of the year the land that has been set aside for farming stays under water and is used to breed fish. At the end of the 6 months, the fish crop is harvested, water is drained, and rice is planted. We were told that the soil is found to be particularly fertile after it is used as a fish farm and that the rice crop is therefore exceptionally good.