{"id":78,"date":"2015-07-23T16:11:45","date_gmt":"2015-07-23T16:11:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.suebryant.com\/?p=78"},"modified":"2015-07-23T16:13:07","modified_gmt":"2015-07-23T16:13:07","slug":"gods-own-country-a-slice-of-heaven-in-kerala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.suebryant.com\/?p=78","title":{"rendered":"God’s own country: a slice of heaven in Kerala"},"content":{"rendered":"

This feature appeared in issue 8 of Journeys<\/a> magazine.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We arrived in Kerala on one of those bleary-eyed night flights, the kind when you\u2019re so tired you no longer know or care what day it is, bumping off the airport highway onto endless dirt roads, the silhouettes of coconut palms shadows in the moonlight. We stole into Purity, our lakeside villa, in the darkness, like thieves, greeted by a sleepy night watchman.<\/p>\n

I woke to bright sunlight streaming through the window and stood on my balcony blinking the brilliant colours of rural India: scarlet flame trees, red and yellow hibiscus, pinky-white frangipani. At the end of the villa\u2019s garden, the vast expanse of Lake Vembanad, India\u2019s longest lake, shimmered metallic grey in the morning heat. Fishermen in loincloths, nets heaped high on their dugouts, were returning with the morning\u2019s catch. Great rafts of purple water hyacinth formed islands on the lake. Kerala dubs itself \u2018God\u2019s own country\u2019 \u2013 and I could see why.<\/p>\n

\"Purity\"<\/a>

Purity<\/p><\/div>\n

Shaking off the journey and the stress of London life was no trouble in this exquisite spot. We flopped around in the infinity pool and dozed in the shade. I had an ayurvedic massage which I can only describe as extreme; no whale music and Western spa modesty\u00a0here. I slithered out, dazed and still drenched in oil, a bindi on my forehead and curry powder in my hair.<\/p>\n

\"Tropical<\/a>

Tropical flowers at Purity<\/p><\/div>\n

Later that evening, we toasted the sunset with an excellent Indian ros\u00e9 while some of our fellow guests went out with a fisherman in his dugout to admire the Chinese fishing nets, complex wooden structures characteristic of this area, cantilevered over the water\u2019s edge.<\/p>\n

Read the rest of the story here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This feature appeared in issue 8 of Journeys magazine. We arrived in Kerala on one of those bleary-eyed night flights, the kind when you’re so tired you no longer know or care what day it is, bumping off the airport highway onto endless dirt roads, the silhouettes of coconut palms shadows in the moonlight. We […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,31],"tags":[47,52,48,24,33],"class_list":["post-78","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journeys-magazine","category-river-cruising","tag-india","tag-journeys-magazine","tag-kerala","tag-luxury-cruise","tag-river-cruise"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.suebryant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.suebryant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.suebryant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.suebryant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.suebryant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=78"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.suebryant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81,"href":"http:\/\/www.suebryant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78\/revisions\/81"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.suebryant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=78"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.suebryant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=78"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.suebryant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=78"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}