The boat ride takes six minutes. That's the first thing. If you've just gotten off a train at Alappuzha station, sweaty and half-deaf from the horn, six...

The 6:40 boat is the one that gets me. Every morning I stand at the jetty with a crate of eggs and a bag of onions, waiting for the vallam to come...

A guest said something to me last week that I keep turning over. She stood on the veranda with her coffee going cold, looked at the water, and said, "I...

Rain on a tin roof has its own rhythm. Not steady — more like someone drumming their fingers, forgetting the tune, starting again. I'm sitting on the...

The walk down to the jetty takes about four minutes if you're not carrying anything. Five if you stop to look at the kingfisher that's always on the same...

A guest asked me last week, halfway through a second helping of fish curry, whether we plan the menu or just see what the morning brings. Fair question....

The walk down to the jetty at dusk is the part I never get tired of. The path narrows between the coconut palms and the paddy field, and if the wind is right you catch the woodsmoke from the neighbour’s cooking fire before you see the boat. The water goes from grey to a kind […]

Last Updated: September 10, 2026 The first thing guests say, almost always, is how quiet it is. No horns, no two-wheelers revving, no neighbour’s TV bleeding through the wall. Just the water slapping the boat hull and some bird arguing with itself in the coconut palm. That moment of realisation — oh, there’s no road […]

A guest from Bengaluru sat on the jetty for three hours last month. Didn’t move. Didn’t scroll. Didn’t even have a book in his hand. Just sat there with his legs dangling over the water, watching a cormorant dry its wings on a bamboo stake. When he came up for lunch, I asked if he […]