HOTEL COCONUT LAGOON HERITAGE RESORT

Coconut Lagoon Heritage Resort is set on an abandoned coconut plantation in the very heart of these fascinating backwaters, and has been designed to give the visitors and authentic insight into Kuttanad life. The resort can only be reached by boat - a ferry leaves from one of several "mainland " embarkation points at scheduled times throughout the day - and its accommodations consist of individual cottages called " Tharawads ", the traditional wooden house of Kerala. Though some of these cottages are of more recent vintage, many are well over a century old and a few actually date back to the early 1700s. Painstakingly dismantled and brought to their new Lake Vembanad site from various villages and plantations in the surrounding countryside
 where because of high unkeep costs they had been abandoned or were doomed for destruction) these tharawads have been re-assembled peice by piece in accordance with " Thachu shasthra, the ancient rules and rites of carpentry, and set within the coconut grove's well-manicured network of irrigation canals, all of which have been lovingly preserved. Each ancient building is a veritable museum unto itself, and each has its own tale to tell.

The reception building itself, for example, is a " nalukettu ", a design that features a four-cornered open-rrof courtyard within the basic structure. Originally located in the village of Vaikom not far from Coconut Lagoon, it was know as " Kalapakasseril Illom" - the workd illom signifying a mansion belonging to a member of the Brahmin Caste - and was constructed in 1860. The illom was purchased in 1993, at which time a team led by Bhaskaran Ashari, one of Kerala's few surviving master craftsmen still familiar with the traditional thachu shasthra style of carpentary, went about the task of reconstructing the mansion at its present location.

The Restaurant

Cited in Arundhati Roy's Booker-Prize winning best-seller, " The God of Small Things. " the restaurant at Coconut Lagoon is renowned as much for its superb Kerala cuisine ( vegetarian and non-vegetarian alike ) as for its authentic setting, and is housed in one of the resort's most impressive " tharawads ". Known as an " Ettukettu ", the building incorporates two atrium-like courtyards under and expansive tile roof supported by dozens of slim columsn, 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 Malayali family living in a nearby village.

AccommadtionThough all the cottages vary in configuration, and some of the air-conditioned units are newly built replicas incorporating only fragments of old " tharawads " that could not be saved in their entirety, Coconut Lagoon offers three basic types of accommodation : Heritage Mansions, Heritage Bungalows and Private Pool Villas. The former have two stories, the upstairs bedroom gallery offering particularly magnificent views of Lake Vembanad. The latter are more compact, single-level cottages. Both are furnished in alyny and jack woods, and retain all the charm of original family homes, with thick, solid doors, intricate window carvings, and terra cotta tile floors. Structurally necessary alternations have been carried out with consummate discretion, ie., in keeping with the style and decor of the era, and great attention has been paid to every detail. The lamp stands in each " tharawad ", for example, having been carved from old wooden hinges. Traditionally, of course, Keralites bathed in the rivers - in rural areas many people still do - but Coconut Lagoon's cottages feature ultramodern bathrooms, each located in an inner courtyard boasting its own banana ( or coconut ) tree, so you can shower al fresco under a starlit sky in complete and utter privacy !