Next stop–Marari beach. We were initially only supposed to spend one night there, but after Marc read the reviews and saw some pictures online, we stayed two. This is my kind of resort. There were no children, a serene and tranquil atmosphere (no Russians), a lovely pool, and direct access to a private white sandy beach. After checking into our villa, we had a nice Indian lunch, hung out by the pool, and then went for a walk on the beach.

Our Villa At The Pond

Outdoor Shower

Beautiful Beach

Hammock Life

Kitty And The Germ

Great Pool

Growing up, my grandmother was always an avid shell collector. She spent six months of the year on the beach in south Florida collecting shells. Of course she knew all the names. So on the Marari beach, Marc pointed out a lovely shell. I said–I wonder if we will be so lucky to find another one–I’ll bring it home to my grandmother. No sooner had those words come out of my mouth did we start seeing the shells roll in with the tide. It was literally manna from heaven. Marc’s pockets were quickly filling up with all sorts of shells. Shells that if you found one, it would have made your shell collecting week–even month. We founds 50 (and kept going). I kept thinking of my grandmother, running up and down the beach, passing hand fulls of shells to Marc to empty into the pockets of his trunks. It was officially the best part of India so far.

Sunset On First Evening

New Found Friends

Local Guys Playing Soccer

Shell Collection #1

Shell Collection #2

The next day we had booked with our trip a tour of Alleppey by the “preserve Alleppey Society”. I was in a panic because I didn’t want to leave our fabulous resort. We were booked to go for lunch at their home. We couldn’t back out. Our driver came to pick us up and we told him that we wanted to get back as soon as possible. We started off at the most incredible home. The lady of the house wasn’t in so we were entertained by her husband. The house was huge. A lady from the society joined us and showed us a slide show of typical architecture of the area. She explained that the canals were sadly in a state of disrepair. This society adopted a small street and became responsible for their garbage collection. As I have already described, garbage is everywhere in India. Huge piles are dumped every where. The street they adopted looked really nice–actually just normal in our eyes.

Ladies Of The Alleppey Society

We went to a different member’s house and met the rest of the society. The ladies–seven of them–had all gathered and made a sort of pot luck lunch which was one of the best meals we had in India. We had a much better time than expected which is great and would recommend visiting the society to anyone visiting the province of Kerela.

Back at the resort we did more shelling and watched a fantastic sunset.

Another Stunning Sunset

Indian Ocean

Watching The Sun Go Down

Bird In Flight

Good-bye Marari Beach