During our recent visit to Wayanad in Kerala, we opted to stay in homestays and our second homestay was in Bamboo Village of Thrikkapatta in Wayanad region of Kerala. This Photo Journey shares our experience at this homestay and more details about the place, people and vegetation around this homestay.
Our host Suneesh is a journalist and a social activist. He was a great host. During our stay at his place, he ensured that we make best of our time and explore things which are worth spending time. He took us on walks around the village and showed us vegetation, villagers busy in various activities, eco-tourism initiatives in the village and how Uruva is ensuring that young folks spend more time on their health instead of drugs.
Suneesh stays alone in his house and his wife works abroad. His parents stay nearby and whenever he has hosts, his sister helps him with food and other stuff. In very first photograph of this Photo Journey Suneesh is standing with his sister and mother. A happy family. Throughout our stay, we saw them smiling al the time. Especially her sister keeps the place cheerful. She is a good cook and excellent singer. Don't miss to watch a video in the bottom of this Photo Journey, where Sunesh's sister is singing a prayer in her native language.
Above photograph shows the lock-system which is popularly used on main gate of houses in Kerala. We saw it in almost every house.
During our stay in Wayanad, we ate most of the Kerala dishes in this homestay. Suneesh's sister was always making something new for us in breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks with tea. Most of the things served during our stay were cooked fresh with stuff grown in their own farms.
She served us various kinds of fishes cooked in different styles. Cooking style was very different but we enjoyed eating most of the meals served. Although we had to put efforts in eating the fish, but it was worth :). She cooked chicken and biryani for us on the last night we spent there.
We ate a lot and many of the snacks are not captured which we enjoyed with tea. Room was simple and neat. This homestay is in middle of a village and there was lot to explore in the village - Bamboo industry, agriculture, rubber /coffee plantations, coconut & areca trees etc. Throughout our stay Suneesh arranged an auto-rikshaw for us to explore Wayanad. He proactively negotiated rates for us and that was quite helpful.
This homestay exposed us to most caring hospitality during our North Kerala trip. And it was not limited to Suneesh adn his family. This homestay is part of an eco-tourism initiative and there are 5 more such homestays in Bamboo village. Most of the villagers are part of this initiative. Some have home-stays, some work as guides and few own taxis/autos. There are well defined rules of the village. Every home-stay gets equal opportunities to host guests.
There was full freedom at the homestay. Most of the time was spent in the drawing room. Lot of discussions and knowledge sharing sessions. Suneesh wanted to know some basics of creating pages on facebook and managing them. btw, Homestay has wifi and we made best use of it :).
On last day of our stay, a guide (Anoop) came and took us to village walk and it was another interesting experience for us. Overall we liked staying at Bamboo village. If you plan for Wayanad and considering a homestay, feel free to contact us. In short, this is a simple homestay with basic and clean rooms/washrooms, warm hospitality and peaceful surroundings.
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