We arrive in Vadakanal to be greeted by Aimee who has already found us a cottage to stay at. Vadakanal is well known on the Israeli traveling trail and there are several houses of Israeli travelers that have been here for months at a time. The main drawn of this area is how naturally beautiful it is. All of the houses are on a hill overlooking mountains and pristine nature. The temperatures are much cooler here especially during the evening which is a nice change to the muggy heat that we’ve experienced so far in Kerala.

Out cottage is a modest house on top of the hill up several series of mud steps. The roof is made of tin which makes a pretty loud racket when it rains. The cottage has a big living room, and two bedrooms. There is only running water outside and electricity is present randomly throughout the day and night with regular outages. The bathroom is outdoors and is a simple squat toilet with no running water. Flushing is done by dumping a bucket of water. There is no shower and we bath by taking bucket showers. It takes about an hour to heat up a bucket of hot water to use for a warm shower.

The kitchen is very basic and we have two gas burners which are fueled by a drum of gas that we have to get refilled every so often. There is no refrigeration so that takes out a lot of food options. There are no stores here so supplies and most of our food have to be brought in from town which is an hour walk from our cottage. Drinking water can be purchased in large drums from the bottom of a hill at a tiny store which as the basic things like water, ramen, rice, etc.

My typical day is to wake up with the sunrise or sometimes to the sounds of the girls making breakfast. I walk out of my bedroom and into the living room filled sunlight from a beautiful sunrise just over the valley. Usually breakfast is something simple like muesli and fruit with some toast. Then we each wash our own dishes and the cook never cleans.

During the day we usually read, hike, explore our surrounding area, do laundry (if the sun is out), clean, or take a trip to town. In town we always gather supplies and hit up the internet to see what’s going on outside our bubble. We get together for dinner around 5 or 6. Dinner is usually some kind of rice or pasta with vegetables. We always seem to have company over for dinner which is great because people always bring things over. It’s always a potluck party.

In the evenings, we always have candles since power seems to go out when we always need it. After dinner we gather around our dining room table which is more like a coffee table. We sit around a wicker love seat and cushions which also happens to be Heather’s bed. After dinner we usually have either tea or coffee. The rest of the evening is spent chatting, relaxing, listening to music, watching movies on my laptop and sometimes, when the sky is particularly clear, we go outside to check out the stars.

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