Friday’s Place is near the small town of Poovar, Southern Kerala, India, on the Neyyar backwater, a forty minute drive south from Trivandrum International Airport. Our land, extending to one acre, is right on the river bank of the Neyyar, with no neighbours, and as yet, no sign of other development. There is no road access which ensures our privacy, peace and quiet. We are only able to access our hideaway either by walking through the palm garden for ten minutes from the excise check post (see map on ‘getting there‘) or by boat from the Poovar town wharf or the Poovar Island Resort Welcome Jetty. It is truly an exceptional location brought about by an act of God and an instrument of man!
The Neyyar River, at one time, opened to the sea in the form of a vast estuary mouth and Poovar was an important port on the Malabar coast. Rumour has it that Poovar might even have been King Solomon’s port ‘Orphyr’, for shipping valuable timber, gemstones, women and spice. Some cataclysmic event, perhaps a huge storm, tsunami or sub-sea quake, caused a sandbar to be thrown up across the estuary mouth and the quiet backwater which we now see is as a result of that. The old fort, now a mosque, is the only witness to those earlier days. As the river still flows, although moderated by a hydro plant upstream at the Neyyar Dam (Sivananda Ashram and Yoga Centre), the water level slowly rises over a two to three week cycle and when inconvenient for low lying villagers, the sand bar is cut out to the sea. It is this flushing of the river and associated canals that keeps this part of the Neyyar unpolluted, clean, and free of mosquitoes, a real boon.
The nearest house is three hundred yards away and accordingly we are alone with nature. The quiet is only punctuated by the daily calls to prayer of diverse faiths and occasional village festivals which can extend their musical jollity into the small hours....To wit, the peace, charm and chaos, which is India. There is no light pollution and so the stars are just amazing.
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