The stone cottage
Indhrivanam, located in Kumily Thekkady in the South Indian state of Kerala, is a unique place to stay with only one detached stone cottage available for tourists. The cottage is situated in a small private forest with hundreds of rosewood, rudraksha, mango, jackfruit, avocado and orange trees, creating a setting you won't find elsewhere in Thekkady. Indhrivanam is ideally suited for a couple or small family, Indian or non-Indian, who want to get away from the crowds of India, for people, for instance honeymoon couples, who would like to enjoy their holiday in privacy, for foodies who enjoy the luxury of having vegan/vegetarian meals prepared especially for them, and for anyone wanting a stay that is low impact on the environment, fauna and flora.
Indhrivanam means a sense of forest in Malayalam. The word indhrivanam is made by joining indriyam, meaning a sense of, and vanam, meaning forest, and by adding an h that more accurately reflects the pronunciation of indri. The name is a reflection of reality as the 2 acre property is almost entirely under tree canopy. In addition, the canopy is layered, which makes an ideal habitat for our slender lorises (a primate that is very rare and usually only found deep in the forests of South India and Sri Lanka), Asian palm civets, giant squirrels, Indian squirrels and more than 50 types of birds, including Malabar grey hornbills. Roaming at ground level are wild boar, barking deer, sambar deer, mouse deer, hares, rabbits, porcupines and monitor lizards.
Staying at Indhrivanam is a different kind of experience as the focus is on ecologically sustainable practices like rainwater harvesting and the use of dry toilets. For people wanting conventional luxury (swimming pool, flat screen television, and room service), Indhrivanam is not recommended, but for people seeking the luxury of privacy, peace, nature, ecology, helpfulness, comfortable living in a very nice stone cottage, Indhrivanam may be the perfect place. Unsurprisingly, it is difficult to categorise Indhrivanam. We are a retreat in the sense that by staying here you are retreating from the outside world. We are a resort in the sense that the property is large. We are a boutique hotel in the sense that very few people stay here at the same time. And we are a homestay in the sense that we deliver a homely, informal and friendly atmosphere.
If this appeals to you, please do read on!
With 2 acres of property, plus plenty of free space around the property, and only one guest cottage, total privacy and significant distancing are the rule, not the exception. We have 48 hour gaps between guests, and all areas are thoroughly cleaned between check-out and check-in. The property design and practices are the future of tourism where safety and almost no risk of spreading communicable diseases is a priority.
Should the unexpected happen where medical assistance is required, we have a 24/7 doctor on call arrangement with a local clinic. Our nearest hospital, Alphonsa Hospital in Anakkara, is located less than 5 kilometres from the property.
Kerala is the land of frequent powercuts. Sometimes for 1 minute, sometimes for 1 day, and at least 3000 times a year. Rest assured! At Indhrivanam all buildings have a 24/7 power backup system.
If you worry about where your money is going by staying at Indhrivanam, we can assure you that nobody is getting rich from this business, and that any money generated, including any profit, stays in India. For the forseeable future (decades), any profit will be used to maintain and add to the property, and for donations to our favourite charity, Humane Animal Society (HAS), which is a non-profit Indian trust that improves the welfare of stray animals in Coimbatore through animal birth control and anti-rabies drives, and by rescuing animals that are in urgent need of treatment.
We do our best to maintain a natural habitat for animals by having a continous canopy on most of the property, we use rainwater only, and we minimise the use of unnatural products and harmful chemicals. In short, staying at Indhrivanam is an entirely pain and cruelty free experience for all fauna and flora.
Indhrivanam is a property of undulation: some places are level whereas others are a little up and down. Consequently, we are, regrettably, not that well suited for people who have walking difficulties, and completely unsuitable for people who are dependent on wheelchairs.
All stays at Indhrivanam are on what is popularly called Modified American Plan, i.e. including free/complimentary breakfast and dinner. Lunch is not available. The food is vegan which, in an Indian context, means pure vegetarian without dairy products. Meals are served in the main building. Breakfast is available between 07:30 and 10:00. Dinner is available between 18:00 and 19:00. The breakfast consists of homemade (often sourdough) bread with various homemade nut butters, relishes and a very tasty cashew cream cheese. There will also be fresh fruit, e.g. oranges, papaya, watermelon, pineapples and/or bananas. If you prefer an Indian breakfast, we make adai with sambar and chutney, or vegan Indian omelettes. Dinner is usually something from the Indian cuisine, North or South, a fusion, Jain or a new invention! Please note that we do not have a menu. If the food part of the stay doesn't suit your tastes or timings, there are plenty of restaurants in the nearby towns, some of whom we can recommend if required.
We offer safe private parking on the property. We do not have accommodation for drivers, but can arrange this on a different property.
We can arrange pickups by taxi from your previous location and drops to your next destination, but we can also help create a mini travel itinerary for you based on public transport if you are of a more adventurous disposition.
There is free wifi Internet covering most of the property. It is in the form of mobile Internet from Airtel's 4G network. Speeds are between 2 and 20 Mbps depending on the amount of network congestion. Idea/Vodafone is okayish on the property, while Jio and BSNL coverage is very patchy.
The stone cottage has 24/7 hot running water.
At Indhrivanam we will always attempt to limit our negative impact on local and global environments. One way of doing this is to avoid the risk of polluting groundwater reservoirs with sewage. Therefore, expect to meet some of the coolest composting toilets ever!
There are free laundry facilities on the property.
The property is 100% supplied by rainwater. We have a storage capacity of 70k litres.
There are two very friendly local dogs living on the property: Ashna (12 years old) and Teddy (4 years old), who are both sterilised and have up-to-date vaccinations. However, as they are territorial in relation to other animals, we cannot accept bookings from people travelling with pets.
If you are looking to spend your holiday in the company of a television, you will have to carry one in your luggage, plus accessories like, for instance, a satellite dish.
The stone cottage (there is only one) is located in its own 1 acre piece of woodland. It is made from local hand-chipped rock, and has a traditional terracotta roof. Very little concrete, paint and chemicals were used in the construction, and the wood used for doors and shutters is locally grown silver oak, a non-indigenous tree with low absorption of CO2. The cottage has a front veranda (12 m2), bedroom/living room (20 m2) and attached bathroom (6 m2). The bedroom has double/twin beds with extremely comfortable king sized duroflex spring mattresses. In the cottage there is an electric kettle, coffee, teas and clean drinking water.
The tariff per night is as described in the table below, and depends on time of year and number and age of the persons staying. The maximum number of people we can accommodate are 3 adults or 2 adults + 2 children. Persons aged 12+ are counted as adults. If you are staying for 3+ nights, you will receive a 20% discount. For stays of more than 10 nights, please contact us for further discounts. If you are interested in booking a stay, or you have any questions, please use one of the contact methods listed at the end of the page.
If you are 2 couples/families, there is a 200 years old, restored and upgraded traditional Kerala teak house on our neighbouring property, The Garden Hideaway, which can be included in the stay.
Before contacting us, you may want to check our Internet reviews on Tripadvisor, Airbnb, Google and Booking.com. We got a nice mention in an article by Mahananda Bohidar on halabol.com (pdf, 476 kB), we really appreciate the considerate blog posts from Barbara Bell, who stayed at Indhrivanam in 2013, and Shivya Nath, who stayed at Indhrivanam in 2020, and, finally, we were reviewed favourably in Lonely Planet Magazine India (pdf, 1 MB) in August 2015.
| Adults | Children | October - March | April - September |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | 5450 | 4450 |
| 1 | 1 | 5900 | 4900 |
| 2 | 0 | 6300 | 5300 |
| 2 | 1 | 6750 | 5750 |
| 2 | 2 | 7200 | 6200 |
| 3 | 0 | 7150 | 6150 |
In addition to the cottage, there is only one building at Indhrivanam, which we usually refer to as the main building. In the main building, food is served, there are office facilities, reception and so on. It is also where you find amenities like computer facilities, laundry service, a very small library of books, playing cards, dominos, backgammon, scrabble, carrom and detailed maps for local walks.
Indhrivanam is located only a few hundred metres from the perimeters of Periyar Tiger Reserve (PTR), the main attraction in the Thekkady area, and 9 kilometres, from the main town in the area, Kumily. From a nature preservation perspective, PTR is most definitely in the top five of the best run tiger reserves in India, and from a tourism perspective, PTR is probably unrivalled; there are a number of well-constructed walks and treks in PTR that suit any level of fitness with varying chances of spotting wildlife, including elephants. The tiger, however, remains illusive.
In addition to the activities in PTR, there are a number of activities of varying quality in the Thekkady area arranged by private service providers. We have created a page with all relevant information about the recommended activities in Thekkady.
Indhrivanam was created in 2010, and is owned by the Indian company Tiptoe Travel and Tourism Private limited (company identification number U63040KL2008PTC021884). The shareholders and directors of the company are Morten and Sarah.
Morten was born in 1969 in Denmark in a traditional, provincial nuclear family of four. From an early age he was focussed on concepts like justice and equality, and ended up with university degrees in political science and applied policy research and statistics. He spent some years working as a social policy researcher for the Danish Central Government. Vegetarian since 1990 before becoming a vegan in 2001. Interests are music, gardening, composting, design, architecture and the board game backgammon.
Sarah is also from 1969, but had her own nuclear family in the North-East of England. She has a degree in sociology and anthropology. She is a vegan kitchen wizard with focus on the difficult specialities like kombucha, micro-greens, sourdough bread, and the Middle Eastern and Indian cuisines. She also does home roasting of the coffee that grows on the property. Sarah is interested in nature, gardening and birding, and has the interesting special skill of being a facial recognition expert with a well-developed eye for audio.
We met in 1995 at Newcastle University, lived in Denmark from 1998 till 2002, and in the UK from 2002 till 2007 before embarking on what was a journey into the unknown when we created an Indian company in 2008 with the purpose of running a business based on ecologically sustainable principles. There were a number of reasons for making this non-trivial move from the Western hemisphere, and 15 criteria were included in the analysis of determining the final destination, which could only ever be India. We spend as much time as possible in India (up to 11 months of the year), and take great care in ensuring that guests staying in the stone cottage are comfortable and well-fed.
Raju has been attached to Indhrivanam since 2008, before we even opened. Raju has a lot of experience in the tourism sector: he has worked for a large restaurant in Dubai making traditional South Indian delicacies; he has worked in a resort Munnar; and he was, at one point, the PA for an American student of ayurveda, yoga and meditation in the Kerala Backwaters. Raju's better half is Omana. She also has extensive experience in the tourism sector as she has worked for a couple of hotels in Kumily. In emergencies, Raju and Omana are responsible for cooking for our guests. Raju and Omana live in Kumily with their two sons.
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A few words on our dry toilet system. As you can see, there are two toilets. The one on the right is a variation of the compost toilet. In the traditional compost toilet, the poo is kept permanently in a large chamber under the seat. As this could make our guests unnecessarily uncomfortable (the fact that previous guests' poo was below them), we have implemented a bucket system. Sawdust lines the bucket, and after finishing, the poo is covered with more sawdust. Pee goes into a separate compartment where it is rinsed away (like in a urinal). The separation of poo and pee, and the fact that the poo is covered, means that there are no smells emanating from the toilet. We empty and replace the bucket daily.
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The photos, videos and text on this website were created by various people, including guests who happened to be travelling with high quality cameras, an eye for scenes, and a steady hand. We are very greatful for this. Below is a complete list of contributors.
Photos of the stone cottage: Arne Fribo (Denmark), Debi Pelletier (USA) and Morten
Photo of Lower Camp on the activities page: Julia Maudlin
Photo of Cumbum temple on the activities page: Meena Subramaniam
Photo of Indian cow in a Tamil city: Rob Oo
Video of the stone cottage: Morten
Videos on the activities page: various Youtubers
Webdesign and text: Morten
Depending on your agreement with us, some or all of the payment for stays at Indhrivanam has to be made in advance. The advance payment and any balance payment can be paid electronically by using one of the following methods. We will confirm receipt as soon as technically possible.
If you are using Google Pay in India, you may use Google Pay through Instamojo (see below).
If you prefer to pay via NEFT from your Indian bank account using your banking software or in cash in a branch of Central Bank of India, this is also possible. Depending on your bank's payee information requirements, some or all of the information below may be required in order to make the payment.
Bank: Central Bank of India
Branch name: Kumily
Branch address: Ottaplakkal Building, K.K. Road, Kumily 685509 KE
Payee name: Tiptoe Travel and Tourism Pvt. Ltd.
Payee address: Indhrivanam, Valiyapara Road, Chakkupallam PO, Kumily 685509 KE
Payee phone: +919995530428
Payee email: mail@indhrivanam.com
Account type: Current
Account no.: 1987202893
IFSC: CBIN0281339 (the 5th character is a "zero")
If your payment facility is Indian, i.e. issued by an Indian bank, you may pay through our payment gateway, Instamojo. The payment gateway offers over 100 different payment methods including NEFT/RTGS bank transfer, netbanking, debit/credit cards (Mastercard, Visa, Maestro, Rupay) and UPI (e.g. PayTM, GooglePay, PhonePe and BHIM).
Please click the Instamojo button and follow the instructions to make the payment.
If your payment facility is not Indian, i.e. issued by a bank that isn't Indian, you may pay through one of the companies that offer cross border payments. We recommend using Wise.com for the ease of use and low fees. Wise.com accept payment by bank transfer or via debit/credit card.
To successfully make the payment, you will need to add the following information about the recipient in the Wise.com payment interface:
Recipient email: mail@indhrivanam.com
Recipient name: Tiptoe Travel and Tourism Pvt. Ltd.
IFSC: CBIN0281339
Account number: 1987202893
Reference/purpose of payment: Booking + your name
Please click the Wise.com button and follow the instructions to make the payment. To make the exact Rupee payment, it is recommended that the rupee amount is entered into the recipient field rather than entering an amount in your own currency field.
