From Alleppey we took a train to Trivandrum, the nearest big town to the beach resort in Kovalam.  Before we got on the train Reuben confessed to me that he had broken a tooth before our houseboat adventure, but hadn’t wanted me to worry about it so had kept it to himself.  Luckily, Trivandrum and Kovalam are known for medical tourism, so the first morning we were there we went to a dentist.  They informed us that as we had thought it was a broken wisdom tooth but since it was now infected they couldn’t remove it until two days later. We spent the next two days swimming, relaxing in the sun and enjoying the chilled atmosphere of Kovalam, as well as eating lots of delicious food.  The beach here is beautiful and has awesome waves to swim and play in.

Reuben went to his dental appointment but after three hours of painful work they couldn’t manage to remove it, so we headed back to Trivandrum that afternoon to see an oral surgeon.  The next morning we returned, Reuben to have his tooth removed and me to search the streets for an ATM that would take our card as the oral surgeon needed to be paid in cash (India seems to be a country where more machines take Visa than Mastercard).  Our last couple of days in Kovalam were spent in more quiet recovery (it also rained during this time which made resting less frustrating than otherwise).  We are grateful that we could find a good oral surgeon but this was not quite the relaxing experience we had hoped for during our down time at Kovalam!