14th of January 2011
I am now sitting in the train from Kanya to Kottayam where we should be met by a taxi around 4.30pm to take us to our houseboat. Tonight should be candle lit dinner – plenty of mosquito repellent, don’t worry! It is a shame I booked in AC2 (Air Con) wagon because as a result, we have dirty and heavily tinted windows which preclude us from properly enjoying the breath-taking Kerala landscapes we are passing through and we had to get our fleece jackets from our bags to sustain the cold despite perfectly pleasant temperatures outside. On the plus side, we are getting more space on the benches (2 people as opposed to 4 people in the non AC class). Here the vegetation is even lusher and we are passing very rich coconut fields, rice fields, backwaters landscapes.
Our train was delayed by 45 mns. Fortunately the people who were supposed to pick us up had waited patiently and I was surprised when two guys approached me from the crowd with no sign, nor any other indication they were form the tourism industry, calling out my first name.
We followed them with our luggage and they took us in a brand new Renault car (with transparent plastic covers sticking to our skin) to the boarding point. I have to admit I did not feel so comfortable in since it shortly became unbreathable inside. I opened my window but they did not open theirs in the front. Mid-way, they asked Paul if he would like to stop for beer. We both found that odd, but worked out later that it was probably for the houseboat on board consumption as the houseboat may not have been licensed for alcohol. Paul said: "no, just take us straight to the boat".
15th of January – Houseboating in KUMAKARAKOM
The houseboat was looking great, beyond expectation.
All made of local products: coconut tree wood, ropes and mats made from coconut fibre. You can eat local grilled fish on board, and you are looked after by three local crew members who had equal responsibility in the running of the boat – as they told us at the beginning. We were first greeted by freshly fried bananas – the kids loved it, and so did I – accompanied by drinks. Then, we moved towards the middle of the lake – it was already getting dark, and we moored the boat along a small islet with two other boats moored there for the night.
The dinner was served in a glass protected area – if you wanted to. We chose that option for fear of mosquitoes that first night. The food was sumptuous, and given the immaculate state of the kitchen, we did not have any second thoughts about ‘eating everything heartedly’ – we did not leave one crumb!
The bedrooms were very cute, and inviting. I asked one crew member if I could open the windows and put the mosquito net for the night instead of the A/C. He said ‘the A/C is better’, so I complied. I was not convinced the mosquitoes were that much of a problem there because I did not notice any on the deck that evening.
After two or three hours, I realised we were about to choke in there, it was terribly hot, the A/C was not working properly at all, so I decided to stop it and open the windows. I put the mosquito net on the bed as Paul is very worried about mosquitoes, then I attended to the children. In the early morning, Paul was finally convinced we could take the net out, and that was the best part of ‘lazing around’ as a gentle breeze entered the room and we could still admire the calm and peacefulness of the lake waters and waterlilies from our bedroom window.
We shared a traditional Keralan breakfast with Geetha & Gopan families. This was a very special and private moment. They came with generous and mindful presents. They stayed with us until 11h30am, it was sad to see them leave the boat but Geetha’s husband said we should come to his home next time. We took heaps of photos to share with Gopan who was overseas. These few hours were for me the very highlight of the whole trip.
Then we continued along the river towards Allepey and were dropped in front of the Green Palms Homes Guesthouse I had booked for that night around 4.00pm.
This was indeed a very special venture. The guesthouse was a separate building from a Backwater Villager’s home to host travellers in a very eco-friendly and minimalist way. We embarked almost immediately in a guided tour with Matthew (Thomas’ brother – ref Lonely Planet India), a very erudite man himself as well. He taught us about the ecology of his area, as we walked through the canals, backwater houses and paddy fields. He also told us how successful Kerala had been with religious discrimination issues, and he explained that by the ‘above average degree of literacy in that particular state’ – people who ‘think twice’. He said uneducated people were ‘easily manipulated by politician’. He explained the intricate symbolism of the local Christian Syrian church where the lotus flower was mixed with the cross, etc – showing how the faiths had interestingly somehow intertwined over the millennia. We were also taught about the ‘mud diggers’, previously known as arajans (untouchables) and how they had to construct their own Christian church in the middle of the paddy fields so that they would not mix with higher cast gents and ladies. He explained that the cast system was not current anymore in states like Kerala, that it was more a thing of the North, like Bihar etc.
We saw some Bihar nomadic people fishing with small handmade (palm leaves) round shaped boats of approximately 1 meter diameter.
The last part of the tour saw us boarding small wooden canoes that every household in the backwater seem to have moored in front of their house (like we do with our cars) and Matthew sang three traditional songs that could be heard during his childhood years along the river. Then the children sang a song as well, and the finale was a song from a old Austrian couple !!! .. very very pleasant and picturesque moment indeed.
We enjoyed the evening meal around a round table with a Norwegian family of four (they must have the same school holidays as us) and a young Chinese couple working in Pune who were here for the week end. The Norwegian woman said they had chosen to come to India because she had been there and had a great time when she was in the middle of doing medical school as a young student. She said she ‘at the time’ had to be evacuated by emergency plane back home as she had suffered severe dehydration. She said she had waited for too long to address the problem, because she wanted to stay in India ‘with her boyfriend she loved so much’ – girls !!! She seems not to have lost her sense of adventure because she had just spent one month as a Médecins sans Frontieres in Haiti this year.
The young and outgoing Chinese guy was a sales person for a Chinese Vehicle manufacturer and he engaged in conversation with me ... IN FRENCH !!! He had spent 10 years in France studying and working there for the same company. He missed Paris. His fiancée had come from China to visit him for one month, so he was taking her around for the week end. He said ‘the hardest place to visit had been Varanasi’, and that it was ‘no place to take children there', and 'if you can travel there, you can travel anywhere'.
In the morning, he was struck with fever and diarrhoea, so his fiancée (who could not speak much French neither English) came to fetch some help from us all and Paul had to mime how to take the ‘blokker’ ... that it : take two capsules, then after ‘miming passing a stool’ (well this was serious matter J) take another one, then another one after the next stool. The Medecin sans frontiers woman gave her some antibiotics if he wished to as ‘she was not an antibiotics doctor’ (her own words), only in case of emergency.
Paul had a bird walking tour with Matthew in the morning.
16th of January – KOLLAM
After breakfast, we rented some wooden canoes from the hotel and paddled around the backwaters and paddy fields. The canoe was a bit wobbly, so the children were soon fed up with it. We finally moored the boat and they could easily make their way home walking !!:))) An escape from the parents is always a good plan, for some reasons... Then Oscar made up a fishing rode out of a multi branched stick and a large handkerchief. He put bits off an old muesli bar he had been given in the plane as part of the kids meal, to attract fishes along the canal.
Philip, Matthew's brother in law, said he would never have accepted our booking if he had known we would stay so little time. He explained kindly how he was doing this job as a hobby, as he was also a ‘financial adviser in London’ where he spent 7 months of the year, and the remaining months here with his family, wife and two children who would come to see him during the holiday in England – the best of both world he had managed, I suppose. He was very nice to talk to. I could sense how frustrating these kinds of encounters could be for him. One day is not long enough to make real connection. I found this tourism venture very interesting. It was run in an eco-friendly way by a family of gifted young men (and women I should say, because the mum was cooking the three meals every day), who were perfectly able to act as a ‘bridge between cultures’.
We left the place with the regret of not having spent more time there.
Matthew organised for a taxi to take us to Kollam, our next stop for the night. We first had to put our luggages on a small wooden boat to leave the backwater island where Green Palms Homes house was located, and the taxi was waiting for us on the other side. It was a small Tata car. The driver was very skilled and even managed to find our hotel in Kollam after having ‘again’ to cross a river, putting the car on a barge --- the joys of the backwaters! but I felt a bit nauseous in the car, I feel more comfortable in the old fashion ‘Ambassador’ car with no A/C.
