We’re somewhere in the Kerala backwaters. You could say we’re wonderfully lost, because we don’t really care where we are and we literally have nothing to do. The two-night houseboat tour commenced around midday after a slightly frightening drive from Cochin to Alleppey and a couple of debacles involving waiting, something we’re not accustomed to given the overall efficiency of our tour operator. While waiting for the boat to arrive we had time to become concerned about the quality of our quarters and the class of our travelling colleagues. Our worries were misplaced as the boat is very comfortable and we have it to ourselves with the exception, bizarrely, of three staff.
We have a host, a driver and a chef, although all three share responsibilities. Soon after leaving we stopped at a small riverside fish market where the chef picked up some pomfret for our lunch. Not long after, when we were back in motion again, we began to smell delicious cooking smells coming from the back of the boat, and we soon stopped at a micro-coconut plantation (where a couple of blokes were gathering sap for fenni, a fiery coconut liqueur) to eat. We have a little dining table on the boat, and this was almost covered in food: three different types of vegetables cooked with fried coconut – cabbage, beetroot and okra – fried okra in a style reminiscent of bhaji and the pomfret lightly fried in turmeric, chilli powder, masala and lemon juice. It was frickin’ awesome, and I said no word of a lie when I told the chef it was better than the food we had at Taj Malabar. He was probably a touch confused, then, when we made a very poor attempt at eating it all – it was a massive serve and I was still not feeling 100%.
Aside from eating we’ve really done nothing but sit and read, and I’m loving it. The scenery is truly beautiful, and the river is very tranquil. The number of houseboats though is quite surprising – it’s certainly not a unique experience any more. We’re now moored for the evening, right outside a tiny riverside duck farm. When we first arrived there were literally hundreds of ducklings trotting around a little shed which seems dedicated to them. I must confess a brief concern that duck was on the menu for dinner tonight…
Speaking of all things wildlife, we have also spotted our first Kingfishers, other than the beer and airline of the same name. They’re a magnificent-looking bird, with the shape of a small kookaburra and the colours of a rosella, but with very different markings and blue as their dominant colour.
We’re currently just sitting on the boat as the sun – once again huge – sets over coconut palms and awaiting the night to commence.
The boat staff are having a pow-wow with their colleagues from other boats, but the smell of cooking is coming from other boats, so no doubt our chef will be back soon to bring on his next food opus.
Day 2
Our second day on the houseboat was much like our first – we both devoured our books, gazed at the scenery, played cards and ate a veritable shitload of awesome Keralan food. If we come back weighing a few kilos more than when we left, it will probably be due to these couple of days.
The previous night we ate channa dal, chicken curry and fried chicken drumsticks with an enormous bowl of chapattis to scoop it all up with. Once again it was delicious. Once night fell the bugs descended, which was not so great, along with a whole heap of geckos. We started watching a movie on the laptop, but soon gave up and went to our bedroom, only to discover an absolutely enormous bug that looked like a cockroach but was actually a flying beetle of some sort. It was so big that when it flew across the room and landed on the opposite wall it made loud skittering noises. We were not amused, and not much sleep was had that night.
The following morning we awoke to find that there was no hot water, so we had very quick and unsatisfying cold showers before emerging to a beautiful morning and steaming cups of masala chai. But it didn’t end there – to our delight, we were served up an egg curry for breakfast, accompanied by rice noodles and more chai. It was magnificent.
Breakfast out of the way, we settled down to some serious reading. George read an entire book in one day while I polished off the second half of my 600 page book. In between snatches of reading George drove the boat for a while:
The backwaters are lined with beautiful colourful buildings and a surprising number of Christian churches considering the area is predominantly Hindu. Probably stinking missionaries, but at least the buildings are nice.
The deck of the houseboat was very clean and with comfortable chairs to lounge on while watching the world go by. These houseboats are a huge trade in the area – there was almost always at least one within sight, of varying sizes and quality:
The pace of life here is very slow and everything is based around the water – everywhere you go people are fishing, washing their clothes or their hair, or ferrying people back and forth across the channels:
It’s a very tranquil and peaceful place to be. If we’d been any more relaxed we’d be comatose:
Our crew were a jolly bunch, always singing and laughing together:
We had another awesome lunch of fried river fish with various bowls of delicious vegetables and rice. And then all too soon the sun was setting once again and we were served up our dinner – a Chinese-style chicken curry, fried rice and more fried chicken drumsticks.
We slept far better last night (no giant bugs in the room) and the cold shower this morning wasn’t even too bad. This morning was possibly even more beautiful than yesterday, and was highlighted by a huge flock of ducks being herded up the river past our boat:
It was quite an amazing sight to see so many ducks all moving as one – it was literally like a river of ducks.
After a very simple omelette and toast for breakfast, the boat started off once again and after around an hour we reached the end of our trip and farewelled our crew to head back here to the Taj Malabar.
It’s just after midday, so we’ll probably stay here this afternoon and finally get in a swim in the awesome infinity pool (and hopefully get some photos of it to share) and generally lounge around. We fly out tomorrow night at 11.45pm, so during the day we’ll finally go over to Fort Cochin to check that out and hopefully avoid at least one, if not two, expensive meals here.
No doubt we’ll report again tomorrow, if not it’ll be from Singapore where we’ll be stuck for 18 hours.
1 comment:
Sounds fantastic!
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