a life in words: cruising through "god's own country"

3rd - 4th December 2011.

Allepey Backwaters, Kerala.

"God's own country", the catchphrase attributed to the state of Kerala is where my journey has taken me so far and along with the Aussie (Bronwin) we arrived shattered in Ernakulam on the morning of the 28th. The overnight sleeper coach actually got in at 4am and so the early morning ferry we hopped on from Ernakulam to Fort Cochin felt like floating through a dream in my semi-conscious state. After reaching the tip of the peninsula where the town lies, we found the energy to check out a few home stays and settled on the cheapest one about a 10min walk from the center of town. Spent four nights in Fort Cochin, it was longer than I had intended but I got a short bout of illness which luckily only lasted 24hours (think of it as a diet-delhibelly) but never the less prolonged my stay there which in hindsight wasn't necessarily a bad thing...

In the two months I've been traveling over here, there has been a recurring series of strange coincidences where I've been bumping into the same people over and over again. Upon reflection though, there is a backpacker trail and most people traveling around the country are usually on it, so the likelihood of repeatedly bumping into people isn't all that remarkable but it's always a surprise. This was actually the second time I had inadvertently bumped into a group of six recently-graduated students from Brighton. I first met the gang catching a bus to Margao from Palolem in Goa and once again whilst at the Gopi guesthouse in Hampi. This time it was just after myself and Bronwin had been to watch some Kathakali - a ritualized form of performance theater which places significance on the expressive movement of the eyes which in my lowly, humble and probably ignorant opinion was bullshit - and we were looking for somewhere to eat. Walking along the high street I heard, like I had at the guesthouse in Hampi, "Alex, Alex!" Looking over I spotted the gang sat eating at a local fish restaurant and so joined them for dinner where we talked about what we had both been upto since our last meeting. Since then I've temporarily tagged along with the Brighton massive (Theo, Polly, Jay, Charlie, Hazel and Holly) and the timing couldn't have been more perfect as I had been looking to befriend a larger crew so that I could afford to do a cruise on a houseboat along the famous Keralan backwaters. The following therefore is some things I jotted down about the great 24 hours we spent on a boat together....

As the jumping off point for the backwater tours was in Allepey, we hopped on the 90minute bus ride down there from Fort Cochin on the 2nd so that we could hire a houseboat out for the next day. To quickly fill you in here, the area known as the backwaters, which stretches between Kollam and Kochi is made up of a multitude of waterways and lakes whose banks are lined with coconut trees, dense green vegetation and paddy fields. There is a roaring trade whereby houseboats can be hired for a day or longer and the time on board is spent lazily cruising up and down the various canals. As the name suggests the boats contain all the necessary amenities to live comfortably and the amount you pay (and you can pay a lot!) determines the level of luxury you enjoy whilst making the journey. Arriving down by the water in a convoy of rick shaws we were all swarmed by a hoarde of cut throat touts each eager to show us their respective boats. A boat by the name of "Flamingo" was shown to us by a young lad named Vinny for Rs11,000 but after reading the slogan on his t-shirt which proudly declared, "You can't afford me" I wasn't optimistic that he was our man. A thought also passed through my head that his t-shirt probably wasn't the most sensible item of clothing to be wearing whilst showing a bunch of extremely budget travelers like ourselves round a houseboat but there you go. After a great deal of faffing about, Hazel suggested I just ask the government approved help desk who had fixed prices for houseboat cruises, whilst she looked after all our bags seeing as the others had gone off on a boat hunt. This turned out to be a very good idea as soon after a man arrived to show us a government boat for Rs10,000. This meant that between the seven of us it would work out at about fifteen quid each. Sound as a pound as they often say in the UK (according to Indian people..). In a bizarre turn of events, myself and Theo were led directly back to the "Flamingo" boat Vinny had just shown us but with a Rs 1,000 deduction which we snapped up as it looked very nice onboard and so it seems Vinny's t-shirt was indeed correct! The price included 22hours on the boat with all meals supplied and a total distance of around 30km would be covered. After boarding ship, which for the purpose of this blog I'll name 'The Royal Feminist', the next task was actually to leave the harbor which proved harder than it sounds. Due to the massive growth in tourism generated by backwater excursions the jetty was heavily populated with many houseboats which were queued up in front of the dock, so that reversing out involved alot of careful steering and a dash of ramming to get the other houseboats out of the way. The boat was plush to say the least and just behind the bow was a dining/sitting area with a couch and several chairs whilst the edges were also lined with wooden benches meaning there were numerous places to lounge. And lounge we did. We spent the afternoon cruising along the various canals and rivers observing local people going about their daily business on the shore and off, one man had hopped in and was going for an afternoon swim as we glided by armed with our cameras! The steering wheel had been mounted just in front of the communal area and so I spent a few minutes navigating the boat through the dark green waters before we docked for lunch using a coconut tree as a make shift cleat. Just as everyone had settled down for lunch, which was served up by the bucketful, I looked behind Theo sat at the other end of the table and saw a man who looked to be standing on the water next to the boat. He bent down and reappeared brandishing a massive shrimp and asked if we were interested in buying some fish. Declining his proposal, as the table was already full of steaming pots of dahl, rice and vegetables, he bent back down and we watched as he paddled off to the next houseboat in his small rowing boat which had suddenly come into view to continue his express fish delivery service. Setting off once again after we had all eaten to bursting point, the rest of the day was spent gliding down more waterways, reading books and listening to music on the boats hi-fi. It amused me that the Indian mentality of wanting to constantly overtake other vehicles is not just limited to cars as our driver felt compelled to throttle the engine in order to overtake other slower houseboats stupid enough to get in our way. All of which were full of smiling faces each as eager as the next to wave to us manically. After docking for the night the rest of the evening was spent chatting which turned into 'debating' - chaired by our very own Dimbleby in Charlie - as more drinks were consumed. Finally crashed out for the night as the boat gently rocked under the glare of the moon and the buzz of mosquitoes. An early start next day meant we arrived back in Allepey for 9am and there ended our brief but hugely enjoyable houseboat cruise.

Think I'll pop over over to Chennai tomorrow as my time here is fast approaching its end!