Kerala Backwaters- 3/7/09

Today we woke up pretty early once again.  We started on our 5 hour drive to Allepy which is 1 hour past Cochin.  We were heading to our houseboat and we in a rush to get there so we could cruise around for as many hours as possible until sunset so we didn't really stop along the way.  We were all a little bit hesitant about what this houseboat might be like, would it be really shitty or really nice? As we approached where our houseboat was, we passed some really run down ones so it continued to make us nervous, but we finally arrived at ours and it was quite the opposite.  The boat was incredible and looked like a million bucks!  We couldn't believe we had only spent about $150 bucks for the night for this amazing boat.  We had to cross this narrow bridge to get onto the boat, something my Dad definitely would have fallen in on.  We met the crew on the boat, we had a driver and 2 cooks on the boat the whole time we were there and they had coconuts with straws in it waiting for us.  We got off and got some last minute snacks in case we didn't like the food or we got hungry later that night and then headed on our way. 

The two cooks got to work at making us lunch and within 20 minutes of us being on the boat we pulled over in a shady spot and had a traditional Indian lunch.  After lunch we continued on the backwaters which are a networks of tiny little rivers/streams and they refer to it as the "Venice of India."  There are lots of little villages and homes along the banks with lots of people who live very simple lives.  They don't have a need for cable TV, the internet or cell phones…they are perfectly content with catching their own food, doing their laundry in the stream and bathing once a week,  something that is very hard to fathom for the average Westernized person.  At one point 2 kids ran up along side our boat and kept asking us for "pens."  It took us a minute to realize what they were talking about but the driver told us they wanted pens that click.  We ran inside to see what we could find and found one pen and a candy bar.  One of us threw the stuff at them and they were scrambling for it and both fell over a little embankment.  One of the kids quickly appeared from behind the hill and had both the candy bar and the pen in his hands in victory.  Most of them homes along the water have concrete fences around most of their property and it was very interesting because in order to get some additional income for their family, some of the people will sell advertisement space on the wall to companies such as Vodafone or local travel agencies.  A few minutes later the driver pulled over to let us out and walk around, but he picked the worst spot and there was nothing to really do or see…so we got back on the boat. 

On the other side of the river there was what looked to be like a tribal celebration going on at a temple so we asked the driver to pull over.  The crew was hesitant at first because apparently it is not that common that tourists want to get off the boat and interact with other people, but that’s exactly what we had come to do.  Eventually we convinced them to let us out and we headed to the celebration.  We watched for a few minutes and noticed that one of the guys kept falling over and we didn't know what was wrong with him, we had speculation he might be drunk but drinking is not that common in the Hindu religion.  At about the same point, one of the villagers came over to introduce himself to us and we quickly realized these people were beyond drunk based on the smell illuminating from them.  After that man introduced himself we were quickly embraced into the celebration as if they hadn't noticed us standing there before for the past 5 minutes.  We quickly became part of the celebration as they offered us drums and other instruments to play.  They then took us behind the building and showed us the God they were worshiping, the purpose of the celebration.  As a village they had constructed this idol and had sold it to a temple nearby so they were celebrating the money they had received for this creation.  One of the guys asked us if we liked alcohol, of course our response was yes as we are all college students.  He then asked us if we wanted some and we thought this was a little bit sketchy as we didn't know what they were doing to give us.  We followed him around back and he poured us some shots out of a gallon container, with no labels on it.  Out of respect for their hospitality we decided we had to try it and not be rude and whatever bacteria was in it would easily be killed by the alcohol.  One of the villagers held up a beer and said "this 5 %" and then held up the coconut rum and said "this 100%" referring to the alcohol content.  We finally took the shot and it was quite strong but very good, it was just like homemade bathtub moonshine.  They kept offering us more but we decided against it and just talked to them for a little while longer until our driver told us it was time to leave.  We said our thanks to them for their hospitality, took some more pictures and then headed out.  

We then got back on the boat and went across the river to a little convenience store and pirated DVD shop.  We bought some DVD's and some food and then headed on the boat to our final resting spot for the night.  All the houseboats line up along the bank of the river and tie up for the night.  We had about 90 minutes until dinner so we got off the boat and went to mingle with the other tourists on the other boats.  We met some people from the U.S., a travel agent from England and a honeymooning couple from England.  The sun was about to go down so we headed back to the boat because the path back would have been pretty hard to navigate in the dark without any flashlights.  We got back to the boat and we were served dinner.  We had dinner and some beers and then after sat around and talked for a few hours before going to bed.