Couldn’t sleep in, of course, so woke to the beautifully warm weather here in the southwest tip if the Indian sub-continent and headed to breakfast to update blog and let Matt sleep a bit more. A real shame to do an overnight in such a nice little hotel – no time to sit by the pool in the garden. I wake Matt up, check in with our driver, who is out front a bit early, and go for a walk on the waterfront while Matt eats. Not much to it, some serious hawkers, and some old school Portuguese fishing nets.
Otherwise, trash and tankers, tourists and tchotchke stands.
I head back, check out, and Matt and I pile into the van for a whirlwind tour of the highlights before boarding out houseboat (yes, ours). The big Portuguese church (a lot more Christians down south, without a doubt),
the Dutch palace (closed, so just a drive by), Jew street:
the synagogue (closed to visits on Fridays, you can see Matt’s “hand”made yarmulke)
and the spice market. Ha! I thought they meant a spice market, but this is just a jive store selling spices and teas in the front and all the usual Indian souvenirs elsewhere. A quick in and out, and we’re off to the boat.
We walk across two boats to get to ours and are greeted upon arrival with a local drink: a straw stuck into a coconut with the top hacked off:
The boats are long, kind of narrow and flat with curled-up ends, and a woven cover over all.
Different configurations on different boats, but ours has a kitchen in the back,
then our air-conditioned room (only when the generator is on) and in the front, just behind the steering area, is a table and chairs in a glass enclosed area for meals. There’s an upstairs that covers about half the boat that has no furniture, but padded cushions around all the sides.
The front actually has cushions about 14 feet wide and 5 feet deep, so we can sprawl all over these and watch the world go by as we cruise slowly through the channels and larger open areas. This is called the Kerala backwaters, or the Venice of India. Everywhere we go, there are houses all along the banks, set just behind the waterside dirt path that leads everywhere. As we pass, we see children playing, women doing laundry (the sound of clothes and linens slapping against the stones is one I will be hearing in my mind for quite some time) and people bathing.
Its a peaceful time, punctuated by a stop at a market to pick up some tiger prawns for a special treat.
Every once in a while, we pass a strip of little stores – usually always a fish market, an ice cream corner, and a knick knack store.
We putter until about 5:30, watching all the other boats cruise around as well:
when we dock for the night. Dinner at 7:30 (prawns are excellent, having been rubbed with all kinds of chilis and grilled). I don’t have too much of a stomach for the rest of the Indian meal. We then retire to our room, I watch a movie (Star Trek AGAIN) and go to sleep.