Day 126: Kerala Backwaters Trip

Beth woke up around 4am with a sore stomach. What seemed like a short term issue yesterday morning was proving to be a little more serious - she did not sound well.

Perera picked us up bright and early - when I called him at 4:30 to make sure he was awake and on the way, he said he was outside :-). We hopped in the car and wove through the quiet, dark streets of Colombo as we made our way to the expressway. It was a pretty quick drive at that time of the morning, covering a lot of ground in forty-five minutes. God knows why they built the airport so far north of the city so many years ago.

I offered Perera money for gas and the toll road, but he refused with a smile that said "that's completely unnecessary my friend!". He is such a nice guy and I'm hoping he can come back to Canada in the near future - it's not for lack of trying that he hasn't come back sooner.

Our flight to Kerala, in the South of India was quite short - just an hour. Sri Lanka, as they say, really is the "tear drop of India", and before we knew it, the kids were beaming back at us as we landed in country number ten

Kerala, like many states in India, is almost like a country unto itself. With 33 million people, they speak a different language called Malayalam (India has 22 official languages, with a total of 122 languages spoken in the country! And we thought translating public document to just French and English was hard!), have a different historical background and have different food specific to the area. There's a perception from outsiders that "Hindi" is the overriding common langue for India, but that is really more accurate in the North. In the south, they are closer to "anti-Hindi". It's very much a country of countries here. Christianity is very popular in Kerala (18%), due to the fact that this was a major Portuguese then Dutch enclave hundreds of years ago. The education levels here are the highest in the country, with literacy rates of over 93%. Kerala is lowest in population growth in the country and has the highest life expectancy at 77, so they are very much a model for the rest of the country to hopefully follow.

Beth and I had done a backwater day trip here in 1997, and it was one of the more memorable, chill experiences we had had on the trip. While researching this trip, we'd found many overnight trip options, and using trip advisor and many difficult to understand emails and phone calls, had booked a 3 night stay with Alleppy Backwater Tours.

The backwaters are a series of lakes, canals (some man made, some natural) and rivers that are interconnected to form a 1687 kilometre long network of transportation and irrigation for thousands of square kilometers of prime farmland - mainly rice. The natural backwaters were first formed by huge sandbars that trapped water inland, and they were, over hundreds of years, extended and joined to form this huge network.

I wasn't sure, given Beth's poor condition, how this trip would work out. It would either be a welcome chance to chill out and recover, or something that could exacerbate her uncomfortableness. Fingers were crossed.

The airport pickup I'd arranged was great, as we immediately noticed we were not in the quiet, relatively laid back confines of Sri Lanka anymore. The airport exit was crammed with hundreds of people, and we easily spotted a well dressed, mustached guy with "Tyndall" written on it. I quickly met with a phone guy from Airtel and he had me set up with a SIM card in minutes. As expected, there was some more paperwork than other counties, but it was still quick.

The ride was pretty long and uneventful. I really noticed the crush of people and activity compared with a drive in Sri Lanka. Beth took the opportunity to catch some zees..

We eventually got to the Alleppey Jetty area where we saw hundreds of different ships moored along the side. The ships they use as house boats are called kettuvallum and they used to be rice grain transportation vessels, but over time they've converted their usage to passenger vehicles - from luxury to destitute I'm sure.

We were met at the dock by the guy that I'd been corresponding with - a small, young Indian guy with a helpful demeanour and cheery disposition. He took us to our boat and walked us through things. The boat has a front, covered deck that would act as our family room, two bedrooms with small, basic ensuite bathrooms, and then the kitchen area in the back. It was very simple, clean and a bit dated. Judging by the girls reactions, they were pretty pumped. Beth, not so much.... But she was definitely in a crawl-into-bed mood so that was very understandable.



We had three crew aboard - one guy was definitely the chef, another one seemingly the captain, and a third the jack of all trades. They had a comfort with each other like they'd been doing it for a while and I found out later that the captain had been with the boat for fifteen years.

We launched at around 1pm, with the kids quickly occupying the front deck like it was their own.

Meals are served while docked so that the three staff can prepare, serve us then eat. So we pulled over at one point and had lunch. Beth, upon seeing and smelling the food, immediately hibernated in our cabin. It,reminded me of the "almonds" moment I'd had when not feeling well aboard the cursed North Borneo Express.

In the afternoon, we cruised slowly through s series of canals and small lakes, just taking it in.

Mid afternoon, we had our first real chai of the trip - oh man, it was so good, and if I may sound like a bit of an urbanite, the lack of Venti Skim Chai No Foam Lattes since Ho Chi Minnh City (for Christ sakes!) has been a real hardship! The fried bananas on the other hand, we could all do without.

This little boat trip seems perfect timing to have nothing to do. We have played more games this afternoon than we had in all of Sri Lanka, including a game of Walking Dead Heads Up with Robin (who is sporting her new favourite shirt from Sri Lanka that I just noticed says "Sri Lanka is for lovers".... Not quite as bad as the forgettable Cocksure Lads temporary tattoo incident, but still....).

The terrain turned to houses and farms along the canals. Life is simple here.

We docked around 6pm so the boys could prepare dinner. It was a pretty picturesque evening.

Going through the camera roll, I guess Robin added a selfie to cap the night off.

Beth retired after dinner, and the kids and I played a game of iPad monopoly before bed. Being up since four this morning, I'm sure we will all sleep well tonight, and here's hoping that Beth bounces back a little.... We have a lot of relaxing to do over the next two days!