A Rough Ride

We rose early to join Philip’s dad, mom, brother and uncle for a trip to the backwaters of Kerala – On the list of 1000 places to visit before you die. They showed up at the hotel at 7am and we loaded into the back of a SUV called a Tata Sumo. After an hour of bumpy roads and being bounced around the back end of the car we stopped for a breakfast of idlis(soft steamed rice cakes) and dosas(rice crepes). We drove thru many small Kerala towns where seeing elephants on the road was as common as seeing cows. And after another two hours of being tossed around we arrived at our destination to learn that reservation had not been made. Neither had decisions on what we were planning to do. Before boarding we needed to use the bathrooms which was Gretchen’s first experience with the hole in the floor. With all 6 of us and the driver putting our heads together we finally decided to take a 4 hour boat “cruise” thru the backwaters. So the 6 of us had the whole 30ft boat to ourselves. The two of us immediately climbed onto the roof to enjoy the view and the sun.

This made Philip’s mom worried that we would fall off the side. The image of swaying coconut palms and the still backwaters made for quite the picture perfect landscape. We saw several homes whose only connection to the outside world was via boat. And these boats are usually small canoe like craft. The canal that we were cruising on was also where they did their laundry, gave their kids a bath and did their dishes. We passed through the canal to a huge lagoon like bay where we docked at a floating restaurant for lunch. The specialty for lunch was karimeen. A very elusive fish that is caught in these backwaters. Philip warned me to be careful of the small bones that are found in this fish. We also had the largest prawn that I have ever seen. It was the size of a small lobster.
We reboarded our personal craft and headed to where the lagoon meets the Arabian Sea. On our way back we passed a pretty spectacular resort and a bird sanctuary. The ride back was pretty short and the entire was a loop of sorts. Once we got off the boat we headed towards Kottayam t o visit another friend of the family. Visiting friends on long journey seems to be the norm here. And “not out of the way” and “very close by” hold completely different meanings in this part of the world.
It was another long arduous ride back to the hotel with 3 more stops thrown in. The first was for fresh fruit juice, the second was baked goods at supposedly one of the best bakeries in those parts. And last but not least a stop to buy bananas which are an overly abundant resource and are sold everywhere. Choosing what bananas you want here is not as easy a choice as deciding between getting regular bananas or organic bananas. There are over a dozen varieties of bananas each with its own shape, size, color and taste. This ended up being our dinner. We requested to be taken back straight to the hotel because the rough ride, the pollution and being jostled around in the back made us a little queasy and we just wanted to take hot showers(haven’t been able to predict the availability of hot water ) and go to bed.
We have had some consistent experiences here. Everybody stares. We first noticed this when we went to lunch with Philip’s mom and there was an Indian movie star seated near us and a British family of 4 seated behind us. Philip’s mom’s attention was directed on these individuals for the entire meal. It was a very blatant stare and when asked about it, Philip’s mom argued that it was not impolite, but a compliment to be stared at. Well, if that is the case, I have received so many compliments on this trip—especially in Kerala where seeing a “foreigner” is a rare occurrence. In fact, while dining this morning a whole family proudly watched me order breakfast, drink coffee and hold conversations with Philip.