Kerala backwaters
27th -30th November
Houseboat
After the five hour drive, we arrived along a narrow lane to join our houseboat, a converted rice barge, for two nights, which was much more lavish than we were expecting AND it had internet, which was surprisingly good.
First though, we had to negotiate a substantial lunch, with only “ a little garlic” in a couple of the dishes and chutneys! Lynne struggled to separate the flesh from the bones on the locally caught fish with only one hand and eating the vegetable stew with a chapati was a pretty messy job too! But the food was delicious, using fresh ingredients and local spices.
Our cabin had a sizeable double bed but no storage space. We felt somewhat smug that we had decanted everything we would need into our smaller cabin bag, so that we didn’t need to access the big suitcase which only just squeezed under the bed. We had a ceiling fan and AC at night. We had a small ensuite but sadly we couldn’t tap into any hot water.
There was a dining room with AC which doubled as the sleeping quarters for the three men looking after us, and a seating area up stairs, covered but open at the sides. And there were only the two of us!
We spent a pleasant afternoon cruising the Backwaters and catching up on our blog. The backwaters include the largest lake in India, the Vembanad, together with interconnecting lakes, lagoons, canals, many different rivers and streams. There is the huge Thaneermukkam salt water barrage to regulate the amount of sea water that enters from the Arabian Sea to the fresh water from the lakes and rivers.
There are rice paddy fields bordering the canals with Kaplan pumps (which reputedly work on Archimedes principle) draining the fields. We stopped at a merchant selling fish and bought some fresh langoustines for dinner.
We moored for the night, enjoying a tasty meal before retiring to our cabin, trying to keep mosquitoes at bay. Poor Peter had to peel all the (hot) langoustines which came in a highly spiced tomato and chili sauce. We had been anxious that the Backwaters would be busy but there was seemingly only us in the nature. A peaceful night’s sleep.
Another huge breakfast but Lynne was feeling a bit fragile and slept on the upper deck.
After lunch we embarked on a small river boat to take us along some of the smaller canals with a village on both sides. This was to prove to be a highlight of our cruise in the Backwaters as we passed by some very grand houses on stilts, and saw how the locals went about their business.
The Backwaters comprise over 900km of waterways with 1.6 million people, mostly farmers and fishermen dependent on them for their livelihood. The waters provide a medium for transport.
On our way to our mooring for the night we arrived at Lake Vembanad, horrified to see about 80 houseboats of varying shapes and sizes ahead of us. Oh dear our solitude had been broken. We were glad when most of them went in a different direction, leaving us to navigate to a mooring in a side area, enjoying the most glorious sunset.
Another splendid meal before retiring, frustrated that we hadn’t managed a hot shower. We had found cruising around the Backwaters restful, once we embraced it, with plenty of activity to see. There were lots of birds, including an eagle, kingfisher and cormorants, ducks and huge flocks of geese.
We were to be picked up at 9am by our driver to be transferred to our next hotel. Our cook seemed determined to use all the unfinished fruit basket, so for breakfast we were served omelette, banana pancakes and toast, as well as masses of fresh fruit and pineapple juice.
Taj Kumarakom hotel
We were surprised that our hotel was less than 500m from where out driver picked us up! We could have walked.
Despite our driver’s offer to take us around, we were happy to spend the day at the Resort Hotel, the Taj in Kumarakom. The hotel has 15 acres of land adjoining the lake, based around Missionary Baker’s Bungalow built in 1881, and enjoyed by several generations of the Baker family until 1982.
The resort consists of 28 large villas, with two huge guest rooms, each with outside shower and bath, amongst lakes and waterways. It seemed extraordinary to find such a well-manicured resort hotel here in India; it wouldn’t have seemed out of place in Florida! There were more Indian guests than Westerners.
We enjoyed the 500m walk around the grounds, admiring the lake from the land and its abundance of blue African water hyacinths, while our room was made ready. The grounds were full of exotic plants and palm trees.
We were offered a golf buggy to take us to our room, but declined. There were bicycles too but impossible for Lynne to use. Because we had arrived long before our check-in time of 2pm, Peter required the assistance of a small army of managers, staff and engineers to access the WiFi!
The day passed quickly with lunch and the use of the gym, before luxuriating in a hot shower. We watched two men re-lay some paving stones of the path outside the bistro, supervised by the manager and another well-dressed staff member. It was the oldest man, barefoot in his dhoti, that lifted the heavy paving stones.
We also passed barefoot workers, without hard hats, climbing a ladder onto the roof of the next door villa. Clearly different health and safety rules apply here!
We delighted in a visit to the wine cellar in the bungalow before enjoying dinner in the outside bistro whilst watching a young dancer performing the very specific gestures of three Keralan dances.
A lovely day.
Our driver picked us up at 11am for a two hour drive back to Cochin. But first, the required departure photo in the grounds. As usual our driver checked that we had our passports and mobile phones before setting off.
Then a lovely drive along the beach road through the fishing villages up the coast, past many grand churches. The huge 6-lane highway to Mumbai is under construction so we took this route to avoid the roadworks, and it was a real treat.
We stopped to walk 50m to the beach to revel in the sight of the Arabian Sea and it was then that Peter discovered that he still had the key to our room in the Taj in his shorts’ pocket. Oops!
We decided not to turn around as we had left the hotel over an hour previously, but it proved rather tiresome sorting out how to return the key particularly without internet enroute as the e-sim that Peter had purchased in the UK failed to function.
Lynne had suggested to our driver that we pass by Jew Town on our way back to our hotel, as she fancied doing a bit of shopping, but he insisted on dropping us at two establishments where we were lucky to escape without spending a small fortune.
