Lazing on a Houseboat in Kerala

Enjoying the Sunset, Kochi [Enlarge & More]

The Humidity in Kerala has been much higher than anywhere else we have been at about 95%. Luckily, it’s cooler so is bearable and during the night in Kochi we had found a delightful renovated old Dutch homestay called Walton’s to stay in, which was cool and airy. On the recommendation of the owner we booked ourselves onto a ‘Deluxe’ houseboat after leaving Kochi. We picked it up from Allepuzah (Allepey) after a taxi ride from Kochi. The taxi ride down was entertaining just for the fact that the driver talked to himself the whole way down, shouted at us so that we would understand his adequate English and constantly have his hand on the horn for no reason at all.

On the Houseboat[Enlarge & More]

The Houseboat turned out to be a real gem, it was beautiful and definitely ‘Deluxe’ and as soon as we had boarded it we set off down the backwaters. It was a glorious day and it was stunning with such vibrant colours and so much going on on the water. Not something I would want to do but the waters edge is used as a bathroom, people wash themselves, their clothes and what gave me a shiver, brush their teeth. The river didn’t look the cleanest.

We were looked after really well on the Houseboat and as sunset arrived we moored up for the night. The noise level by the river was amazing, particularly a frog that only calls out during the rainy season which I guessed correctly and Jono decided was a bat!! The most alarming sight was the size of the mosquitoes, up until now they had been what I would call normal size, but on the river they were huge. One good thing about them being so big was you would see them coming.

River Taxi [Enlarge & More]

Even though the small bedroom had a ceiling fan, the humidity on the river was incredible at night. I did wake up a few times drenched in my own sweat, I’m sure by the morning you could have wrung out the pillow. The best thing would have been to open the windows but neither of us fancied that as we did not trust the nets on them to hold back the giant mossies.

A bit of culture to aid recovery in Kochi

Off Sight Seeing [Enlarge & More]

Well, after about 72 hours of gut-wrenching agony I’m well enough to at least write a little! The train journey was pretty difficult, but I got to know the toilets pretty well – it’s amazing how your standards lower a bit after a few trips to throw up directly onto the moving train track that you can see through the hole in the ground that’s shaped like a toilet! After getting to Kochi, the first afternoon/evening was a complete write-off for me. I was continually ill and completely drained of energy, so Mahmoud went out for a little wander to get some food for himself, have a little scout around, and pick up a few bits and pieces for me!

The next day, I did manage to get out of the hotel room, and was greeted by a pleasantly warm and sunny Kochi. As I was feeling better, we went out and enjoyed the city, doing a walking tour around the main sights. Kochi is a great place to visit – there are loads of things to see – an interesting blend of historical sights and daily life which means that you can happily walk around the city and not get bored. Furthermore, the people are really friendly, and we struck up a few conversations easily – everyone seems to speak English! Even though Kochi is such an appealing place, we were still surprised to find so many foreign tourists there – I think we saw more in one day than we’ve seen in the entire trip so far! It seems to be a very popular destination.

Chinese Fishing Nets[Enlarge & More]

The best of the sights was the Chinese Fishing Nets, huge contraptions fitted with counter-weights, which get lowered into the water for several minutes at a time, and then are pulled out with a few fish wriggling inside. We went down and sat with some of the fishermen, and heard their stories about their lives – including how since the 2004 tsunami, they no longer catch nearly as many large fish as they used to. I’m not sure of the reasons behind this, but it was really interesting to hear how this event has affected their livelihoods. They also mentioned that they rely on “donations” from tourists – something we’d known from the beginning we would need to provide them with due to the fact they’d motioned for us to come over in the first place!

Kathakali Performance [Enlarge & More]

We saw a few other interesting sights, including the Dutch Palace (actually built by the Portuguese) which contained some very interesting Hindu murals, and the spice market – the smell alone there was interesting! A real blend of aromas. In the evening, we went and saw a Kathakali dance – very expressive, despite the lead female (a demon) being played by a man, which I assume is normal. They gave a little explanation as to what some of the expressions meant which was useful for when they did the actual dance. By this point, I was starting to feel ill again, and had to rush to the bathroom near the end, almost missing the dramatic climax of the dance where the green guy from heaven cut off the breasts, nose and ears of the yellow demon woman from hell – no messing there!

After that, the rest of the evening was over for me, and I went another evening with no food – three in a row! Mahmoud kindly brought me back some plain rice at my request, and I forced a few mouthfuls, but was not really able to eat. I’ve been making it all up today though, and am feeling a bit better, although still very low on energy. Thanks go to Mahmoud for running around after me these last few days and doing all our planning and everything - I could get used to this!

Not a good time to get sick

Jack Fruit, Spice Plantation [Enlarge & More]

It was 22:10, the train was already 10 minutes late arriving in Madgaon train station and Jono had been sick four times already. Of all the nights to pick to be sick it had to be the one where we had a 16 hour journey ahead of us to Kochi. We’re not sure what the culprit of the food poisoning was but our suspicions lie with the ‘light buffet’ we were given at a visit to a spice plantation.

We ended up spending four nights in Colva, a beach in south Goa. It was definitely busier than the others we had visited and the great location of the hotel and pool kept us there for two nights more that we were going to.

The spice plantation visit was to break up the routine of taking it easy having a swim and something to eat, the tour around the plantation was really interesting and informative. We learnt that the most expensive spice is saffron, the age of the beetle nut tree can be worked out by counting the rings on the outside, three per year and that the husk of the nutmeg nut is used to produce mace.

Train to Kerala [Enlarge & More]

We have about four hours of the train journey left to Kochi and Jono has been up and down all night running to the toilet. He’s asleep now but he recalled to me earlier how on his first run to the toilet he managed to get outside the berth door and be sick on his arm and then take a couple of steps and be sick on the floor and finally sick outside the toilet. He was still smiling though! He’s had a few more trips since and used both the Western and Indian (hole in the ground) style toilets depending on what the need was.

I tucked into a lovely breakfast of spicy omelette and bread this morning and as soon as Jono smelt it off he went running, I did feel a bit guilty but one of us has got to keep our strength up.;)