Into Kerala’s backwaters and the Arabian Sea

We had the most relaxing time walking the warm and beautiful hillsides of tea plants in and around Munnar. 

Being high up the Western Ghats, the air was sweet and clean and scented by jasmine and brugmansia.

At night, the landscape was even more delightful as the hillsides gently dissolved into mist and the setting sun turned the sky warm shades of orange and red.

It was difficult to leave. But we had to go back down the mountain to go to Alappuzho, what we have been calling Alleppey, to board houseboats for a trip around the Kerala backwaters.

These beautiful, brackish lagoons are surrounded by rice paddies and contain small, quiet villages where people are living in brightly coloured cottages.

Our ride down the mountain from Munnar was not without incident. At one very narrow bridge, we had a showdown with another bus. We were both locked in a Mexican standoff, halfway across the narrow bridge.

In Canada, this situation would probably have been avoided by having a simple stop-go green light at either end of the bridge.

But here, in India, it is a challenge that is simply felt for people to resolve for themselves.

In the end, our bus backed out and allowed the oncoming bus to pass as well as a long stream of tuk tuks and other local traffic before we could make our move to cross.

Most of the signage is in English. There are also large billboards erected in key spots along the road advertising all sorts of products in English.

Many stores have English names and it seems like everyone here speaks English to some degree; most are quite competent, which makes communication fairly effortless for tourists like us.

We arrived in Alleppey and boarded our vessels, beautiful long boats with rattan covers.

Each boat contained four-star bedrooms with bathrooms and showers. We shared a common dinning area and lounge for viewing the lovely palm-lined lagoons where water hyacinths decorate the surface of the water.

The moment the houseboat pushed away from the dock, we began gliding in the most soothing and relaxing and utterly peaceful way into the quiet backwaters.

After lunch, we stepped out of the houseboat into a smaller, long boat to glide through the narrower canals into the villages, where we saw people washing their clothes by slapping them against stones and other villagers fishing with a simple pole and line and hook.

Back on board the houseboat, we continued sailing deeper into the complex of lagoons of the backwaters.

Meals on the houseboat were prepared and served by the staff of two while the “captain” or driver of the boat concentrated on steering us through the waters and making sure we were anchored and tied up properly.

There were many other houseboats on the water. Not so many that it felt crowded. But enough for us to need to pay attention to not crossing the path of oncoming houseboats or other, smaller backwaters’ traffic.

From Alappuzha, we travelled further south, down the coastal road, passing through one small town after another until we came to Kollam and then we continued on to Thirusvannanthapuram where a special religious gathering was under way.

On we moved until we reached our final destination, the beach resort of Uday Samudra in Kovalam, right on the Arabian Sea.

The resort has three separate pool areas, one with a swim-up bar, something we all appreciated after our trip down from Alleppey.

In Thiruvananthapuram, we saw thousands of pots placed on three bricks lining the highway as part of a Pongala offering for various causes, social, religious and political. This is the world’s largest all-women gathering.

Tomorrow, we fly back to Delhi – our fourth time in the city – where we will overnight before catching our plane back to Vancouver.

It has been a wonderful adventure full of discoveries and insights and more excitement than we had anticipated.

We have lot of stories to tell and some extraordinary experiences to relate. Will be fun, too, looking over these photos and videos when we get home.

Next stop: Italy – Islands and Lakes in May. Stay tuned.

swhysall@hotmail.com