Adventures with Julia

11-23-11  Happy Thanksgiving!  Please enjoy some turkey and pumpkin pie for us.

Sitting on the veranda of our bungalow

What a delicious, special time we have had at The Hermitage!  I described our “day at leisure”, which we sorely needed.

Mark looking at me on our veranda–pool and Arabian Sea behind him

Dinner on the beach at The Hermitage

“Salon” on our caterpillar-like houseboat

Yesterday, we were treated to an all day houseboat experience on the backwaters of northern Kerala.  Mani drove us to the dock about 15 minutes from the resort and we boarded our floating craft at 11am.  It is a boat with a top made of bamboo and woven palm fronds tied together with coconut fiber rope.   The shape is somewhat reminiscent of a fat caterpillar or possibly a large turtle with the head and legs missing.  Fairly old, tired and ill kept, it, nevertheless, contained two bedrooms and bathrooms, an aft galley we did not want to study up close, a place on the prow for a crewman to sit and steer and an open forward cabin where we  happily spent most of our time.

The front end of our houseboat

Slowly the houseboat motored up river into the 6 knot current.  Once moving, the otherwise still, hot air was displaced by a delightful breeze.  We changed into our suits, sipped on cold Kingfisher beer and enjoyed the scenery on either side of the backwater, which looked like a broad flat river.  There was not a lot of activity on the shore, but we did see boatmen poling sand up river to islands, where it is offloaded and used in cement to build houses.   There were a couple of bridges under construction, but the only access to any of the islands at the moment is by boat.  We spent most of our time motoring by the largest island in the state of Kerala–23 kilometers long and 200 meters wide at the fattest part.  On the other side of the island is the Arabian Sea.  At one point we put ashore and walked about a kilometer to an area populated with monkeys.  Our boat captain, Johnson, walked us to the place and gave us bananas and peanuts to feed them.  They happily ate out of our hands.  The interesting part of the walk was the number of good sized houses we saw, both finished and under construction.  Johnson told us the land was cheap and the houses were big because the local people make good money in coconut products.  They are building with the expectation that values will go up–way up–when the bridge is finished.  I sure hope they are patient folk.

Our houseboat and me in the warm backwater

When asked if we wanted to swim, we both said yes and soon the pilot dropped what looked like a ancient rusted anchor into the water.  It sank to a depth of about 4 feet.  Realizing it was shallow, I lowered myself into the water and felt my feet standing in about 6 inches of mud with unexpectedly warm water rushing above the ooze.   I pulled my feet up and began swimming.  Mark soon followed and in no time we were a couple hundred yards from our floating caterpillar.   We soon realized it would take a lot of hard swimming to get back to the boat so we put our feet down and slowly walked back against the current.  The water was so pleasant that we stayed in the river for quite awhile.  Meanwhile, once our crew could see that we knew how to swim, they stopped watching us and went about making lunch.

We did not get underway again until after they  had eaten the fried fish, rice and curry dishes left over after we had finished.  The food tasted fine enough, but we both wondered–but not enough to skip the meal–if we would get sick from the unsanitary as well as unsavory conditions.   Luckily, we did not.  The anchor came up and we motored further up river until we reached the end of the island and saw the place where the Arabian Sea crashed over a sand bar into the backwater.  We drifted down river to the place we swam earlier and requested to swim again.  Apparently swimming is not allowed in deep water as the strength of the river would make it impossible to get back to the boat.  We were happy to cool off again and stayed in the water at least a half hour.  Back onboard, we enjoyed the breeze on our wet skin until it seemed time to shower, yes there was one, and dress for our expected dinner and concert on the boat.  Soon it stopped at a dock on another island.

The Endless beach and palms with no people or hotels

Met by our hotel manager and a group of musicians, we were, unexpectedly, asked to go for a walk with Johnson.  Off we trekked from the backwater across the palm covered island to the beach on the Arabian Sea.  Here Johnson said we should walk on the beach and watch the sunset before going back to the boat.  Nice idea, but we were overdressed for the situation and hot besides.  We walked anyway.

An adolescent Brahminy Kite flying close to Mark on our beach walk

It was a beautiful, pristine beach with only a few local people and no hotels.  We wished we were still in our suits.  Finally the sun set, very un-gloriously, and we headed back to the boat. The 4 man concert, organized by the manager, was set up and waiting to start until we were onboard and seated.  The anchor came up and we continued floating downstream.  As long as the boat moved we were comfortable and the music was most pleasing.  The group chatted with us, talked about their instruments–two different kinds of drums, a violin and a raft of flutes, and explained each tune–a prayer to Shiva, a couple of folk song and classical eastern music.

Four musicians entertain us on the houseboat

Quietly, the anchor was dropped mid river and we began to get hot.  The music and conversation lasted a little longer until a small boat came to pick up the musicians.  We were ready to get off too, but we still had dinner to sit through.  It was only slightly different from lunch and we did not eat much.  Although it had been a lovely day, we were glad to get off the houseboat and back to the resort.  Even though it was after swimming hours, we slithered into the cool pool and sat there until we cooled off enough to take showers and go to bed.

Packed, breakfasted and out by 7:30am the morning of November 23, we began our long travel day of transferring from India to Sri Lanka.  Our 30 days in India seemed to fly by and we have only good things to say about our experiences.  We chatted with Mani about his life and future during the three hours it took to travel from Neeleshwar to Mangalore, gave him a generous tip and wished him a fond farewell at the airport.  We only saw Mangalore from the car, but noticed that it is a pretty city of hills and dense vegetation with views of the Arabian Sea from the hilltops.  The new airport is on a mesa high above the city.

Saying good bye to Mani, our driver for 8 days

Our first of three flights departed Mangalore at 12:20pm.  By the time we transited Bangalore and Chennai and landed in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, the time was 7:30pm.  Our driver/guide for all our time in Sri Lanka, Kenchana (two syllables, Kench and ana), met and drove us to the Galle Face Hotel, an 1864 British establishment that has been renovated and still manages to feel dated and pompously British.  It fronts the city on one side and the Indian Ocean on another.  After checking in we had some appetizers at the outdoor bar overlooking the crashing surf as neither hotel restaurant would serve us al a carte.   Our room was the smallest we have had on the entire trip, but we decided it did not matter since we had arrived late and were leaving early.