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Published: March 16th 2008
Mark at the Helm!
Don't be silly. He can't be trusted with that.After an eventful night's sleep, puntuated by a very interesting lightning storm we woke up and ate a huge breakfast prepared by the boat's cook. We then headed out for a punting tour of the backwaters proper. With our handy guide, Vijeesh who happened to be our punter extraordinaire we headed off for the wilderness! He navigated his way through the narrow waterways with precision, which i am ashamed to say, we were apparently incapable of doing when we tried!! The tour was about 3 and a half hours long with Vijeesh stopping every so often to give us a land tour of many things including rope making, boat making, cocunut breaking and sorting (for the ropes) and coconut leaf weaving. The most amazing was the rope making where three women were busy turning coconut fluff into rope strong enough to hold a man's weight!! Amazing!
We also saw plenty snakes, birds and bugs. We were also treated to a great coconut snack and Vijeesh pointing out many many plants and trees and all their uses in Ayurvedic medicine. For someone who had never left the island his english was superb and we al got along great!
On our
Lady making coconut fibre rope
...which ollie quickly purchased return to the Mother boat we were greeted with a sumptious lunch which, as you may see from the photo, if it goes up was amazing. We all think that this was the best lunch so far! The houseboat then left Munroe and we lazily made our way back towards Kollam wishing we had asked for a two day trip!!
On arrival back in Kollam we checked back into the same hotel and collected our bags. We then relaxed for a little while and headed out to sample some western food after the excess of great Indian food in the last few days. ON the way back from the restaurant we were treated to a light shower which quickly turned into a full on tropical downpour, whilst we were still some distance from the hotel i may add! Whilst Dale and Mark decided to try and wait it out in a bus shelter along with half the population of Kollam I made my way back to the hotel down the street. After accepting they were going to get wet Mark and Dale joined me a little later on just as the storm peaked in its intensity.
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