The Boatride from nowhere to nowhere

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March 19th


We woke at 0630 and grabbed a masala dosa by the bus station and hopped aboard a bus for a three hour journey from Kumily to Kottayam. It started with predictability. The driver was driving way to fast and missing absolutely everything by between one and five centimetres. It was a roller coaster ride and better than anything Universal Studios had ever thrown at us.

We drove through tea plantations as we climbed a bit further into the cloud-covered hills. The plantations own everything. There was a noticeable Christian church that wasn’t just a blank four-walled box; it was ostentatious, even for the developed world, but still nothing compared to any of the Hindu temples. As we got lower, we passed through so many rubber plantations that looked so scarred as their sap is collected on an industrial scale.

After arriving in Kottayam, we auto-rickshawed to the jetty where we wanted to take a ferry through the backwaters to Alleppey. The jetty was just a fat slab of concrete by a restaurant and the next ferry was in an hour or so, so, we grabbed lunch.

The river was completely covered in weeds and lilies; it was a green river with many waders wandering from leaf to leaf. Turning the boat around was such an effort due to the weeds bunching up and pushing back on the hull; our engine was straining.

Once out in open waters with wind in our hair, the water sparkling off the ripples and coconut tree after coconut tree slowly passing, we managed a wake. We were the bus for the backwaters; we looped and turned back many times as we went from one platform to another distributing locals at random intervals. It felt as if we were on an oversized canal, especially when we passed quite a few houseboats. They looked gorgeous but looked totally out of place. Arrogant businessmen leaning back reading the paper glancing, from their a/c glassed off veranda on their ridiculously oversized boat, at the locals returning to their banana leaf roofed huts having been out in the fields all day.

After what can only be described as a three hour pootle about we hit open water and a gusty refreshing breeze. It was only a couple of clicks to go now. Once we had arrived, Indians being Indians, people were getting on the boat before everyone had got off. It was so infuriating and fun as I said, “gentlemen, please” and then used my big backpack as a battering ram and barged all the people who were trying to get on totally out of the way, allowing me and only me to be the one doing any embarking or disembarking at my chosen time, it felt good.

We were greeted by the usual touts all doing their thing. After brushing them aside like water off a duck’s back, we went to the train station and caught a local train to Trivandrum. Our train set off into the night. Once in Trivandrum, we called a few places and got a bed for the night in Kovalam in a hotel right on the beachfront.

We went for a little walk along the beach for dinner and when we got back and washed our feet we could see that there was a bit of black basalt sand lining the bathroom floor, what joy after a while away from the sea!

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Photos

Off in the wind
...for the morning's newspaper and some milk.

quick dip
watch out mate, there's a croc right of shot

Green, green
It's good for the heart

Comments

[Kris]

Check this place out!
Hi guys Check out www.istay.in at Alleppey. It is a relaxed and chilled island resort which you must experience! Let me know what you think Cheers