We’d scarcely left Kumily early Saturday morning when Lee Tuan proclaimed this the maddest bus we’d ever been on. The uncaring driver drove at breakneck speed along narrow winding roads through pretty tea and rubber country, throwing the bus around each tight bend like a go cart. The saris of the standing passengers billowed out as though in a wind tunnel. A road sign warned that “Danger lurks around corners”. We were it. The journey was scheduled to take four hours – we did it in three and a quarter. Enough said. Our destination was Kumarakom on Vembanad Lake in Kerala Backwater country. The Backwaters are a 900 km maze of shady channels, rivers and lakes bordered by rice paddies, coconut groves and bucolic villages in south-west Kerala state sandwiched between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea. We took an auto-rickshaw a few kilometres out of town and checked into Cruise ‘N Lake excellently located on the tip of a quiet headland amongst traditional villages. Beautiful wooden and thatch houseboats in the shape of old rice barges glided slowly along the channel in front of us while behind we could hear the pounding of fresh spices to go into the gravy shortly to be spooned over the roasted backwater fish we had ordered along with rice, fresh coconuts and lime sodas.
On Sunday morning we were up early to admire the water views and later to check out the houseboat situation with the local operators back in Kumarakom. The villagers we met were friendly and we chatted with them as we walked along the dirt tracks winding between the village houses. One man walking home from church showed us the thick scars down his chest, the legacy of five heart operations he told us, and yet despite this he looked a remarkably fit and young for his age 67 year old. He pointed out his 4 acre coconut plantation and explained that the rice paddy fields here double as fish farms in the off season. All the children we spoke to are studying English at school and they were happy to receive the pens we gave them; we came with many dozens and still have a lot to distribute, along with fluffy koala bears and boomerang key rings. They also make good gifts in return for permission to take photos.
At noon on Monday our own houseboat tied up at the landing 10 metres from our door and we clambered aboard to begin a 24 hour cruise through the channels and on Vembanad Lake. The boat had a crew of three including a cook to prepare meals, the first one of which was served an hour after we cast off. The mildly spiced Keralan food was excellent and the trip serene. We spent the night tied up (the boat, not us) in a channel on the edge of a large paddy field that was also home to an enormous flock of farm ducks. We saw many fishermen out on the water including whole fishing families amazingly working out of small circular boats that were essentially just large wicker baskets.
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