Lovely Backwaters

in a canoe on our way to Munroe Island
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When we arrived at Kollam half the group stayed at the train station in the waiting room and the other half of us went to the tourist office to enquire about hiring a houseboat for 24 hours to do a backwaters tour. It was already passed noon and we weren't too sure of our options. After a lot of discussion and questions and inspection of houseboats and all of us reaching an agreement, (the rest of the group had joined us at the tourist office by now) we were told we could have a houseboat tomorrow for almost 24 hours and today we could do a small tour by canoe to Munroe Island and stay in a nice quiet hotel on the backwaters, from where our houseboat would arrive in the morning to collect us. It took us ages to get to this stage. The girls were very good after discussing in Spanish they would then tell me in English what they were saying and we'd all say what we felt. By the time we had left the tourist office it was 3.30pm! All those hours spent in discussion, it was quite tiring.

Diana with a baby goat
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We went to the shop to get some nibbles as we were hungry too. We got in a jeep ready for the drive to the canoe tour. The drive there was about 45 minutes. We settled in the canoe and off we went for a nice quiet tour of the backwaters. Normally this tour starts at 2pm, but because of all the discussions we were late, but they managed to take us still. We wouldn't have the full afternoon as the sun would set around 5.45pm but we had 90 minutes or so. It was nice and peaceful. We saw lots of coconut trees, narrow water lanes & goats. We made a stop at a coir making place. Coir comes from coconut husks and is the coarse brown stuff on top. This is taken off and dried out and spun together to make rope. Our canoeman showed us a demonstration on the spinning wheel. Wgen we got back in the canoe we went back the way we came as the sun would be going down soon. Before we went back to our jeep the guy showed us a few spice plants. Amongst them we saw chillies, ginger and tumeric. We then got in the jeep to be taken to our hotel. Our backpacks were tied on the roof.

the backwaters in Kollam
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The drive to the hotel seemed to take ages. It must have taken more than an hour. When we finally arrived at the hotel and had a look around we weren't sure if we wanted to stay there as to get to town you had to cross the river by a ferry, but they stopped after 8.30pm. We felt a bit cut off from everything. After some more discussion within the group we weighed up our options. By this point we were tired and hungry and it was late. We didn't fancy getting in the jeep for another long drive into town trawling round looking for hotel rooms. Also we would have to come back there in the morning as our houseboat was docking there, so we decided it made sense to stay there. We had to give our dinner order soon after checking in we were told as it would take them 90 minutes or so to prepare. So we all did that, got them to give us some drinks and sat down to relax. We all had showers whilst we waited for dinner and just sat and chatted. The actual place we were staying was very nice. Peaceful and quiet amongst the backwaters. There was a lounge area with sofas, a tv, internet and magazines. It was more like a big house than a hotel. The bedrooms were nice and spacious too, but it was just to hot in the rooms even with a fan and the electricity kept going. The fans weren't very fast.

a house
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Dinner was finally served. So we ate and some of us had some tea after. We chatted some more after dinner, but after an hour or so I was ready to sleep. I just felt so tired, so I went to bed. I didn't sleep well the night before as I was hot, so was hoping I wouldn't have the same problem this evening. Luckily as soon as my head hit that pillow I was out like a light. I didn't even hear Diana come into the room when she came to bed. She said I didn't move all night. So I must have been knackered. I had a really good sleep. We all had breakfast outside with the view of the water. It was nice and peaceful. We had to wait til 10.30 am for our houseboat. So we all lounged around, some of us went on the net. We were all packed and ready to go.

a hut
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The boat came around 11am I think in the end. When we got on and met the boatowner, he introduced us tot he crew and then told us he would be leaving and he just needs our money. The seemed to be some misunderstanding between the price he was telling us and the price we had been told at the tourist office. So we asked him to call the agent to confirm. He of course denied all knowledge so this led to a heated debate between us and the boat owner. We discussed amongst ourselves about the price and if we were all happy in paying the extra. Most of us were fine with it as everything else we had done was for the purpose of going on the houseboat and we were going to tell this top the owner. He however began shouting at us and we told him to discuss the issue not to shout at us. He got even more irritated by this and ordered us off his boat, saying I don't want to take you now. So we all marched off, as we were very annoyed. We sat outside the hotel discussing our options. I called some more boat companies as I had a leaflet from the tourist information and we wondered if we could do the journey from Alleppey. However I didn't have much luck.

coir from cocunut
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The boat owner called the hotel staff after a little while and spoke to Maria. He was prepared to come back and give us the boat for the night if we were happy to take it at his price. We all agreed we were. Man after all that! We lost 2 hours because of the argument. Ah well at least we got there in the end. So back on the boat we all settled in and just relaxed. We took photos as we were strolling along the backwaters and chatted. Some of us read or sunbathed. I wrote some postcards and didn't do much else. I chatted to the others and just took some photos now and again. It was nice to do nothing and lounge about.

spinning coir to make a rope
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At 2pm we were served lunch. We were given some fish, some rice, dal, salad, papad, 2 veg curries and some yogurt with beetroot mixed in. The meal was delicious and we all enjoyed it very much. After lunch more lounging about. We were given tea around 4pm with some fried bananas as a snack. They were yummy. The boat staff were very friendly and would sit and chat with us in between jobs. There was the captain, the chef and a mechanic on board. The mechanic didn't say much as he couldn't speak English, but the chef and captain were quite talkative. Aurora even had a go at steering the boat at one point for a little while. She seemed to be enjoying it. We saw the Arabian sea for a little stretch whilst we were going along. It was parallel to us as we were going north towards Alleppey, but we wouldn't go that far.

the hotel (Valiyavila) we stayed at before taking the boat - Ashtmundi Lake
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The boat was stopped around 6pm in the middle of the water, as the sun was setting and we wouldn't be going anywhere during the night. Some of us took showers in this time. The chef began the evening meal and invited us to come and watch him prepare it if we were interested. He showed us all the ingredients and spices and showed us how he was mixing everything. Some of the girls smelt the spices. Dinner was served about an hour later. We had chicken curry, rice and chapattis. The chef gave me some of his fish curry as well as it was more spicy than the chicken curry. They were both lovely. For desert we were given pineapple and it was yummy, so sweet and juicy.

a houseboat
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After dinner we all sat around and relaxed. The crew joined us as well. They started singing for us. As well as the singing there was much clapping and imitation of instrument playing as well with whatever they could find to hand. Both the chef and captain sang, either in Tamil (language of Tamil Nadu and parts of Sri Lanka) or Malayalam (language of Kerela). We couldn't understand them but we clapped along. They were both very entertaining. After a few songs they wanted us to sing as well. They wanted me to sing a punjabi song. I can't sing, I'm tone deaf, but I gave them a song. The girls sang a few songs in spanish, we tried a couple of english songs together as well and I tried a few hindi songs, as I seem to know more of them than punjabi songs. The ones the crew knew, they joined in with me. We all took it in turns. The captain even sang a religious song for us. It was a really good way to spend the evening. We must have been singing for 3 hours or so as it was almost midnight when we finally decided to call it a night.

the gang
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There were loads of mosquitoes in the room and although we had a mosquito net, we couldn't unfold it. Maria had sprayed something to kill them and keep them away. I took my sheet and just wrapped myself in it and went to sleep. I always put on cream or lotion to prevent bites, but I still get bitten. They seem to love me. The bites always irritate me as they become itchy, so annoying! Anyway we had a good nights sleep as it was so quiet.

I asked the crew to wake me up in time to see the sunrise. I seem to be doing a lot of this lately. Can't ever remember waking up early in the UK to see a sunrise. They did and I took my sheet out with me on deck as I was a little cold and watched the sun come up. It was so peaceful and beautiful. I took some pics. No one else came to see it, but Ines and Aurora joined me after a while. We were given tea. Slowly the others awoke and joined us on deck, so we chatted and relaxed. We were given breakfast of idly when we were all up and we set off shortly after that to make the journey back to Kollam. The morning went quickly. We arrived back at Kollam around 10.30 am and we got a rickshaw back to the train station. We were all getting the train to Kochin.