Backwaters
We left Thekkady at 8 o’clock, through the cardamon mountains, along some coffee plantations. Some very nice views over the hills. After 3 hours we reached Kottayam. What a buzzeling city! After somehow 10 days nature, it was quite a shock, again. With repeatedly asking for directions, we find the right road out to Kumarakom, where the houseboat was waiting for us. Some last backstreets, and there we are. Some giggling. Our boat is called “Kailasam HONEYMOON Castle”. Definitely not! ??
The boat, the skipper and a chef to our service. And our driver will wait another day for us. Spoiled? No! Certainly not. Not us. To welcome us fruits and coconuts were presented on the table. We have a cabin for the night for all we need. Dining space and a lounge area. Good to go. And of course, the add-in option started right the way. We went for some extra prawns for the dinner. Nothing else. We went up and down several channels. Impressive! Will check of the Dutch have been here: winning land from the lake I recognized. The lake is still huge, despite al the laimed and men-made land! Took quite a while for one bay, before we went into another channel to settle for the night. The chef cooks amazing Indian dishes, only much too much for two. Its a pity. Don’t like to waste food. And still can’t get used to the idea, that the “staff” eats our left-overs… When I said something about too much food in the early days of our journey, that was the explanation I got to make clear, it would not be wasted. Still.
Meanwhile, they have also some small streets in the Backwaters, but mostly traffic goes over water… all those channels en cross lines. We saw people in their daily life and work, we saw kingfishers and eagles, we saw a lot of amazing bamboo work, like the upper deck from our boat.
In the evening we stopped near a little village, took a walk while our chef was preparing our dinner. Watched the sunset and a little while later fireflies. And still enjoying the night sounds of the tropical woods. Love it! Sat here for already two hours and can stay much longer. Some sounds have a certain rhythm, like crickets. Other sounds you only hear once or twice. Some sounds we heard earlier, others are completely new to us. Makes it very clear, once again: we have no (solid) understanding of our surroundings. Thus, how do we think to understand, where the people living here have do deal with? What makes their lives? What is worthwhile to know? (because knowing everything is impossible)
We had our first conversation about going home. Already. Just started the trip! Still a few days to go, but just some days. Wrapping up might come on our to-do very soon.