יום שני, 6 באוקטובר 2008

Back Water experience- The Report

So, After more than a week in Munnar ans its perfect weather we were ready to roll down to the warm humid planes of kerala, well not exactly planes because it's mostly water. it's called Backwaters . We headed to a town called Alappuzha (Alleppy), some call it Venice of the east, if you've ever wondered around Venice in the heat of the Italian summer you won't forget how romantic is the mixture of humid air and the smell of rotten fish, that's the only thing that resembles Venice. ah that and the 3 canals going through the town. We stayed out of town in a beautiful place in front of a lake( canal) covered with plants you wouldn't imagine it's actually water.
The main thing I want to get to and the headline of this post is the Houseboat report.
We read in the Lonely Planet guide book and it was mentioned in other places that it's among the 50 things to see before you die ( i haven't found any reference to that) . The houseboat is a big wooden boat with a room or two that take you for an overnight or more trip through the Canals and lakes of the backwater.

It is an expensive treat, 4000 Rs a night but we decided that we will do it despite some worries on how Yonti will be feeling on a boat for a whole day and would it be safe enough for him.
We were in Alleppy for 3 nights already.We went to the beach a couple of times during the muslim "Eed Festival" as they call it here which was celebrated together with the Birthday of Ghandi ji. The beach was packed with people and we "enjoyed" (again) the feeling of celebraties.
I already took a small rowing boat cruise around the canals which was very nice. It is an amazing thing, hard to capture in still photos. There is vibrant life on those water, full with fish and ducks and snakes and plants and villagers using small boats as the only mean of transport to school and market etc.
Our guide was a local guy called Tangu, I did the trip for 4 hours and the next day we all did it for two hours. Tangu was very informative and explained a lot of details . He also explained about the houseboats, some were only one bedroom boat, some were two and some were even three bedroom boats.
When we finally got to our boat we were very pleased to find out there was plenty of space for Yonti to run around and play with his cars, truck tors and dog.
The boat took a route to the open lake and we were feeling great. There were other houseboats on our route, many boats. Some were two bedrooms boat, some had ac some had satellite dish. Many boats.
After an hour or so We stopped for lunch. More boats stopped near us. We stopped for 2 hours or more and the crew. oh the crew, I forgot to tell all about the crew. There is a a cook a driver and a captain on each boat. It's not sure who does what but that's the crew. They were really cute. They played with Yonti and even let him drive the boat for a while, but he wanted to accelerate all the time.
So the crew went to sleep during the lunch break and so did Yonti. We gazed at the other boats, some had upper decks and balconies some were really big. It was getting hot.
Finally the crew woke up we continued sailing among other houseboats, some boats were faster than our boat.


Finally after a few hours we stopped near a village. The cook whistled to a friend of his who came on a small canoe and the cook went to the barber.
















We relaxed and waited for the sunset. Meanwhile other houseboats anchored near our boat.
We had dinner and went to sleep in a bed that was to small to take all three of us. One of us had to go and it was me who slept on a mattress, if you can call it sleep...
The next morning after breakfast we haded back in a convoy of houseboats all eager to end their shift, it was crowded and horns were hared quite often...
The ride was over. We saw a lot of houseboats, some had 2 bedrooms, some 3, some had upper decks, some had full a/c.
After indulging weather it was worth it the whole trip we decided to write the Report.
So here it is .

3 תגובות:

vered leb אמר/ה...

נשמע מגניב!
גם אחלה תמונות!
וואהו, איזה מחירים, אה? הבנתי מטלי שגם וארקלה ממש יקרה, אה?
את זה בטח לא לקחתם בחשבון... לא זכרתי שהדרום כ"כ יקר, היה זכור לי דווקא ההיפך.
נשיקות מכולם

אנונימי אמר/ה...

שרוני, איך אדם בסדר גודל שלך ישן על מזרון איך??
התמונות יפות ומעוררות געגועים (גם אם קטנות מדי).
נשיקות וחיבוקים

אנונימי אמר/ה...

וואו, ממש ריפורטר.
בוק ריפורט.

כבר חזרתם אולי? לא מספיק?