Everything we did on Saturday April 12.
Not a particularly interesting day but an example of a typical travel day, to give you an idea of how long the days are and why it already feels like we’ve been here for months…
I woke up at 4am and lay there listening to the bird song madness outside until it was light, when I got up and went to the 7am Malayalam mass at the Basilica. When I got back Mary and I had breakfast but I was defeated again in my request for idly (ground fermented rice cakes with sauces that are a typical south Indian breakfast). Then we packed, said goodbye to the glorious Vasco homestay, and got in an auto bound for the central bus station, where we quickly found a local bus to Alleppey. I had a Howard Hughes moment in the bus station bathroom (blog to follow soon about these moments).
The bus ride was an easy two hours. We went to the government tourist office right by the station in Alleppey and booked tickets for the southbound backwaters boat the next morning, confirmed the location of a good guesthouse nearby, and got a recommendation for where to eat lunch.
The guesthouse had a nice big room available so we checked in, relaxed for a bit, then walked to the restaurant, which was packed with locals eating thali – a meal of rice and lots of different sides and sauces all served on a banana leaf. My favorite part is you get to eat with your hand. One of the servers kept stopping by and making ‘mixing together’ motions with his hand while smiling encouragingly. I say “hand” because you only eat with your right hand as the left is typically your poo hand but more about that later (yes, it’s related to the Howard Hughes moments).
After lunch we went on a three-hour tour of the backwaters – just Mary and me on this tiny covered boat driven by a guy with a canoe paddle. It was slow but quiet and we got to go down a narrow shaded waterway that was basically a residential street where the houseboats and bigger engine boats can’t go.
When we got back, it started to rain during walk to the Internet place and by the time I’d bought my return ticket to Delhi (we’re flying back from Trivandrum on Thursday), there was a massive, showoff-y thunderstorm going on outside, so we had to get an auto to the restaurant we’d decided on for dinner, but as soon as we were on the way I realized my scarf had fallen off my head and not just any scarf but my Very Favorite Silk Scarf, which I imagined had come off in the shuffle of trying to get through the downpour, around the mud lakes, and into the auto, and the frustration of that almost brought on a mini travel crisis but then Mary found it in the auto and I was happy again.
We had red meat (!! me – beef, Mary – mutton) malasa at Kreme Korner which was a nice middle-class family restaurant, and Mary was happy because we finally got basmati rice instead of the big fat rice they usually serve. When we got back to the guesthouse, they had set out candles for us since the storm was causing a brown out, leaving our room with only one weak light and a slowly turning fan. So we each showered by candlelight (yay another new experience compliments of India!) and ate the cold candy bars we’d brought back from the restaurant. Then we went to sleep.
The end.
Next stop: Amritapuri ashram
Tags: Kerala
sandyo
no toilet paper and having to go to mass. BLAAAAH!
The germs! Tell us about the germs!
Sandy totally fell down into a toilet in india and the whole village came to watch her get pulled out like baby jessica.