The Backwaters

On the southwest coast of India, along the Arabian Sea, is the quiet town of Kochi, Kerala. For 150 miles south of the town stretch the "Backwaters" of India, low-lying country criss-crossed by rivers, lakes and canals and flowing to the sea. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of islands dot the rivers and lakes, some very small and inhabited by just one or two families, others with 50,000 or more people. Villages on these islands may have no fresh water or electricity; other may have refrigeration and satellite dishes, churches and mosques, schools and smelting plants. But the common thread is that to get anywhere, you have to travel by boat.

We spent the morning in a motorized houseboat (similar to the one on the left, used only by tourists), moving slowly in the wider waterways, watching people at work. The engine noise was muffled and quiet, there was a light breeze, and we relaxed in a way we hadn't been able to do in the roar and bustle of Bangalore or Delhi. Our blood pressure dropped and we settled firmly into the reclining chairs, quietly absorbing the slow pace of Kerala.

In the afternoon we transferred to smaller, canoes that could go through narrow canals. These were powered by a man pushing off the bottom of the canal with a 20-foot bamboo pole. It's an even quieter way to see the water and the land from up-close. Children swam, fished and played in the canals, or ran along side to watch us. People bathed, hung up their wash or worked on their houses, while others just sat quietly in the afternoon heat. We stopped for tea in one house, where we met the family and three of their daughters.

Below is a link to a slide show. I recommend that you set the time interval between pictures to at least 5 seconds, so that you have time to read the captions.
Slide show of the trip through the Backwaters.

We spent the weekend in Kochi, relaxing. It was almost mandatory to relax, because the temperature was 90 and the humidity was from 60-80%. The low at night was 82. I have never sweated as much. (We had air conditioning in our room, so we survived.) We saw some traditional dance theatre and ate wonderful seafood. We visited with people sitting on benches watching fishermen working and dolphins playing in the outlet to the Arabian Sea. We met a family visiting Kochi who invited us to share some of their tailgate lunch: a full Indian meal cooked on the spot! We wandered through an old Jewish section of town and marvelled at the freedom that Jews enjoyed in India since the 4th century AD. We visited a Jain temple where pigeons are fed every day at noon, and where they will eat out of your hand. All of this made it a very memorable and wonderful weekend. We enjoyed ourselves immensely.