Wake Up And Smell The Cooum

The run of bad luck more or less continued once I'd gotten to Cochin and the gang of us were due to start our trip. My friend had dropped and broken his camera the previous day so the omens were not good either way.

At 6:30 in the morning on Saturday the 4 of us tropped to the car to get started and while opening the boot of the car the only key that we had broke. Cue 45 minutes of frantic attempts at opening the locks with coat hangers and hypothesing about how to hot wire the car. After a further 30 minutes spent looking for a shop where we could get a duplicate key and realising that we were the only idiots on the streets at 7 in the morning on an Easter weekend we called a friend and managed to get his car for use over the weekend. All this after filling a 1000 bucks worth of petrol in the first car.

The drive from Cochin to Thiruvalla, through Allepey was pleasant. After the dustiness of Chennai and Tamil Nadu in general, Kerala and its greenery was a refreshing change. The roads were good and traffic was down to a minimum. This especially helped when we realised that we had taken a wrong turn on the way to pick up another friend and retraced our steps only to make another wrong turn. Having already lost about an hour to the vagaries of fate we decided it wasn't worth sweating the small stuff.

The drive to Vemabanad passed without issue. The whole trip actually offers the chance to observe the contrast between North Kerala and Christian dominated South Kerala. A lot of goverment buildings, colleges and churches seem to date back quite a few years. The insane amount of Toddy shops along the highway with their very prominent advertising boards were also a reminder that in the south the booze flows much better. The topography of the land too is markedly different from the North and the proximity to the backwaters means that boats and buses make up regular vehicular traffic.

We boarded our boat at around 2 in the afternoon and set off once the crew had gotten their supplies for the day. Called a Kettuvallam, the boats don't lack for any amenities. The one we rented came with a TV, DVD player, sound system, fully stocked kitchen, 3 bedrooms with air conditioning and attached bathrooms. The whole package cost Rs 8500 ($186) for one day and one night including lunch, tea, dinner and breakfast the next morning with everything taken care of by the three strong crew. After chatting with our friendly pilot\butler we learnt that it takes from Rs 35 lacs ($77000) and upwards and over a year to make a boat like this. We got ours during the off-season but apparently some operators charge Rs 30000 ($660) during peak months (Oct - Feb). It is serious business, apparently the boats pretty much run everyday throughout the year so they must be making some huge sums. Definitely got the five of us thinking about investing in a boat!!!

The cruise past without incident. Lunch was pleasant and it was mostly beer in between. We stopped off in the evening to pick up fish and shrimps, tapioca and spicy fish curry and also a bit of Toddy. Then we anchored for the night and had a dip, a late dinner and crashed around 12. It rained that night and the weather the next morning was pleasant. At 9 the journey back began and we got back to dock at 10:30 or so.

From there it was back to Cochin where I boarded my bus back to Madras. On the way we stopped off at the home of my Biology and Math teacher from school. They're doing well. Retirement suits them. I almost gave into the temptation of staying for another day but the thought of travelling in an unreserved compartment on the train was enought to make me look forward to the 16 hour bus ride back. My back though feels like someone's been using a pneumatic drill like a pogo stick on it.

Once back it appeared that my luck had changed for the better. My ceiling fan was still screwed, but Dominos couldn't deliver my pizza in 30 minutes and as a result I didn't have to pay for it. Mondays ain't so bad after all.

All the photos can be had here.