Kerala Day 2

I set out for the town of Alleppey this morning on an adventure through the back waters of Kerala, also know as the Venice of the East. I’ve never been to Venice, but from what I know about it I can see how people can draw that comparison. Except rather than European architecture, you see a lot of jungle surrounding humble family homes with lots of lily pad type things in the water. And rather then the water just being used as streets, this water is used for everything, i.e. streets, bathing, washing clothes, washing dishes, etc. Seeing the locals go about their daily routines helped bring some authentic charm to the whole experience. It was BEAUTIFUL though. I felt like I was floating in a calendar picture while birds and specifically eagles flew above me. Somehow, I had the whole boat to myself so it was perfect; I was able to lounge about and then still move to wherever whenever I needed to take pics. 

This little boy fishing reminded me of my nephews and their "catchin' poles"

I absolutely love the pic below. The colors, the setting, the golden ceremonial stand things........it just screams India

At the beginning of my tour, a huge rat started wandering around on deck. The boat’s driver just smiled and laughed so I thought that maybe this rat was his little friend, the boat mascot or something. Well I realized I was wrong once the driver chased it off the boat and into the water, where our good sized furry friend swam away pretty dang quickly for a rat. I wasn’t able to get a good pic but it was an amusing experience. I think one of my favorite things about it all was the huge smile the boat diver had on his face though out the whole thing. It was like it was some kind of fun game to him.

After driving around for a bit, we docked at a local restaurant that had an eagle meandering around it. For reals meandering, they had clipped its wings so it couldn't fly away and everyone, even locals, were taking pics with it. When I talked to Lindsey last night I was telling her how I had been watching the animal planet channel and joked that it was stupid for me to spend time watching that channel since my life in India is basically animal planet anyway. Well after the run in with the rat and chilling with an eagle for a bit today---I rest my case. 

The funny thing about having an eagle on your arm is it isn't as sturdy as you would think. He was still moving around quiet a bit and for whatever reason, I kept moving the arm higher the more wiggly he was. I think I was thinking that if he is losing balance then moving him up would help him gain it again-----I know I know, that doesn't really make sense but somehow in my mind it did. This was the last pic I took with the eagle on my arm, hence why it is raised up all awkward like. :)

There were a bunch of boys taking pics of the eagle that wanted me to come take pics with them. Because everyone knows the only thing cooler then holding an eagle is holding an eagle AND a white girl at the same time. It was pretty funny, and they kept saying they would share their pics with me but then they left before we could do any sharing so I was a little bummed about that but I soothed myself by playing with the eagle some more. I bought some traditional Keralan food, which in a lot of ways looked exactly like traditional Tamil Nadu food, but their presentation was much prettier. Look at those colors!

It reminded me of a paint set. They had this bean curry/dish thing that was AMAZING!!! I could of chilled with the eagle and ate that stuff all day long.

After lunch we made our way back to the dock and finished up the tour. Here are a few more pics simple because I can't help myself:

Every June (at least I think it is in June) the Annual Snake Boat Races are held on these backwaters. The picture below is of one of the snake racing boats. Apparently, the races are a pretty big deal.

I have to say I was surprised with how it turned out. I was expecting something different then what it actually was, and I liked the reality much better. This world is so fascinating, just how big it is, how many different places there are, different ways of life and different people. I absolutely love it.

PS: Here is an interesting fact---the boats had horns on them and the drivers would honk/beep/blare at one another just like they were cars and rickshaws on regular roads. I was actually thinking about how quiet it was when I first heard the honking, so that bubble burst pretty quickly. Don’t ask me why they insisted on honking at one another—it wasn’t like the canals were crowded like the streets, visibility was MUCH better on the canals and boats and canoes don’t move nearly as fast as land vehicles do but none the less, there was still a lot of beeping and honking. I think honking is just a part of Indian culture, just like the head bobble, spicy foods and aimlessly wandering cows.

We stopped at a beach after the backwater tour. It must have been family day at the beach. There was the cutest little boy playing in the water. The mother of said boy and I were visiting and I ended up taking a few pics of her son playing in the water. He was in love with the ocean, which made sense when his mother told me his name means ocean.

Do you think he was done with pics at this point?

Sadly, the car ride back to the Marriott was a little eventful as my “morning sickness” came back. Keep in mind that the driver was telling me that the car we were in was brand spankin’ new and taking me to Alleppey was it's maiden voyage. New hotel, new cars—that makes sense. What didn’t make sense was my the morning sickness hit in the late afternoon. Luckily I was able to have the driver pull over and I made it out of the car before it all came. Another positive was that I notice the railing I was going to lean over had a sidewalk and people underneath it BEFORE I started spewing the insides of my stomach out of my mouth. It is safe to say that I'm going to stay off of Kerala food for the next couple of days—maybe even until I leave Kerala. The paint colors weren't so pretty in their second debut.

The staff of the hotel must have been alerted to my being sick because not to long after I got back to my room I received a complementary copy of Women’s Health magazine. I laid in bed for a while, even ordered room service because although I had lost my biscuits I was still hungry-go figure. They dropped a ketchup bottle on my tile floor when they came up with the food, which meant several other workers came to help clean up and make sure there wasn’t anything else they could do for me. Being in such a fancy environment the last couple of days has helped to show me just how independent I am. I know it is their job to wait on me, but I'm so not use to people waiting on me. I’ve concluded that I suck at being waited on. I don’t mean to not let them, I am just so use to doing things myself that when people ask if they can carry this or get me that or help me with this particular thing that my automatic first response is “It’s okay, I got it”. And although I do have it, I think I am going to have to work on that because I am sure I am seen as/come off as too independent and almost standoffish sometimes.

I have yet to figure out my whole computer situation but I was able to get a wireless keyboard that will at least help me with some of the emailing and smaller projects I need to do. I went over to the mall to buy it and when I was going up the elevator this guy all of a sudden comes right up behind me and says hello. It kind of startled me but I said hello back and we chit chatted a bit during the ride to the next floor—but then he continued to follow me into the electronic store and started helping me out and giving me advice. He is from Kerala, but has lived and worked in London for quiet a few years. It was nice and all but I kind of got a weird vibe so I quickly left the store for another one and lost him. I don’t know how to describe it but it made me feel a little uncomfortable and I kept finding myself looking over my shoulder. I ran into the grocery store on my way out of the mall and out of no where this guy goes “Hey!” and starts to point at me. It wasn’t the Lurking Londoner but ironically enough, it was the group of guys I took pictures with the eagle with earlier today while in Alleppey. It took me a second to recognize them, but once I did we were all laughing and pointing at one another—since that was really all we could do since there was a pretty big language barrier. They knew some English so we were able to talk enough for me to tell them I wanted the pictures from earlier which they wirelessly shared with me in the middle of the condiments isle. After we said goodbye, we kept running into each other in the store. The whole thing was pretty amusing. I can’t figure out how that happened because not only did I meet them about an hour from here, this mall is huge and the grocery store is very large and crowded anyway, even without the holiday crowd that is in town now. It was so funny. And there were no uneasy feelings with these guys-just lots of laughs and lots of waving hands.

I don't remember what he was proposing or attempting to do, but obviously I wasn't a fan of it. He was nice but I remember that he was majorly encroaching on my personal bubble. Either way, I should probably work on my poker face eh?