Trip to Kerala: Houseboat cruise in Alleppey

We went on a houseboat day cruise in Alleppey. Unfortunately, due to my tiredness, I seem to have lost all of the photos from this part of our trip!

When we stepped onto the houseboat, we were greeted with jasmine leis and coconuts with a straw poked into it. The houseboat was very nice with a little open air living room for us to relax in and soak in the scenery. Our 5-hour cruise took us through the backwaters into tiny little backwater villages completely isolated from the mainland, connected only by the backwater canals- no roads and no cars. We got a close look at village life seeing baths, laundry, fishing, cooking, playing, and just hanging out.

We had three crew members on our ship. The captain was very sweet and told me his name was John. I didn't believe him until he showed me his boat license a while later and his name really was John Vanaynungenbakkam or something like that! The captain let Brian drive the boat for a while while we were int he middle of the lake. The captain's chair wasn't made for Brian's 6-3 body so he looked like a giant!

John spoke OK English, but we still had a little trouble communicating. I have realized that even when were speaking English with some people, we are still worlds apart! John was telling us about the sights we were seeing and the way of life in Kerala. He told us about the different industries in Alleppey- number one industry is rice, number two is fishing and number three is houseboats. Then when we got to the lake, he was proudly telling us all about Ben Bernard Lake. "Ben Bernard Lake?" we asked. Yes! Hmmm...I guess I'll have to look up who Ben Bernard is.

When I consulted my Lonely Planet India guide after the trip, I realized it was Vembenad Lake. If you say Ben Bernard really fast and with a British accent, it does sound surprisingly similar to Vembanad!

We stopped for a traditional Kerala lunch on the boat. We had rice, vegetables, chicken curry, and salad. The best part was the Kerala fish fry- they took a whole freshly caught fish and fried it up for us. This would have been good, but they skipped a few steps that we are used to from back home- gutting it, cutting the head off, taking it off the bone, etc. They served me the fish and it was screaming at me with its mouth open and his tail mid-wag! I quickly his my fish behind the rice bowl so I didn't have to look at it, but Brian tried his. He said the flavor was pretty good, but then on his next bit he got some entrails and just about threw up. Yummm!