The houseboat was an amazing part of this trip. When we got there we were greeted by all of the welcoming staff. The boat itself looked like a little water bug the way it floated on the water, it was put together without a single nail and was tied together with rope and coconut pitch. Each room had a beautiful old-fashioned door taken salvaged from old homes. There were nine rooms all with their own bathroom.
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| Visiting A Local Village |
Every meal was amazing food that made us very full. In the afternoons we would go on walks through the small villages and talked to the villagers who had surprisingly good English. All of the children were adorable with their big eyes and little noses. Most times we would give out small gifts, but once one was out we would get a swarm of all the village children coming over saying “Pen? Pen? One pen?” It was like the seagulls in Finding Nemo.
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| Handing Out Gifts To Our New Friends! |
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| Relaxing On The Upper Deck |
The first day we got on the boat we ate lunch on the upper deck and then we went downstairs to find our rooms. We would stop the boat and got off and took a walk in one of the villages. As we walked mom always said, “hi” to every person there, talking the same way she does to all of our animals with a high-pitched voice and simple words. The village were amazing with all different colors and welcoming people; everyone was so nice to us. We finished our walk and then went back to the boat and relaxed until dinner.
On Christmas Eve we got firecrackers and other explosive things and set them off on land over the water along with every other family in the villages surrounding the boat. The sky was full of fireworks and sparkling lights. It was the most fun Christmas I have ever had. The next morning we woke up to stockings and newspaper wrapped presents under our little travel size Christmas tree and then sat outside and enjoyed the hot weather. I never thought that hot weather and Christmas would ever be used in the same sentence before but I guess there’s a first for everything. We then drifted along the river and watched the small houses and water plants float by.
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| Christmas Day Outfits |
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| Catholic Church In Kerala Backwaters |
After relaxing we went for a walk in another village where we went into a Catholic church, which was breathtaking. The ceiling had intricate drawings of angels and Jesus in beautiful colors. Around the side of the church there was a graveyard, instead of gray boring tombstones that we use they had many multi-colored crosses over each grave. Since the graveyard was so small not every body could fit so they would eventually dig up the bones of people who had been their a while and placed them in the corner of the graveyard under a large cross and another body from that family would be put in that spot. That night we had Christmas dinner, which consisted of GIANT shrimp like things that we had bought at a small store along the river that we stopped. We asked for candles to put on the table but that must have gotten lost in translation because we ended up with the lights being covered by orange napkins and not to mention the little bugs flying around that would once in a while get stuck in your food, a few times I found myself questioning weather or not their was a piece of pepper in my food.
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| Shopping Excursion For Christmas Dinner..fresh Fish Perhaps? |
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| Leaving The Boat For The Next Adventure |
The next day was our fourth and last morning on the boat; it had been an amazing time. We stopped off in one last village and unloaded our bags and the staff carried it over to the bus. We then had to say goodbye to the boat and all of our wonderful staff, I will miss this boat and everyone on it. I just want to thank Sanjay Saxena and everyone else with Destination Himalaya. More to come!
-Cami
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| Sunset On The River. Christmas Day! |
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