Ruummmmmmbbbbblle, grrrroooom.
Diesel engine houseboats interrupt
the calmness of the Backwaters. A scratching in the walls, I originaly mistook
for rats, are the pigeons looking for shade in this tropical heat that made
sweat drip down my face in uncoordinated paths even when I sat in the canoes in
peace as we drifted with the invasive water-Hiaasen. After spending a night in Kochi (which Dad and Tessa
pronounce “Cohin,” another name for it, making me think of Koh Chang in
Thailand The feeling of the culture and land is not much different. For example
the food here is heavily coconut
and banana based as well.) we took a two hour drive to here in the backwaters.
As for the name of the area we are in, we have not figured that out. We pulled
up along a river bank, got out our luggage looking around for the guest house
called “Greenpalm” and instead found a fair sized canoe that would act as our
taxi to get to the other side. It was a great two minute ride across that
really set the peacefulness and relaxed tone of the four days to come in the
area.
Earlier in Kochi, we had had a
great time. From the airport it was about an hour and half drive and having not
eaten anything all morning as soon as we put our stuff down in the hotel we
walked a block to a restaurant that all but knocked me out with culture shock.
First of all there was not an Indian person in sight! That was the first time
in almost seven months. Also the menu was very tourist oriented. This was
obvious to tell for the menu emphasized its used of cleaned (as in Clorox
soaked) greens and other uses of “clean water.” This allowed us to have good
(as in outside of school) sandwiches and salads which were also the first in a
long time. It reminded me very much of a place we ate at in Baja, Mexico. (In
fact, for some reason or another, Kochi in general reminded me of Baja.)
Afterwards we walked alone the water front, literally a block away. Great
Chinese-fishing-nets, thrown together and repaired with seemingly random sheets
of wood, lined up in a long row from one end of the walk-way to another. We
“helped” the fishermen on one net pull it up. When we did I figured out how
they worked and their cleverness and simplicity fascinated me. It worked like
this:
There was a horizontal pivitole poll between two vertical stationary ones. At
about an 120 degree angle four polls, two on each side, stuck out to form two
triangles. The one pointing out towards the water was maybe two thirds the size
of the other. From it two polls were bent like tent sticks so that the nets
were spread out into a square. From the other side, the land side that is, the
triangle came way back. From it dangled long ropes, some to be used to pull
down that side thus pulling up the net side, and some from which rocks were suqueread
to add more pull wait. The few times we were there when the nets were pulled up
the nets were mostly empty except for a few fish. They said this was a bad
season, the monsoons being the best. Even though it was a “bad season” there
were many stalls with multiple types of seafood including prawns, mahi mahi,
and even a few sharks!
Besides the waterfront we (that is
G’pa and Nonna are with us on this trip and have been for the last two weeks)
saw the church in which Vasco De Gama was temporarily buried for 30 years
before his brother or son or someone brought him back to Portugal. This area,
as in Kerala, is very Christian due to Portugal’s previous presence. Also we
were introduced to the four, though later it turned out to be that there were
twenty nine, types of bananas. While tasting them, the four we were primarily
told about, we categorized by taste, “Mango Banana” and “Lemon Banana” etc. I
thus regained my love of bananas, that is I regained my love for bananas for
those types that are actually really good!!!
Anyway, now in the backwaters, we have
been overfilled with great views, scenes and memories. Yesterday we did so much
to even put on paper type.
Some very great memories are as followed: Earlier yesterday G’pa and I went for
a walk back towards the rice fields. (The islands are slowly sinking or the
water is slowly rising, I couldn’t understand what I was told, but either way I
was told the land is basically dikes surrounding the low rice fields, which are
like six feet below the river. This makes it easy to irrigate because when it
comes time to water the fields they open “gates” and gravity does its job. This
also means they need pump houses to pump out water when they need to. This in
general creates a buetiful land scape in the rice fields because some people
have also rasied small areas of land which look like tropical islands in a sea
of green.) Back near the rice fields we looked at the rice, which it turns out
that the rice is a milky liquid until harvest time at which point it hardens
into what we think of as rice, (The rice they grow here is called Kerala Fluffy
Rice which has fat grains. We confirmed that to get to the white color they
wash the grains over and over again instead of “brown rice” being a different
crop.) and on the way back I found a coconut on the ground (though that’s not
much of an accomplishment seeing they are everywhere in the trees. In fact you
can harvest coconuts from a tree once
every 45 days. Banana trees, we learned, only produce one bunch then
they die and that’s the end of the tree. The root system of the tree produces
multiple trees, each tree taking an unbelivible ten months only to then be
harvested. (In most places it takes fourteen, but the land here is very
fertile. An acre of rice crop can produce 2000 to sometimes 3000 kilograms a
season!)) With the coconut I spent
an hour trying to open up the outer shell with a broken tile I found. I
actually made good progress but in general I thought it was a great simulation
of cheap labor in the construction sites near our house; The tools are not the
best but that doesn’t matter because if you work hard and long enough with
something that is not perfect you can make it work. Philip, the owner of the
guest house, saw me working and brought me over to a tool specificly designed
to do that job. With it, he finshed what looked like another half hour in under
a second. Now the anatomy of this type of coconut (of the two) is that there is
an outer shell that breaks open into what we think of as the coconut with the
brown shell. Philip, using a coconut knife thing, broke open that and since it
was a good coconut I drunk the milk which was hot from being in the shells. It
was very special.
Philip showed us around the property and different spice plants.
For example a cinimon tree, from which I learned cinimon is a bark, and a curry
tree (the leaves are the spice.)
We also have spent a bit of time fishing. Its almost exactly like
the goldfish fishing in China, except the fish hardly bit the hook. The last go
of yesterday I put the line in the water and a spot darted out and bit the
hook!!! Now Thomas, our guide for last night’s walk and this morning’s bird
watching trip and tomorrow’s morning walk, said it is the tastiest fish and
sure enough Anna, the cook for the guest house and also Thomas’s mother, fried
it up with a masala marinate that I learned so that we can make fish and other
seafood like that on Cape Cod. It was very good, though not very big; The size
of my hand maybe.
Its “tea time” now (Philip lives partially in Manchester with his
two daughters and wife.) We will go canoeing afterward. Today we already
fished, swam, birdwatched, and did a fantastic bike ride. Wow!
-Chase
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