Kumarakom part II

This will be really short, I just want to finish up Kumarakom since it’s been several days since we left and we’ve been in two other places. I’m behind!

Last time I forgot to mention the conversation we had on the ferry to the driftwood museum with a girl who wanted to practice her English. There were three of them in a group who stared at us for a solid thirty minutes before finally coming over to introduce themselves and explain that they wanted to practice their English. The leader was a girl who was about fourteen or fifteen and she was very pleased because she loved Will Smith and she’d never met anyone who looked like him before. I died. It was the funniest thing I ever heard and so after that of course I had to talk to her. She was adorable and talked a mile a minute once we reassured her that we could understand her English. I wish I’d exchanged emails with her, she was really sweet.

The third day we were there we decided to do a ferry ride into Alleppey. The point of the ferry ride was simply to see the backwaters. The houseboats run a nice racket showing tourists these areas and having them spend the night on the boats for the “full backwaters experience” but they’re full of mosquitoes at night and cost an arm and a leg. The ferry costs about 7-10 rupees, you see a lot more of the coastline and you get to talk to local people. Needless to say, we liked the ferry. It was a little long, about an hour and a half, but we met an adorable baby boy whose mother kept turning him to the funny looking foreigners to keep him amused. One thing that surprised me was that people in Kerala play musical babysitters on public transportation. By that I mean that one by one everyone on the ferry/bus will take a turn playing with the baby. It’s adorable.

Alleppey was a disappointment. There was nothing to do. We wandered around in the heat looking for something but to no avail. The only real reason to go to Alleppey is to take the ferry. After a few hours we took the ferry back to Kottayam which took close to three hours. Sooo long. But it was gorgeous. And when we got back to our homestay we chilled out with good food and good beer.

Later that night we went into Kottayam to watch real Kathakali for the festival. It was beautiful but real Kathakali is 2-3 hours long. And loud. Very, very loud. Which wouldn’t have been so bad if the drums hadn’t been so high pitched. It started around 10:30 and by midnight we had only seen one dance and sat through an hour of just music and drums. I wish we’d been able to stay longer but everyone was tired so we went home.

Our last day in Kumarakom was spent just taking walks and hanging out in the hammocks overlooking the rice fields. I loved G.K’s. It was so peaceful and George was wonderful. Our last few meals were delicious and spicy. Very good. Seriously, Keralan food is awesome.

And that finishes Kumarakom. Next time: Trivandrum!