Having gotten little sleep the night before, I slept in a little late. I left the hotel at 10:30am, 1.5 hours before check-out and before the houseboats left. I really racked my brain. Part of my wanted to go on a lazy houseboat. But the other side of me didn't want to pay 3500 Rs. And I had wanted to go canoeing ever since I had learned about Alleppey. Well, the answer ran up to me, literally, in the form of a tiny man named Shahji. A canoe trip, where he would leisurely take me through the smaller channels and passages that bigger boats couldn't get through. Okay, I thought I'd at least see his boat. He took me on his bike, which was tiny. This was the first time I ever had to sit sideways, and I was terrified that I would fall off (not that it would really matter, unless a car was heading my way). His balance was amazing, but I couldn't help but be nervous. I saw the boat, and then he paid for me to have a traditional, veggie, Keralan meal. Then we left.
He placed a paddle by my side, "just in case." I grabbed it immediately and started helping him, though I really didn't need to. I canoed for 2 hours straight, causing many people on passing houseboats to take our picture, since they didn't know I was a tourist. Also, along the way, some of Shahji's villager friends poked fun at the fact that I was doing his job...he just shrugged and said that I had wanted to help out. The setting would have been peaceful if it weren't for all the houseboats with their motors that polluted both the air and the silence. When we finally got into the smaller channels, things improved, and I tended to relax more.
Halfway through the six-hour journey, we stopped to visit a church hidden away and founded by some really important Christian. Even further away was a temple that looked more like a Chinese/Japanese pagoda. Now, let me first say something about Keralans like Shahji. A devout Muslim who earlier had a conversation with me about Hinduism, taking the tourist to see a Church and a Temple...Keralans know about religious peace (it's political peace that sometimes eludes them). We walked to the temple, though Shahji complained that the walk was too far. I suppose 1 kilometer could be far with legs as short as his. The temple was closed, and Shahji spotted a shortcut: a very narrow pathway running along the edge of the very wet rice paddies. A wrong step in either direction, and in the drink we would go. Still, we decided to try it. We walked carefully, meeting two villagers along the way. We crossed over the water using a small trunk with no incident, but came to a dead end. We could see the path we needed to take, but to get here, we'd have to cross over a channel, shuffling over a moss-covered, completely submerged, extra-slippery log. We had to turn around, and we walked back to the villagers, a man and a woman. The woman said we could cut across to her place, but to do this, we'd need to cross over another small channel. She started to set a plank across, but it was very flimsy and slippery. She tested it with much skepticism regarding its stability. As we were standing, the ground underneath my right foot gave way and I crashed into the water. My leg sunk up to the knee. Shahji helped me out. Since my pants were already ruined, I decided to just ford the small bit of water without the plank. I jumped in and waded across, much the the utter shock of the other three. Shahji scurried across the plank, and the woman led the way to her place. She grabbed a pot of water to wash off my muddy pant legs, but Shahji led me to a channel and proceded to actually wash my pants while I was wearing them. I had the woman take our picture, because I was highly amused by this. This incident actually made the trip SO MUCH more fun. Before, it was okay. Now, it was great. Shahji and I had shared an adventure with a funny ending.
Once we got back on the canoe, the hot sun dried me off pretty quickly. After this, things returned to normal. We stopped for tea. Then, with an hour left, I picked up the paddle and joined in the rowing. It felt good to work out the upper body for three hours that day. We returned by 6:30pm, and I paid Shahji 1000 Rs. 150 per hour, plus an extra 100 as tip. Yes, it was a lot, but it was worth it. After dinner, I returned to my hotel, where I met Sara and Geoff. I'll talk about them soon. We had a good chat, and then I went to bed, knowing that I'd leave the next day. I was very happy with my backwater experience. And Cochin was calling.
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