Day 11

Scenes from my bedroom window as our boat cruises the backwaters in Kerala.

Actual pet. Not a stray!

Day 11. We visited a house along the backwaters. The woman is a housewife. She showed us  how she boiled clams. Later she would fry them with chiles, salt, and turmeric.

She opens a fresh coconut. Handy machine.

The fiber inside is woven to make open tarps to keep back mud along the shore.

Clam is steamed and ready to be seasoned and fried. No one has ovens in India— at least that’s what Leo says. Don’t know if foreigners have them on the north.

Ever try to open a coconut? She did this easily while balancing the coconut in her hand.

She has a special chair with a grater. Her cat loves ground coconut.

Inside the house. When her husband is away piloting a boat up the river, his parents stay with her. When he is home they stay in their own house nearby. 

Mother-in-law

She is making chutney. Check out the huge stone board and the gigantic pestle. She’s grinding and combing mango, coconut, salt, and chiles.

After our visit, we get in 3 smaller boats and take a tour of the neighborhood where our big boat wouldn’t fit.

Washing clothes in the river. 

View from our little boat.

More images. The banner of indicates that there’s some kind of festival happening. High end houses. 

Then we stopped at a toddy shop. All of us, but especially our Scottish travelers, were surprised to learn that toddy was not a British word but an Indian word (Google it!). Men climb up the coconut tree and tap the sap. This a government approved store and they are allowed to ferment it and sell it within 48 hours. After that it can be lethal.

Communist party candidate for office.

 

We went to a little restaurant where we could sample the toddy. We also were served tapioca and the cooked clams. This was the hottest, spiciest food so far on our trip.

These are water hyacinths. At first we thought they were pretty, but they are invasive— from South America. They are choking the waterways.

We went for. 2 hour walk around the neighborhood. Papaya, tapioca, mango trees

Narrow rocky path around the neighborhood.

Rice fields 

Daisies 

Water holding tank

A small store in the neighborhood.

Meats made of coconut fibers. 

Mats covering mud on incline to prevent erosion. 

Water buffalo in rice field. 

Rice grains 

Ibis in field

A chapel 💒 in the middle of nowhere!

See what I mean? Not even houses.

Big high school. 

Self-explanatory 

Because they depend on tourism, they collect the trash daily. Not that there isn’t some trash around. The idea that you shouldn’t throw your trash around doesn’t seem to be a concept they have.

Nice house

Just pretty. 

Elaborate pipes