Houseboat Pictures

Our Houseboat!

Anne, Vida, and I enjoying the relaxation

Vida and I with Kevin and Swamy

How much hay can you fit on one little canoe???

Dinesh and his gracious friend Manish

For our second weekend trip all seven of us from UTHSCSA as well as our friends from Oklahoma - Kevin and Swamy - drove down to the state of Kerala, on the Southwestern tip of INdia to meet up with one of Dinesh's friends from high school. After a longer than necessary car ride - everything is an adventure in India - we arrived at the docks where we met Manish, Dinesh's friend, and boarded a houseboat to float the backwaters of Kerala. It was magnificent! So Serene, so peaceful, so totally India!

As we floated along it was like watching a documentary on the daily lives of villagers. We saw them bathing, washing clothes, cooking, cutting hay, loading hay onto boats and trasporting it down the river, playing drums in celebration, etc. Wonderful!!! We stopped a few times to buy snacks, walk around on the shore, and purchase the largest shrimp I have ever seen in my life to cook for dinner. Delicious! IN the evening we brought out the Indian music and had a dance party with the houseboat crew - trying out the new moves we had picked up from MTV India and Bollywood films. It was so much fun!

The next morning we woke and were nce again able to enjoy the peaceful backwaters. After a delicious breakfast we returned to the dock, sat that our time on the houseboat was done, but excited to see what other adventures awaited us in Kerala.

We drove from the dock through Alleppey to Haripad, where Manish's family has a home. At his house we were warmly greeted and fed a delicious lunch before departing once again for an afternoon of sight seeing including a palace, an ashram (residential religious community) and a beach. It was a fun an interesting afternoon and an absolutley amazing weekend!!!