Kerala Backwaters

First, I was able to get a 2Gig card for my camera, so I can now store thousands of pictures. I am going to be more selective about what I upload, as each picture takes about a minute for blogger to record, regardless of the speed of the connection. After I get home, I may try to upload more.

Our driver in Cochin kept telling us there was no hurry making our houseboat reservation in Alleppey. We thought we would be on a houseboat with 10 other people and they would all be waiting for us. Wrong! We were the only guests. We took a two day cruise through the Kerala backwaters with a crew of three waiting on us. It was pretty posh. We both went a little stir crazy, however, as there was no where to go. We could walk the 15 feet from our room to the deck and back, but that was about it.

Our first night out, we moored beside some folks "threshing" rice. I don't know if that is the right term. They were removing the stems, but the rice still needs more processing to remove the hulls. It reminded me a lot of Amish workers in the field, where they have a stationary machine and lots of people bringing rice to it and working with it. They let us help out a bit. Unfortunately, it was too dark to get any photos while it was being done, and we left before they started in the morning.