Backwaters, Kerala

I don’t know what happened but it seems I lost track of time completely in India… So let me travel back in time to Kerala and let’s start the update from there:)

Backwaters, Kerala - someday early Feb...

We booked a trip with Wilson Tours for a more eco-friendly option to see backwaters and in the morning Elephant sanctuary. Taxi picked us up 6.45am from our hotel and our first surprise was to notice that we were the only clients, as we expected there to be more people joining the tour. 

It took 1,5h to drive to the elephant sanctuary but even the drive was nice as you could see some countryside before the crowds woke up. You could notice that there are a lot of elephants in Kerala as you saw their transportations passing by…

We stopped by the Periyar River, near Kodanadu, and were met by two elephants and their caretakers. Once again coconut came handy as piece of its shell was used for scrubbing the elephants in the water! Respect the coconut!

The scrubbing took quite a while even though our elephants were only 8 and 15 year olds, having to wash the 50 year old male elephant took 3 guys and an hour! These guys really seemed to enjoy the bathing and scrubbing and acted kindly even towards the odd tourist who just marveled being this close to these great animals.

After maybe an hour or so other tourists came to the scene to the watch the bathing and get their pictures taken with the animals. We felt extremely happy having been able to enjoy the quiet morning moment with the elephants, and gave 200 Rs tips to both the caretakers. After all we were the only ones soaked with water along with the elephants:) 

Aaza wants more banana!

2 guys with hairy fronts

Le big one!

(Couple of weeks later my husband and daughter would travel to Goa and we would take our girl for an elephant ride and bathing, which was a total rip off for 1200 Rs, near spice plantation. Also the poor elephants would need to do the bathing several times per day. Maybe they enjoy it, or maybe not.)

After some photo-moments were “enjoyed” breakfast in the taxi and took off towards backwaters boat trip from a small remote village near Cochin. The lakeshore was quiet and tranquil and we took off to smaller canals by a punting canoe, and I felt like I was in a different world; no traffic, no noise, no trash smell. This place was beautiful; there really aren’t words or proper photos to describe it.

Our 70-year old punting man

A houseboat

Relaxing trip was finished by a lovely dinner by the lake.

I would have still wished to take a swim in the lake but I was afraid there would be leeches. After seeing a huge snake swimming by I dropped the thought about swimming, and never mind the leeches.  I guess every paradise needs a snake…