About 5:00 am on Saturday 13th Boudicca gently snuggled up to the quayside at Kochi (formerly Cochin) in south east India. I watched from our window as first the dockers arrived to secure this moderately big ship, and then a significant number of other people to check us into India - our visas needed to have been organised weeks ago and there were dozens of clerks standing by to ensure we were all who we purported to be and had the relevant documentation - pages of it.
Fourteen buses lined up to take many of the 491 passengers aboard Boudicca out on trips around Kochi and its surroundings. We'd opted for a boat trip as we weren't yet sated with life afloat!
Our trip was to be by houseboat. At home a houseboat generally doesn't go anywhere but apparently Indian ones do move. After a rather lengthy and stressful bus journey (the traffic convinced most of us that we'd see at least one fatality before we got to our destination), we discovered what Indian houseboats looked like .....
These are some of the bigger examples. Ours was this one, Trinity, ....
It's quite big and has two cabins towards the back where guests can reside for whatever length of holiday they require. The superstructure seems to be woven reeds and bamboo or something like that. Very flexible but quite strong as demonstrated when one of our crew walked out onto part of the roof. Many, but not all, of this type of houseboat seem to have upper decks which can range from the short observation deck ours had to full length double-deckers.
Inside on the lower deck there was plenty of seating and a good view through the front of the boat past the seated steerer.
But upstairs, where several of us migrated, was even nicer with comfy chairs and even a sort of bed arrangement over the front deck.
It was nice and airy up there and protected from the sun with good views all round.
Safely aboard we set off on the crowded waterways.
We were told that it's only in the last twenty years that these boats had really become popular here and there were now over a thousand here.
At times it felt like it ....
And this was by no means the most congested stretch. Other vessels included traders such as this ice cream seller ....
Boats delivering cargoes of different sorts ....
Quite how these boats didn't sink when a faster boat went past was not obvious, they looked very precarious.
Although the boats varied quite widely, there was a definite family resemblance between them all with significant prows and sterns and a curved woven roof.
As in the above picture we kept seeing some interesting eagle-like birds as well as egrets, cormorants, various gulls and assorted corvids, most of which were recognisable to our Western eyes. So I attempted to get a better photo of the above birds ....
Subsequent research has revealed them as the Brahminy Kite, a specialist raptor with a territory that extends from India right across to Australia. We saw what appears to be a juvenile as well ...
In several places we saw women washing clothes in the traditional way. Presumably the water here is still clean enough - in Kochi none of the water we passed looked at all suitable for such activities.
Towards the end of our cruise we came out of the congested back-waters onto a sizeable lake or lagoon which made a pleasant and interesting change ....
And then back to our starting point for our bus back via the stressful streets of Kochi. A very pleasant break from our big ship.
Then in the evening, back aboard Boudicca, we were treated to a performance from rock-violinist Analiza Ching, who apparently did rather well in a certain TV talent competition in which Simon Cowell is a judge.
A very energetic and versatile performance which didn't seem to be appreciated by some of the older audience members, but there were plenty of us younger OAPs who enjoyed her playing.
Getting late now, Mumbai (Bombay) tomorrow.
Fourteen buses lined up to take many of the 491 passengers aboard Boudicca out on trips around Kochi and its surroundings. We'd opted for a boat trip as we weren't yet sated with life afloat!
Our trip was to be by houseboat. At home a houseboat generally doesn't go anywhere but apparently Indian ones do move. After a rather lengthy and stressful bus journey (the traffic convinced most of us that we'd see at least one fatality before we got to our destination), we discovered what Indian houseboats looked like .....
It's quite big and has two cabins towards the back where guests can reside for whatever length of holiday they require. The superstructure seems to be woven reeds and bamboo or something like that. Very flexible but quite strong as demonstrated when one of our crew walked out onto part of the roof. Many, but not all, of this type of houseboat seem to have upper decks which can range from the short observation deck ours had to full length double-deckers.
But upstairs, where several of us migrated, was even nicer with comfy chairs and even a sort of bed arrangement over the front deck.
It was nice and airy up there and protected from the sun with good views all round.
Safely aboard we set off on the crowded waterways.
We were told that it's only in the last twenty years that these boats had really become popular here and there were now over a thousand here.
At times it felt like it ....
And this was by no means the most congested stretch. Other vessels included traders such as this ice cream seller ....
Although the boats varied quite widely, there was a definite family resemblance between them all with significant prows and sterns and a curved woven roof.
As in the above picture we kept seeing some interesting eagle-like birds as well as egrets, cormorants, various gulls and assorted corvids, most of which were recognisable to our Western eyes. So I attempted to get a better photo of the above birds ....
Subsequent research has revealed them as the Brahminy Kite, a specialist raptor with a territory that extends from India right across to Australia. We saw what appears to be a juvenile as well ...
And then back to our starting point for our bus back via the stressful streets of Kochi. A very pleasant break from our big ship.
Then in the evening, back aboard Boudicca, we were treated to a performance from rock-violinist Analiza Ching, who apparently did rather well in a certain TV talent competition in which Simon Cowell is a judge.
Getting late now, Mumbai (Bombay) tomorrow.
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