Cashless in Kerala

By Helen Krasner

My partner David and I like holidays on boats.  Not ships, you understand; I've been on a couple of cruises, but I wouldn't go again.  A large cruise ship can't go to the smaller ports, and visiting places with thousands of other people alters the place itself beyond recognition; I know; I've been in a few towns when a cruise ship arrived and I've seen the changes.  But smaller boats… they give you the opportunity see the countryside in a unique way, and to relax and not have to keep packing in order to move on.  So when we decided to go to India, the first thing we looked for was a river trip.  And we found one – a cruise down the Hoogly in Northern India.  But there was a snag; it was horrendously expensive.  So I began to search the internet for something similar but cheaper elsewhere in India.  And that was how I found the company Kerala Connections, and their six-day houseboat cruise in Kerala, right in the south of India.

I had been to India before, and I loved South India.  But that was 45 years ago in my misspent youth.  And I'd never made it to Kerala; I'd heard it was beautiful and I'd intended to go, but I'd run out of time or money or both before I could make it.  Now I started looking into it.  Very green, very tropical, different from the rest of India in terms of religion and politics… it sounded interesting.  And it was intersected everywhere with waterways – rivers, lagoons, and canals.  Tourism was growing there, and the boats which had been used for transporting rice in former times had been turned into houseboats for taking tourists on trips on the waterways.  Everyone said a houseboat trip was the highlight of a visit to Kerala.  But most people only went for a day, or overnight, or occasionally two nights.  No-one seemed to have heard of spending six days on a houseboat.  Kerala Connections had had it specially arranged for their clients, it seemed, since some people wanted to spend longer on the waterways, and have the opportunity to get well away from the myriad of other houseboats and tourists.  We liked that idea too.  The company arranged tailormade tours, and they suggested the houseboat cruise as part of a longer stay in Kerala.  With that in mind, I came up with three nights in historic Fort Cochin, then the houseboat trip, and a couple of nights in other places afterwards.  I ran it by Kerala Connections to see if it was feasible and affordable – and it was.  We booked it, with Kerala Connections arranging flights, transfers and so on.  What could possibly go wrong?

As some of you may know, on 8 November 2016, the Indian government suddenly and without warning withdrew their largest bank notes, the 100 rupee (£24) and 500 rupee (£11).  The idea was to hit the black marketeers where it hurts, but in fact it hit ordinary people, who suddenly found their money worthless.  It also affected tourists who were already there.  We heard about this and phoned Kerala Connections, as we would be arriving in India on 14 November.  Not to worry, they said.  Their reps and drivers would show us the new 2000 rupee and 500 rupee notes, and we should have no trouble changing money. I should mention that it is impossible to obtain Indian money before you leave the UK.

They were wrong.  When we arrived, the everyday money situation was chaos.  We managed to change a small amount at the airport, but there was a limit of £60.  Banks were running out of money and closing, as were ATMs.  Smaller denomination notes were in short supply, the new 500 rupee note hadn't materialised, and nobody could change 2000 rupees, a small fortune for many Indians.  Tourists were spending all day trying to change money, with no success.

This is the sort of situation which makes you glad you've booked with a tour company and not arranged things independently.  Our Indian driver took away some of our cash, changed it and brought it back to us.  He even got us some small denomination notes.  We had no idea how he managed it and we didn't ask too many questions.  But that was a big problem – and to be honest our only problem – effectively solved.

So… on to the trip.  After a pleasant couple of days of sightseeing and shopping in Fort Kochin, it was an hour's drive down to Alleppey to pick up our houseboat.  And it really was ours for the week.   It was just the two of us, and three crew – the captain, the chef, and an assistant.  Wow; we felt a bit like royalty!  The houseboat itself looked very traditional externally, but inside it was utterly comfortable and quite luxurious.  We had a large bedroom with our own flush toilet and shower.  Both worked well, though they did use river water.  This was  a lot nicer than it sounds, as the waterways in Kerala aren't too polluted… yet!  Still, it meant bottled water for drinking, even for teeth cleaning.  There was a large living room/dining room, with comfy chairs, and a mattress in the front where we could sprawl out and look at the view as we cruised.  There was quite a reasonable kitchen, and the crew's quarters were down below.

We met our crew when we arrived.  Joss, the captain, spoke reasonable though rather idiosyncratic English, and was responsible for the route.  He knew the waterways like the back of his hand, having been a captain on the Kerala government ferryboats for 20 years before taking his present job.  Biju, the chef, prepared fantastic food, basically South Indian but very mild for what he thought was European tastes.  I love Indian food, so after a day or so I asked him to make it “a little bit spicy” and it got even better.  Wu the assistant spoke very little English, helped out where needed, and drove the boat when Joss needed a rest.  The very few boating mishaps we had occurred when Wu took over; he managed to get a rope snarled round the propeller one day, and scared us a little by how close he sometimes went to shore.  But I don't think most people would have noticed.  David, who spent five years living on a narrowboat before he met me, was very attuned to these sorts of things.  Indeed, although he had started out worried about how he'd cope with a very different culture, David found more similarities than differences between boating in the UK and boating in Kerala.  He felt quite at home.

So where did we go for six days?  The first couple of days we followed the same route as many other houseboats, and indeed saw rather too many of them for a couple who are allergic to other tourists.  But we also visited an uninhabited island in a lake, then walked to a village to see coir making i.e. making coconut fibre rope in the traditional manner.  We went to a bird sanctuary which didn't have many birds, probably due to being on the main tourist route and having too many visitors for any self-respecting bird.  This involved a walk of several miles in 33 degree heat and nearly 100% humidity, and after that we gave Joss an ultimatum – only little walks please, no more route marches.   We were able to do that since this was our boat and our trip; Kerala Connections had emphasised in advance that we could change the route or stops if we wanted to.  We stopped at a waterside spa for me to have an ayurvedic massage.  And we sat and watched waterways life -  fishermen, various types of boats, exotic birds such as kingfishers, herons, and egrets, tropical fish, even a watersnake or two.  We moored overnight in silent waterside locations, and woke to sunrise over coconut palms, and freshly brewed coffee before breakfast.  The crew did everything on board; indeed, we hardly had to lift a finger.  It was utterly idyllic.

In between stops there wasn't really much to do.  Luckily we enjoy just relaxing and taking in new surroundings.  We also read a lot of books!  And we got to know our crew quite well.  Joss was an interesting person; in his early sixties, he had two teenage daughters.  “I didn't get married until very late,” he told us.  “I had three sisters, and I had to work to earn their dowries.”  We listened, intrigued, as he told us of a father who was out of work, and so Joss needed to support the family.  Eventually his sisters were married, and then came his turn.  “I married a poor girl,” he said.  “So no dowry.”  However, he was saving for the dowries for his own two daughters.  We wondered many things – would he ever be able to retire, did everyone in India still live in this traditional manner and so on?  Unfortunately we never managed to find out.

Biju didn't speak as much English as Joss, so we didn't have as much general conversation with him.  But I'll never forget asking him to make Earl Grey tea for me.  I'd brought my own tea bags, and he was quite willing to use them – but he'd never seen a tea bag before and he didn't know how.  So he learned something too.

After a couple of days things changed a little, though it was very gradual.   We were heading south, away from Alleppey and the tourist centres.  We soon found ourselves well away from other houseboats, but with many villages and a way of life based primarily on the waterways.  Here the rivers and canals played a bigger part in everyday life than the roads, as they had done for generations.  Canoes passed us, transporting rice, cattle feed and building materials; women washed their clothes in the rivers, and the village children waited at bus stops by the side of the river for water-buses to transport them home.  We stopped at a number of these villages, as we had told Joss we were interested in how people lived.  He showed us around beautiful churches, as Kerala has a large number of Christians.  I think he was a little surprised at our interest in dusty village streets and ordinary small shops but, if that was what we wanted to see, that was fine with him.

One of the highlights was a visit to an important Hindu temple, well off the tourist routes, but a place of pilgrimage, with a large number of pilgrim buses visiting.  We visited with Biju and Wu, who were Hindus (Joss was Christian), and were allowed inside with all the pilgrims, something which I gather is very rare.  It was quite an experience. 

On our last day, we went to a part of the waterways rarely visited by anyone at all.  It was necessary to go under a very low bridge at one point, and we only just made it.  I don't think this was on our planned route, but Joss was a law unto himself as far as the route was concerned.  He knew the waterways, and he thought we'd like this area, so he took us there.  For several hours we saw almost nothing except abundant wildlife, not even local boats.  There were a few houses, the occasional person going about their business by the waterways, but not much else.  This was true rural Kerala, an area rarely seen by tourists, and probably not by many locals.  It was peaceful and beautiful, and I feel privileged to have been there.

And then...  It was back with the other houseboats, heading north to Alleppey.  Our last night was close to the finish, where we had a canoe ride up a narrow waterway.  It was supposed to be a highlight, and it might have been if we'd done a short trip, but we'd seen so much more...  The following morning we reached the houseboat centre, and said goodbye to our crew, giving them a well-deserved large tip… well, we had to get rid of our 2000 rupee notes somehow!  We had a couple of days left, but the main part of the holiday, and our primary reason for coming to Kerala, was over.

We both agreed that this had been one of the best holidays we'd ever had.  It was unique and fascinating.  But would I recommend it?  Well, if you're the sort of person who wants constant activity and plenty to do, who needs organised activities and night life, you probably shouldn't go.  If you do, maybe just do a day, or overnight at most, on a houseboat.  But if, like us, you like wild places, new experiences, and finding out about local life and traditions, then this might well be the holiday for you.

See keralaconnections.co.uk for more details

First published in VISA 132 (April 2017)