Some of the houseboats in the backwater canals.
Our resort hotel on the lake, with the infinity pool.
One of the tourist houseboats.
Local transport.
Views on the canals.
An old abandoned church.
Our houseboat where we docked for lunch by the church above..
The food was excellent.
Who let him take control?
Scenes on our evening village walk.
My flower girl.
Up to his neck in swamp.
Friday, March 9th.
We left our hotel at 9:00 for a short 50 kilometre
drive that took about three hours. The roads are narrow and congested. We
stopped at a bottle shop as where we were going is a dry area.
We arrived about 12:30, checked in to the really nice
water front resort, the Whispering Palms, which has an infinity pool. Thoufeeq
had booked us an optional boat tour that most of us wanted to do. Eight of us
boarded a local houseboat for a cruise along the shore of the lake. The
houseboat was beautiful and had a sitting/eating area, two bedrooms and
bathroom facilities. There are 1400 houseboats on Aryad Lake and although they
were originally homes and transport for local people, they are now used for
tourists, most of whom are Indian. People are allowed to sleep on them but they
have to dock somewhere now to give the local fisherman access to the lake at
night without fear of being crashed into by the houseboats.
We had a very pleasant and relaxing cruise on the
lake. John and I also took the opportunity to talk to the group about the tips.
We were served a delicious lunch of local Indian food.
When we got back to the resort we spent a couple of
hours in the pool, before Thoufeeq took us for a village walk. We strolled
along in the heat looking at rice paddies, banana trees and local homes. All
the people we met smiled and welcomed us. After about an hour Thoufeeq said
that there was nothing left to see on the road that ended about a kilometre
further on and they turned around.
I decided to walk to the end. As I was
passing one house a little girl came out and gave me two small white flowers. I
was surprised and touched. I didn’t feel it was right to take her photo as her
father was standing back and watching, but she asked me to take her photo and then wanted to see it.
Really sweet. I continued on and found another canal area and hundreds of ducks,
a few cows eating in a shelter, two water buffalo lounging in the swamp and a
few large frogs. At the very end there was a large dock that was being
constructed where houseboats will dock for the night. Then I turned around and
began the walk back. It was getting dark and the walk was about three kilometres.
However, I made it longer as the resort is only signed posted if you come from
the other direction. I accidentally walked over a kilometre past it before I
realized I missed it. By then it was totally dark. I was a bit worried that
Thoufeeq would be worried about me still being out there. I asked a couple of
people directions, but because I couldn’t remember the whole name of the resort
(just Palms) and their English was limited I didn’t have much luck. Eventually
when I got to a church that I knew we had not passed, I turned around and
walked back where I finally found the resort. As it turned out, no one was
worried or looking for me, they were all sitting around have a beer in Heather
and Adele’s little backyard. By the time I got back my shirt was drenched in
sweat as it was really humid and I had been walking quickly.
We had the dinner buffet at 8:00 and headed off to the
road by 10:30.
I really wanted to take a house boat on the backwaters, but never had the time. Is it as beautiful as they say or is it one of those gorgeous local tourist things that we find "ok". Any elephants yet?
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