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After a lazy morning beside the pool we we boarded our houseboat from the jetty at our hotel at around midday. Our houseboat is part of the River Escapes fleet and is very charming. It is traditional looking with thatched roof and timber floors. There are two bedrooms with ensuites and a big picture window in each of the bedrooms. Up front is the the living area which is open apart from the roof. We have the ding area with table and chairs, a couple of comfy can recliner-like chairs and two day beds right up front. Running along either side in this area are timber bench seats, so plenty of choice of where to sit and watch the world pass by. It is stinking hot as we leave the hotel but once out on the water there is a lovely breeze that cools things down. We cruise until 1pm then tie up to a buoy in the middle of the lake and are served lunch of traditional Kerala cuisine. After lunch we cruise some more (there are houseboats everywhere on the lake) before stopping again to jump onto a 8 man motorized canoe that takes us down the narrow canals that run off the lake. This is really interesting as younger an insight into how the locals live. It's like driving down a suburban street but instead of a street it's a canal. Houses on either side, some small and old and others quite large and new. But all are just metres from the the water. The canals are man made and outside each house there is a step about 1.5 metres wide and this is used for bathing, washing clothes and washing dishes. The women bath fully clothed, soaping themselves up on what bare skin is visible and then rinsing off, the men bath in their sarongs tied around their waste. Laundry is done at these steps as well with the women throwing the soaped clothes over their shoulders and slapping them onto the stone pillars either side of the step. Every now and then we see someone fishing with a bamboo rod. Children wander along the waters edge dressed in school uniforms on their way home from school. It is amazing to see how life is lived on these backwaters. Back on the houseboat we cruise back to our mooring for the night. Dinner is a variety of vegetable dishes all cooked with spices,rice and lentils, curried chicken and prawns and lobster for Laurie, Bob and Deb. the seafood being bought fresh from one of our stops earlier in the day. After dinner we chilled out on deck and tried to keep the mozzies at bay before retiring to our air conditioned bedrooms for a peaceful nights rest on the water.
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