Exploring the Backwaters
An early morning walk blessed us with temperatures in the twenties, rather than thirties, and made for an enjoyable stroll around the Backwaters. This was followed by breakfast (which happened to be the same as yesterday, but good, so we didn't mind), and then a trip in a fairly narrow canoe. The canoe was powered by a combination of us paddling, and someone punting from the back - and largely from the latter! With the beautiful scenery being reflected into the calm waters of the narrow canals, this was the perfect way to spend the morning, and gave us access to much more secluded spots than a bigger boat would have.
On returning to our lovely homestay, we decided to persevere further with the bike mission begun yesterday. To this end, we called upon a man a few doors up, who apparently and did indeed have a bike, which crucially had tyres on that retained air. We took this and the "working" bike from our own place, and headed out west, stopping briefly to pick up some pastries from the local bakeries.
As soon as the sealed road ended - in some stunning rice fields - many of the baked goods disappeared. These included a "doughnut", which was some sort of deep fried thing with chilly, and very good, more samosas (this time with beetroot!) and a very greasy sweet thing that can be accurately described as tasting like the moist crust of a very slightly burnt fruit cake. I liked it. With a banana to wash this down (heavy meal I know) we carried on our journey, which was now on a mud track through more fields and villages, admiring the vivid greens and plentiful birdlife.
Three miles later and we made it to our aim of Kumakaron Lake, weaving through some houses to get to it. The lake was much bigger and wavier than I had imagined, but came with some lovely purple flowers, a very welcome breeze (after the 35 degree sunny ride) and another pastry. Having guzzled water down due to the heat, we stopped off at a bird sanctuary to get some water, before making the return journey, a total ride of over 13 miles and certainly my longest of the year. I even managed a two minute run after returning the bike, although this did leave me totally exhausted and ready for a cold shower!
It was still early afternoon, so I decided to arrange a full body massage for 17:30, a nice pre-dinner slot, and I'd heard there was a good masseuse here. I snacked on a banana fry (which was so greasy the paper bag it had been wrapped in was completely soaked through) and some chai tea, then at 18:30 it was time for my massage (only an hour late, not too bad). This turned out to be quite an experience!
As I entered the room, the door was immediately locked behind me by the female masseuse, who then said "clothes off" rather abruptly, and gestured to a chair. This I duly did (keeping pants on for modesty), and after being berated for forgetting to take my watch off (oops!) I appeared to be given a choice of two tables to lie on. Neither had a head hole, but one looked soft and plush, and the other bare and hard. The choice should have been obvious, but I am not good at estimating the length of things in the horizontal plane, and the comfy one looked rather short (lots of things are here due to the average height of the population). Not wanting my legs to be dangling off the end for an hour, I opted for the much longer hard table. "Back" was barked at me, which I correctly assumed to mean "lie on your back", and given the hardness of the plastic on the table this seemed reasonably comfy.
Within a few seconds I was absolutely covered in some sort of oil, and the massage began. It was an excellent pressure, and I certainly started enjoying it, especially as most massages I have had involve some sort of injury being excruciatingly kneaded into submission. However, when the masseuse expanded her vocabulary to "side", I instantly regretted the table choice as my hip and ankle bones took a bit of a beating. Up until this point it had been a largely silence experience, but whilst switching side there was a short conversation involving the questions "Husband? Job? How many children? Name?" before thankfully resolving back into silence.
I was extremely grateful to hear "back" again (which this time meant show me your back rather than lie on it), and was enjoying some guilt-free soothing of my numerous mozzie bites. I wasn't even worried about any residual mozzies in the room who may have stayed for an optimistic watch, because had they ever managed to land on me without doing a "bambi on ice" impression, the sheer amount of oil would have had them choking on it before getting anywhere near my bloodstream. Indeed there was so much that each strong downward massage of my legs had me slithering dangerously towards the end of the table!
Soon focus was turned to my head (for which I had to shuffle up back up the table in a difficult seal-style) which was relaxing, although I need not have put oil on my hair after my earlier shower. Eyes still closed, I heard a good deal of rustling, and quite suddenly my toes were being pulled by a newspaper lad hand. Weird! This was then repeated on my fingers, followed by an odd two minute pause, which made me a little nervous. There was then a great deal more rustling, which confused me until I was slightly horrified to realise that, like my banana-fry earlier, I was to be degreased using newspaper! A couple of minutes later and with streaks of the day's news covering my skin, I was done - Ayurverdic massage number one complete, and well worth the money I think, even if I did leave feeling a little violated and having well and truly soaked-up today's news!
An early morning walk blessed us with temperatures in the twenties, rather than thirties, and made for an enjoyable stroll around the Backwaters. This was followed by breakfast (which happened to be the same as yesterday, but good, so we didn't mind), and then a trip in a fairly narrow canoe. The canoe was powered by a combination of us paddling, and someone punting from the back - and largely from the latter! With the beautiful scenery being reflected into the calm waters of the narrow canals, this was the perfect way to spend the morning, and gave us access to much more secluded spots than a bigger boat would have.
On returning to our lovely homestay, we decided to persevere further with the bike mission begun yesterday. To this end, we called upon a man a few doors up, who apparently and did indeed have a bike, which crucially had tyres on that retained air. We took this and the "working" bike from our own place, and headed out west, stopping briefly to pick up some pastries from the local bakeries.
As soon as the sealed road ended - in some stunning rice fields - many of the baked goods disappeared. These included a "doughnut", which was some sort of deep fried thing with chilly, and very good, more samosas (this time with beetroot!) and a very greasy sweet thing that can be accurately described as tasting like the moist crust of a very slightly burnt fruit cake. I liked it. With a banana to wash this down (heavy meal I know) we carried on our journey, which was now on a mud track through more fields and villages, admiring the vivid greens and plentiful birdlife.
Three miles later and we made it to our aim of Kumakaron Lake, weaving through some houses to get to it. The lake was much bigger and wavier than I had imagined, but came with some lovely purple flowers, a very welcome breeze (after the 35 degree sunny ride) and another pastry. Having guzzled water down due to the heat, we stopped off at a bird sanctuary to get some water, before making the return journey, a total ride of over 13 miles and certainly my longest of the year. I even managed a two minute run after returning the bike, although this did leave me totally exhausted and ready for a cold shower!
It was still early afternoon, so I decided to arrange a full body massage for 17:30, a nice pre-dinner slot, and I'd heard there was a good masseuse here. I snacked on a banana fry (which was so greasy the paper bag it had been wrapped in was completely soaked through) and some chai tea, then at 18:30 it was time for my massage (only an hour late, not too bad). This turned out to be quite an experience!
As I entered the room, the door was immediately locked behind me by the female masseuse, who then said "clothes off" rather abruptly, and gestured to a chair. This I duly did (keeping pants on for modesty), and after being berated for forgetting to take my watch off (oops!) I appeared to be given a choice of two tables to lie on. Neither had a head hole, but one looked soft and plush, and the other bare and hard. The choice should have been obvious, but I am not good at estimating the length of things in the horizontal plane, and the comfy one looked rather short (lots of things are here due to the average height of the population). Not wanting my legs to be dangling off the end for an hour, I opted for the much longer hard table. "Back" was barked at me, which I correctly assumed to mean "lie on your back", and given the hardness of the plastic on the table this seemed reasonably comfy.
Within a few seconds I was absolutely covered in some sort of oil, and the massage began. It was an excellent pressure, and I certainly started enjoying it, especially as most massages I have had involve some sort of injury being excruciatingly kneaded into submission. However, when the masseuse expanded her vocabulary to "side", I instantly regretted the table choice as my hip and ankle bones took a bit of a beating. Up until this point it had been a largely silence experience, but whilst switching side there was a short conversation involving the questions "Husband? Job? How many children? Name?" before thankfully resolving back into silence.
I was extremely grateful to hear "back" again (which this time meant show me your back rather than lie on it), and was enjoying some guilt-free soothing of my numerous mozzie bites. I wasn't even worried about any residual mozzies in the room who may have stayed for an optimistic watch, because had they ever managed to land on me without doing a "bambi on ice" impression, the sheer amount of oil would have had them choking on it before getting anywhere near my bloodstream. Indeed there was so much that each strong downward massage of my legs had me slithering dangerously towards the end of the table!
Soon focus was turned to my head (for which I had to shuffle up back up the table in a difficult seal-style) which was relaxing, although I need not have put oil on my hair after my earlier shower. Eyes still closed, I heard a good deal of rustling, and quite suddenly my toes were being pulled by a newspaper lad hand. Weird! This was then repeated on my fingers, followed by an odd two minute pause, which made me a little nervous. There was then a great deal more rustling, which confused me until I was slightly horrified to realise that, like my banana-fry earlier, I was to be degreased using newspaper! A couple of minutes later and with streaks of the day's news covering my skin, I was done - Ayurverdic massage number one complete, and well worth the money I think, even if I did leave feeling a little violated and having well and truly soaked-up today's news!
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