A Backwater Adventure

When travelling, you often meet a person in a particular place who ends up defining that place for you. That person often is cemented in your mind as the symbol of that city, town, state, or country. Abu Babu became our Kerala.

Abu Babu took us on a Gilligan's Island-type escapade through the backwaters of Kerala. Known as the Venice of the East, the Kerala backwaters are a mix of large and small canals mixed with vast rice paddies and villages. Common mode of transportation? Canoes.

Abu Babu was barely five feet tall, and he moved around his boat like a chipmunk. Barefoot, and constantly crouching over, Abu Babu was a living Keralan compass: he knew the backwaters as though it were his livelihood. In fact, it was.

Although he didn't speak a word of English, Abu Babu communicated with us by pointing, laughing, and simply taking us where we needed to go. And by holding Nicole's hand--he seemed to enjoy this.

He navigated our boat through the backwaters--narrow lagoons and wide, river-like canals. He brought us to a restaurant for chai, in the middle of the canals and only accessible by boat, where an entire family immediately converged at the sight of foreigners and practiced the two words of English they knew. We awkwardly sat together drinking our chai and watched the Indian love story that was playing on the TV.

We stopped off where a man was up in a tree plucking fruit that is used for the village alcohol. Abu Babu showed us the rice paddies, and kept pointing about something; a nice lost-in-translation moment. We explored a little slab of land that was full of palm trees with bats' nests.

Because it was during the monsoon, the backwaters were flooded and houses were literally halfway underwater. But people didn't seemed to mind; they just made sure that they were in shorts when they exited their house. They were immediately bathing in water.

We passed churches and cemetaries, restaurants and billboards, all amidst this matrix of canals.

After our day-long boat ride, it was a little sad to say goodbye to "our little guy" Abu Babu. He was our backwater experience, and we decided to give him a significant tip to show our appreciation.

We left feeling good, and chatting about how we would always remember Abu Babu.

An hour later, we went to get lunch at a nearby restaurant. Abu Babu was there eating, so we went and sat at his table. After a minute of watching him messily eat his food and trying to comprehend his slurring speech, it was obvious: he was wasted.

So much for our generous tip and our innocent view of Abu Babu and Kerala.