Flight to Dubai

We are leaving India today. Our new destination is the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a place I have not been before. We get the wake up call at 3 AM and take a 2-hour bus ride to Kochi airport on the very dark, very narrow, bumpy lanes of the village of Kumarakom where we stayed last night. It is a drive I am glad I am only watching. I would not want to be the driver. He sees things that I am not able to see. I told you this bus driver is very, very good.

We arrive at the Kochi airport without incident and today's flight is an international flight. All runs smoothly, only the clerk signing us out of India is the typical bureaucratic nightmare. He is fastidiously dotting every ‘i’, crossing every t. In German we call those bureaucrats Nullennachzieher. A guy who traces the zero on paper to make sure it really is a zero. Don't you love this name? It's a person who, when he adds 2 million and 1 million he writes it down. Not only that, he starts on the far right side, tracing and adding all the zeros before he finally adds the 2 numbers to get to the number three.  Yuck!  A bureaucrat (a Nullennachzieher) would do this ‘work’ even when the answer is obvious.

Minaret Beside Our Hotel

Arriving in Dubai, I cannot help but be amazed. The shuttle train from the gate to baggage runs like clock work. Each door on the shuttle train has guides and helpers, speaking all kinds of languages. Wow! Those folks here know how to move the masses. This airport is only an international airport; the UAE has no domestic flights. This place works efficiently. No delays. Going through immigration was no issue; going through Customs, again, no issue. Poof and you are outside. Wow, that was fast.

There is no graffiti anyplace, no advertisements plastered on walls. The streets are swept clean. After India it's a bit scary. You look back over your shoulder to see if anybody is watching you. I had a feeling that Big Brother was watching me?

The Streets Are Spotless, the Traffic is Orderly

We were met outside the airport by Marshall, the tour representative in Dubai. He called our bus and we were off to the Hyatt Al Riga, centrally located near downtown Dubai. Everything went smoothly, until they took all of our passports at the hotel reception. Call me paranoid, the last time this happened to me was in Russia. OK, after a bit of time we got them back but not without paying some fee. My inner radar chirped, there is certainly a rule of law here, certainly someone is ‘watching’ you. OK, OK, call me paranoid, I just got here but that is how felt. I felt I was being watched with a smile.

Our exit and transport out of the airport was so quick I had no time to draw Dirham from an ATM. Naturally we had to find a bank; the exchange rate with an ATM is always much better than what the hotel gives you. We also had to find food, since it was way past our lunch hour. There was no map available at the front desk that could help us, also they seemed to not know where the nearest ATM was, so off we went exploring. On the way out the door we ran into Roger, a member of our group who had found a Bank with an ATM close by. But, when we went to Riga Ave, the bank building was not obvious; we could not see a bank. So we had to ask. Do they speak English here? We asked a man clad in a thobe (white, long Arab outfit) and in perfect English he told us where the bank was. “Just across the wide avenue, no problem whatsoever”, he said. Good start. We got a stack of Dirhams from the machine. Nice to know we can find people that we can talk with.

A Great Little Restaurant Near Our Hotel

Now to the food! Most signs are written in Arabic of course. Do the restaurants have English menus? This again was no problem whatsoever. Not everybody speaks English but in general, with language and writing, there was never an issue in Dubai. Dubai is totally set up to deal with international travelers. In fact, the main economy in Dubai, after oil, is tourism.

In memory of India we ate a Shawarma in Dubai, which was both (5 PM) lunch and dinner. Next door to the late lunch place was a kind of bakery. This bakery had lots and lots of wonderful sweets. Baklava, one of our favorite desserts, were available in many varieties, they were yummy.

I'm In Heaven. Really Good Baklava

We had a long day, getting up early, flying, new people, language, etc. we just slowly wandered slowly back to the hotel and goofed off for a bit, tomorrow is another day.

Kumarakom

We slept well enough last night on our houseboat even when the A/C turned itself off and the cabin was sticky warm. It reminded me of when I was younger and slept at night without any A/C at all. My covers came flying off and I would have even opened the window but, at 5 AM traffic on the river resumed. Some boats had motors without mufflers. The closed window helped a little to subdue the sounds.

We had a leisurely breakfast of omelet, fruits, toast and coffee on board the houseboat before we disembarked. Getting off was a bit perilous. The gang plank is narrow, the luggage bulky but we managed OK. Not so from the sound coming from the neighbors boat. A large suitcase fell into the water; I just hope it was water proof. The Crew managed to rescue it and put it on the shore where it stood dripping wet for the owner to retrieve. I am so glad this was not my suitcase.

Lobby Of the Aveda Hotel Has a Large Pond With Coi

We had time this morning; it was too hot to move fast anyway. Our bus stopped one more time for a shopping spree and Carol found a white cotton top, Indian style. But this was also the point when another woman in the group realized she left her money-belt on the boat. It took some coordination but the money-belt was found and returned to her later in the day, in the hotel. The money belt was found among the bathroom towels, on the boat.

Restaurant Area Overlooks a Beautiful Pool

Our hotel was near the bird sanctuary of Kumarakom. Our hotel was a very difficult place for our bus to get into. Indian bus drivers are good, no better than good, VERY good. Our driver was one of the best, yet he had a very difficult time driving on those narrow lanes. His helper had to get out many times to move mopeds, motorcycles or even guide him around corners in the road. Even the hotel parking lot offered problems. It was a very tight fit. The driver only had a  few inches on either side, sometimes fractions of that. Bravo driver!

The hotel in Kumarakom was an Indian hotel and while very nice, it lacks the wants of an international traveler. The dining area was in the open air, wonderful and romantic but also hot, humid and came with mosquitoes. We had room service for lunch.

We called the front desk 4 times and they tried 4 times to fix the A/C until finally they fixed it.

Phew, in the tropics without A/C?  It shows you now spoiled I have become.

Egret

At 3.30 in the afternoon, after the big heat of the day, we all took a boat ride on Lake Vembanad. The whole area in and around this large lake is a designated bird sanctuary. We had a guide who knew his thing, and Carol and, it seemed everybody else, had a good time. It is just me and birds. Carol tells me she saw kingfishers, egrets, purple herons, cormorants, etc. but with me it all falls on deaf ears. At one point everybody went for a walk in this heat to listen to the  different ‘chirps’ or “ tweets” while I sat under the canopy of the boat, just minding my own business in the shade. I like birds OK, but I leave them be. I know they are great creatures, they eat bugs, worms, mosquitoes, etc. and that is good enough for me.

Colourful Kingfishers

Water Buffalo With Hitchhikers On His Back

I have an explanation for it all. When I was younger my father collected wild birds in a very large cage. He trapped birds in his home-made traps or nets. It was my job, since my Dad was working; to get those caught birds out of those traps right after I came home from school. After I freed them from the traps, I had to put them inside the large cage my dad built. I hated it. I felt sorry for the little creatures, felt sorry for their confined living. Some of the birds while in the trap or net were bloody from trying to get free. It broke my heart. There was no use talking to my Dad. I set most of the birds free, but of course my Dad would yell at me and would have a fit when he found out, and he did find out.

Cormorant Drying His Wings

Then one day, by mistake? I left the door ajar of the large birdhouse. All his precious birds flew off. After that I was called not reliable and he could not count on me to do him a simple favor. After some time, the big birdhouse came down because he only found dead or wounded birds in his nets (because I no longer even went near the traps).  Ah, childhood memories, I leave birds as birds, I don't care what their names are and how they tweet.

Everybody is different, so if you like birds? OK

A Tree Full Of Cormorants

with me, but please respect that I feel badly for any caged animal, reptile or bird. I hate zoo visits. I just about can handle sanctuaries, where people gawk constantly at wild animals.

And I am not a fan of temps of 35C with 90% humidity like we had that day.

Blossoms On the Suicide Tree

Fruit Of the Suicide Tree

I loved the story of the suicide tree, where the fruit is edible but the pit is deadly. Mmmm, I wonder what that tree looks like, that fruit. Carol told me she saw one on her walk while I was goofing off in the shade.

For that night we saw an advertisement that there would be classical music played in the lobby. Stupid me, it was Indian classical music, of course. Not Western classical! I tried to listen to the Indian classical music, but I have to admit, these sounds were not for me.

Goodbye Amazing India. Tomorrow We Leave For a Few Days in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates

More Sights Along the Pamba River

Fishing?

Hans Is Working Hard to Get Us Through All the Water Plants

Lilac Lily

The River Is the Main Road

And Canoes Are the Main Mode of Transportation

Houses Can Be Right At the Water's Edge

PINK????

Kids Swim In This River

Workers Off-Loading Bags of Something

More Bags of Something Being Moved to Another Place

Getting Laundry Done

Women Have to Stand In the River to Do Laundry

People Live On Many of These Houseboats

We Had a Brief But Heavy Rain Storm

But We Were Snug and Dry In Our Houseboat

Others Were Not So Lucky

Disembarking - A Woman From Another Group Accidentally
Kicked Over a Suitcase That Was Sitting On the Edge Of the Path
and It Landed In the River. Luckily a Porter Jumped In and
Rescued It