今天參加了六小時的回流水船河，沿途風景優美，挺有意思。
根據牛津字典，「回流水」的意思是「與水流沒聯繫的水，即死水。又或是一個沒有發展的地方。」
但喀拉拉邦的死水是令人驚訝與充滿活力。船隻進入窄的河道，而這些河道又被椰子樹包圍。我又看見很多印度人在沿岸工作。船隻在一村鄉村停下，讓大家享用傳統喀拉拉邦午餐及看看婦女如何以椰子做繩。
除了我和以色列人Noam Chayut外，船上所有遊客都是印度人。他們來自泰米爾納德邦及孟買。而船夫則是喀拉拉人。
來自不同地方的印度人以英語溝通。為什麼呢？因為印度有多種官方語言，在北方較盛行的印地語不是每個人也懂。來自孟買的人聽不懂泰米爾納德語及印地語。
就這樣，船上約20人，可以說的語言有7種，包括泰米爾納德語、Malayalam﹝喀拉拉邦的語言﹞、英語、希伯來語、粵語及普通話。
船夫賺取的名副其實是血汗錢。這艘船不是機動船，船夫首先要把竹杆插入水底下的泥土，然後借力推動船隻，再步行數步把竹杆提起。他要重複這動作數小時，艱辛程度可想而知。船夫說他每天賺取Rs100﹝港幣20元﹞。
Noam嘗試划船幾分鐘，之後說疲累。
船上的印度人常常在唱他們的民歌。當Noam划船時，他們唱的民歌是叫Noam動作快點。
I joined a six-hour backwater trip. It is a meaningful trip as the scenery is breath taking. Oxford dictionary says backwater means ``a part of river not reached by the current, where the water is stagnant, and a place or state in which no development is taking place.’’
But the ``stagnant’’ water in Kerala is amazing and lively. The boat enters the narrow canals which are surrounded by coconut trees, and where you can see Indians working. The boat has stopped in a traditional village, where we enjoyed simple Keralite lunch and saw traditional women making rope with coconut.
All of the other passengers – except me and Israeli Noam Chayut – are Indians. These Indians come from Mumbai and Tami Nadu, and the boatman is Keralite.
Different groups of Indians are communicating with each others in English. Why is that? It is because India has many official languages, and not many Indians can speak Hindi, which is common in the North. The passengers from Mumbai cannot understand Tamili.
I believe more than seven languages can be spoken in the boat of 20 passengers, which include Tamili, Malayalam (Keralite language), English, Hebrews, Cantonese and Putonghua.
We can see a lot of lotus along the trip. The Indians just pick them up and make a necklace.
Noam, who has knowledge of plantation, says ``I cannot believe it’’ when seeing the Indians picking up the flowers, fearing that it will lead to ecological disaster.
What the boatman earns is really ``blood and sweat money’’. We are not traveling in a motor boat. The boatman needs to insert the bamboo stick into the mud under the water, and then moves the boat forward before walking a few steps to pick up the stick. He needs to keep the same action for four hours! He earns Rs 100 (HK$20) each day.
Noam says he is exhausted after paddling the boat for a few minutes.
The Tamili on the boat keeps singing their province folk. When Noam is paddling the boat, they keep saying a folk song encouraging him to move faster.
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