Kerala Backwaters houseboat serenity

Hi, This must have been the two most peacful days of my entire life. There is nothing I have encountered like one's own personal houseboat with staff in a paradisical setting. Honestly, it is impossible to imagine that 60 minutes south by car, from urban India, there is such a setting. The backwaters are low lying areas of lake and canals with impoverished houses and tiny villages along the way. I thnk the boat was 30 ft and had slothful deck chairs on the front, with a dining table behind them, and a large bedroom w/good mosquito netting and a fan, and a lagre bathroom with blue tiles all over. Behind that was the kitchen where my cook prepared three meals a day, all way too big. I had two punters - men with long bamboo poles to propel the barge along - the sole source of power with one aft and fore.
The villages - really often just 2-3 houses near each other in bewteen lakes or canals - are pretty quite and once you leave them, there is silence - except for the birds which are mainly egrets, sea eagles, and a few loud mouth crows (good news, there are both cows and crows in the country, altho less of each than in the cities), and the breeze thru the palms. The punters are silent, no stupid music, occasional cel phone calls aft but not noisy, and occasionally a large military helicopter passng over head. Otherwise it is the most smooth and effortless and peaceful situation that could ever happen. At one point we were on a straight canal, with a soft tail wind, headed for a lake. The forward punter went aft and stayed there about an hour. Maybe they tillered it from the rear, but it went like magic softly down an aisle of palms in ater about 80' wide. It was nearly transcendental. Om the water, the temp was cooler and nearly perfect. Occasionally, the cook came with tea and banana chips and then stayed out of the way. He must have been the handsomest new U. grad in all of India - 21, said he is Latin Catholic & must marry a girl of the same brand, very tall and athletic and dark as January with immense and perfect whitest possible teeth that always flashed a smile. He was the only one who spoke english and made the voyage so comfortable.
Later in the day, it began to rain a little. After lunch they dropped anchor and my entire staff laid upon the palm sisal floor at the back and slept for 90 minutes. In the meantime, the wind came up and the rain was more constant and the slowly trolleda round showing me things, and then started to head back. But shortly the monsoon let loose and we had to tie up to the shore and sit it out as it was tremendous. When it eased, the men took off everything but their neighbor's table cloth and went back to punting in the gentler rain. More food, then sleep (they went to their homes and I was alone with the many geckos on board - cute, but none will ever be pals). In the morning they took me on another journey and at noon, the var came to get me.
The big houseboats are a little more south and the owner of the one I was on, said he operated a couple boats in Alleppy for 20 years, but the rich indians from the North now want complete a/c and TV and sometimes a pool and always motorized 2 deckers. What use dto be a 300 boat industry there has become a 2,000 boat place and he said now all you can see are other boats and hear the sound of generators and a/c running. He found a new village area, bought two two passenger boats and now has his own area. I never another houseboat as he sends hsi boats on opposite directions each morning. It was so nice. If I were QEII I would have said "I was very happy to have been there," but I am not and then I am. Now I have one more destination and then will buy a ticket home as the monsoon is to last two more weeks and it does limit what one can do. Kevin