Granary Resort Alappuzha

... J Well all the guides books said that a Kerala boat stay would be the most expensive thing you&#8217;ll do in India but worth &#8216;every damn rupee&#8217; and they&#8217;re right. For the princely sum of £30 quid each we have a 80ft beautiful straw houseboat for 24hrs, with three staff to tend to our every whim&#8230;.<br>We were a bit lazy and got a 2hr rickshaw ride here over exactly the same roads we went down on the ...

... saw all the little villages and houses, plus all the trees, wildlife and passageways off the main tourist route around alapphuzha. We had our own chef making us delicious meals and we had a local fisherman canoe out to us and sell us the biggest fresh prawns we had ever seen (check out the photos!!) the cook prepared them for us for dinner and al enjoyed them very much. Moored up for the night at dusk and we went for a hand punted canoe trip around the ...

... sie pociagiem do stanu Kerala, niesamowicie pieknego miejsca pelnego gajow kokosowych, pol ryzowych, plaz, zielonych wzgorz i lasow tropikalnych. Ogromna roznorodnosc kultur dopelnia piekna tego miejsca - hindusi, ktorzy tak gorliwie praktykuja, ze zdarza sie, iz nie wpuszczaja do swiatyn wyznawcow innych religii; chrzescijanie, wywodzacy sie od sw. Tomasza Apostola; muzulmanie. Jesli jestes w Kerala to koniecznie trzeba doswiadczyc 'backwaters'- wody w glebi ...

... they claimed they were in the military on leave. Obviously taking some time to relax and recuperate they wanted to make friends with us. They tried to impress us: "We are in the Army! We shoot people!" (holding an imaginary rifle and shooting our beers off the table). After unsuccessfully trying to get our mobile numbers and shaking our hands some 500 times we weaseled our way out of the pub and found a place to crash for the night. We met a guy ...

... who could speak reasonable English, half the staff were running round bringing Cameron fancier and fancier outfits and generally treating him as a little king. Having selected a flamboyant Indian trouser suit for himself, he disappeared off while Rob chose a shirt, only to come back with a range of options for some of his friends. They mostly seemed to be the right size with suitably funky patterns so we kind of had to buy them. Meanwhile, Vernee ...

... of my new T-shirt with Vejay - the famous Tamil Actor. *** WORLD CHANGE STARTS WITH EDUCATED CHILDREN! Give a girl the life long gift of education! Support my appeal 100 GIRLS BACK TO SCHOOL! Donate at: www.justgiving.com/100GirlsBackToSchool . Your money goes directly to ROOM TO READ (www.roomtoread.org)! Hugs &amp; Kisses, Vik

... driver, the front is an open area, loosely covered with a table, chairs and benches. Further back are the bedrooms (ours had one) and then the kitchen and at the very back the engines. Our crew, Augustine, Manny the captain and Joseph, welcomed us onboard with apple blossom leis, and water. And then we were off for 6 hours of touring the backwaters. We floated through several canals, with just a bit of life along them, a few buildings and huts, the occasional pump house (the rice ...

... and they have been in India for some months now doing a photo shoot on Westerners finding spiritual significance in India. It made miss Beth even more (who am I kidding,everything, food, showering, and walking make me miss Beth). We had wonderful conversation and when it was all finished they are people that I'm looking forward to keeping in touch with. The majority of people staying at the ashram were, for lack of a better description ...

... and other vehicles. We arrived to find a much smaller town than anywhere else we'd been, and as we arrived at the hostel, bags and all, there was a massive power cut that blackened the entire mountanside (turns out this happens all the time). We all gleefully rooted out our torches and navigated down the slope to reception. We'd arranged to be in the dorm, but there was no one else staying in it, so we could have had at least eight beds each if we'd ...

... craft shops and spice sellers. Once we'd had enough of the friendly but insistent requests for us to come into every shop down Jew Street, we headed back to Fort Cochin. This part of Cochin is made up of narrow streets, low rise buildings from colonial Portuguese, Dutch and British rule, which makes this place feel very un-Indian. It's also eerily quiet, even the stray dogs are thin on the ground here. The bay is lined with the famous huge Chinese fishing nets which are lowered ...