Hotel Royale Park Alappuzha

... steering the small outboard motor in a very amusing zigzag fashion! <br><br>We arrived at Kottayam, well actually it was a bit of concrete and mainly mud on the side of the river under a flyover. &#8220;This is it?&#8221; I enquired somewhat bemused. I was assured this was indeed the jetty and that we could take a taxi with one of the waiting men to wherever. It was explained that all the cars had to be left up on the flyover as there was a demonstration going ...

... flies buzzing around but you cant get fresher fish than that! <br>The following day we caught the ferry over to the main town of Ernakulam, had a look around and booked our train tickets to Dehli, had lunch in 'chick king' - indias answer to kfc - an interesting experience to say the least!<br>There isnt actually that much to do in these small places so we got the local bus 90mins south to Alapphuzha which is known as being the gateway to the backwaters of ...

... que notre guide nous ait offert la protection multicolore des parapluies a se mettre sur la tete (ceux que les blacks vendent en ete au pied de la tour Eiffel), et nous naviguons tranquillement comme cela pendant 4h, sur les petits canaux des backwaters. Tout le long, nous avons pu observer la vie quotidienne des gens qui y habitent, simplement entoure d'eau et de rizieres. On a alors pu savourer la quietude qui y regne loin des villes et ...

... we decided that the time had come to find a means of removing all the grime, so we spent about an hour walking around in the dark trying to find a house that had a washing machine, but of course this was an enormously optimistic endeavour..luckily the genius, namely brownie, spotted washing powder and some string in a street stall, and so we bought some and wandered home. I'll never leave home without a washing machine again ...

... phew, a western style toilet. We were looked after by a crew of three men and really felt that the boat company must have squeezed us in between two longer trips with proper paying guests. As we meandered through the channels, we saw fishermen on flat boats casting nets to catch mussels; whole villages squeezed onto the strip of land than runs between the canals and the neighbouring paddy fields; and ferries stopping to pick up passengers at small jetties that ...

... a really good time. Were there until the sun went down and relaxed at some chairs later there and had a beer and snacks. 071228 - Friday We went to a nice waterfall. Took a couple of hours there and home, but it was really nice to see On the ...

... to come to the beach town and get sucked in. I'll allow myself to be sucked in for a week to ten days. The yoga and the beach are a big draw. 2. YOGA I wanted to start yoga when I came to India, and I even considered the ashram I mentioned before. However, I heard horrible things about it, and so now I'm taking free classes (donation) with a Swiss guy at sunset on the beach. About 15 people gather for the two hour class. He says ...

... Kollam the scenery got smaller and smaller revealing the riverside villages of Kerala. People living their everyday lives i.e. washing clothes, bathing, cleaning. It was an honor to float by and observe this. The trip reminded me of when I was younger and I would go and visit my Grandparents home named "Honey-Do" located on Lovell Pond in Fryburg ME. They had a canoe and I would take it just off to the side of their house and there was a sort of ...

... me rather than one of the many other tourists he said that it was because I was alone. He introduced himself as Davidson and we set off spending the rest of the day together and visiting the Dutch museum, the cathedral where Vasco de Gama was briefly buried and a basilica. We also did some shopping where I bought a dhoti which is the long dress worn by men in the south of India. In talking I learned that he was a Roman Catholic, and a farmer from northern Kerala near Kannur. He ...

... few days of pampering. Our hotel was one of the Taj chain, won't bore you with the details as we didn't venture far from the pool, but having a full body Aruyvedic massage was a pleasant if a little weird experience. Essentially you are stripped naked, covered from head to toe in a warm thick oil, then rubbed vigorously for 50 minutes (nope, same-sex masseurs), before being scrubbed with green paste and showered. Moving ...