Kuttanadu River Resort Alappuzha

... Lemon Tree is a medium-sized hotel (25 rooms) on Vembanad Lake, one of the largest lakes in India. It is in the heart of Kerala's famous backwaters.<br><br>It is a nice hotel with pretty grounds. Each room in its two story building looks out on the lake and a beautiful infinity pool. The staff tried very hard to provide excellent service but there are a few things they could do better. It turns out that the Lemon Tree chain only recently ...

... our afternoon boating, we had stopped at a fresh fish shop along the water to buy some seafood for dinner. My mom and I had gotten tiger prawns, so the cook made those for us in addition to the rest of the dinner. Everything was really tasty, and we both wondered how he was able to create so many dishes in the tiny room that was called a kitchen.<br><br>When it got dark, the bugs started coming out, so we went inside the room. To my mom's excitement ...

... a large lump of dark wood, but as we got closer we watched the lump sort of bumping the boat and then weirdly it overtook the boat. Of course, then we realised it was an animal, in fact a huge cow or buffalo (could only see the head bit). We, being moron tourists, both immediately shouted "COW!!" and started pointing at it. Our boatman was bemused and said "Yes, cow", looking at us like we were crazy. Clearly swimming cows across mile ...

... hut which opens straight onto the water's edge - perfectly placed for us to sit and watch the houseboats chug by. Apart from swatting mosquitos and having treatments there was little else to do in this place so Mish opted for a massage and Mike took on the mozzies! Mike scored many kills with no casualties and only ended being bitten twice...... Our main reason for coming to Kerala was to experience a night travelling ...

Was picked up by the owner of the houseboat this morning and taken by rickshaw to the docks where the boat was moored. First impressions of boat where good, a beautiful vessel which you could easily live on full time, has everything you could ever need. The crew introduced themselves, they seem like a really nice group of friendly and helpful guys. Fifteen minutes early, the boat departed and we started to move though the larger ...

... the river. After about an hour and a half we stopped and docked so they could feed us lunch. I was a little surprised they couldn't feed us while the boat was moving but thought- whatever. So we ate lunch, then they ate lunch and then we just sat there and sat there. We had been stopped about an hour when we heard snoring. Our captain was asleep on the floor! Jeff finally went back after we had been docked an hour ...

... yschedule.html I'll try and break myself into the schedule with some runs here. I'm going to set my alarm for 6 tomorrow to try to beat the tourists up and run with the sun. I haven't run since arriving in India and even a good walk has been hard to come by, so It'll be really delux. During my layover in Mumbai, I met a woman who sings for Bollywood movies. Oh what a shock those actresses aren't really singing. So that was my brush with fame. sort of.

... by narrow wooden beams. Within the fenced-in yard are two young women - dark skinned with betel stained teeth. They look up and gesture us to approach. We are a sight for sore eyes - three dirt and blood covered Westerners stumbling out of the jungle, babbling inoherent phrases about water, Honey Valley, and being happy to see them. We drink several metal jugs filled with cool, fresh mountain water. After a series of highly amusing hand gestures and a significant lack of commonly ...

... National Park 4. The beautiful day hike through forests and tea plantations in Ooty. 5. The crazy six-person rickshaw ride we took home from dinner to our guesthouse in Ooty (we are still waiting for that photo!). 6. Finally eating pizza after a very long time in Kochi (who cares if it was Pizza Hut!) 8. Hearing the way indian people use an odd tense when talking, ie - "You are much liking your dinner?" Budget-wise we did pretty well in India. We stayed within a reasonable range ...

... on the Aston Expressway - although Richie and Nial did both lose their keks over the balcony when putting them out to dry. Some little Indian chap risked his life to rescue Rick's 12 quid pair of boxers from some shanty roof top. Value has now gone upto 13 quid after slipping him a rescue fee). Moved onto this new gaff which then turned out pretty much the same and simply got louder. None of us slept, with various ...