Narasimhapuram Lodge Alappuzha

After another tasty breakfast of spongy bread, flavorful Kerala stew and fresh pineapple juice we were ready to start the next leg of our journey.<br><br>We had ordered a car and driver - this time we specified that it must have seat belts - to pick us up at 9:30. It had rained all night and was very we with big puddles everywhere.<br><br>Our destination was Alappuzha (Allleppey). about a 4 hour drive to the north. Our driver was probably in ...

... time. They spent a lot of time looking at their cell phones or talking to each other in Malayalam, and I think that if we had had a better crew, the houseboat experience, while still very enjoyable, could have been better. <br><br>Our houseboat looked really nice - there were three suite bedrooms (although we were informed that we could only use one after I tried to bring my stuff into another room - I think the crew wanted to take advantage of ...

... hard bed, with no breeze, so our night's sleep wasn't that great. However, after breakfast we steamed back to port in time to get a ferry to Kottayam, 2 1/2 hours away in order for us to get our train further south to Varkala that afternoon. The ferry ride itself was without anecdotal incident, however (as most of India seems to be) and we were presented with a situation which probably best sums up India as an experience: Our ...

Greetings from Allepey, the Venice of India. Or so they say. Yes, it has canals, but what it lacks is architecture, great Italian food, and, well, Italian men. This area is where the backwaters are located which are a series of interconnecting rivers and streams which make for a lovely boat ride. I took a 7 ...

... of "God's Own Country" (Kerela's state motto). The scenery was breath-taking and quite ordinary at the same time. The only "touristy" thing about what we saw were the other houseboats. Otherwise, it was rice paddy fields as far as you could see, local villagers and placid backwaters covered in violet flowers stemming from floating lily pads. It was one of the ...

... pineapple for goodness sake). A couple of hours in we made our first stop, to pick up some recent inmates from a gruesome-looking highrise Ashram. The usual suspects boarded the boat, in a flurry of ethnic garb and dreadlocks, and proceeded to bore us rigid for the next hour or so talking loudly about how cleansed and refreshed they felt; at lunch they stampeded off the boat and bought up the local shop's supplies of cookies and fried ...

... hot and humid, they start the engine so that we can turn the air conditioning on, but after an hour or so, we realize that the boat will have to be running all night for the a/c to work and it's really loud, not to mention smelly with the diesel, so we ask to turn it off. They do, and we swelter in our bed under the mosquito netting with a creaky fan occasionally blowing air on us. All the while they are sleeping out on deck, probably in much fresher air. Not quite the ending we had ...

... for some time. How delightful to taste sausages and gulp a beer, a little strange for a supposedly Muslim republic. After reluctantly returning to India, a three hour train journey took us to Alleppey where we hired a houseboat that included a cook and two other crew members. A lazy day floating on the backwaters is a great way to unwind after the Maldives. It's not unlike the Norfolk Broads apart from people washing their metal dishes, clothes and themselves in the lakes.

... varkarla beach. you can expect to pay 10 to 40 nz dollars per nite and food is way cheap. I went to varkarla town today wich was pretty ok. I like better than Koh Phagnnan and Koh samui, cos it has all the coconuts and nice sea, but its slower pace , locals are easier and it has surf, Its missing the party scene, but you can get boozed if you like that easily, just really mellow. I had an ayudaveic (spelling will be corrected in a few hours ) massage today ...

... booked a backwater trip for today (Friday) and she was hoping to go. We couldn't move the date either as we're planning to leave Saturday. Cath popped back to the room about 10pm, with Dan following a bit later. She knew it was coming! Slightly eventful after she left. Had a couple more special teas and sat chatting with locals in town. The police pulled up for a free drink and to stare at us for a bit. Then next door's bar owner decided to throw an absolute ...