Punnamada Backwaters Resort Alappuzha

... controversy when he was redirected to the ladies pool. Despite being fully clothed Rachel and I still felt like we were in a zoo. Conors defiantly enjoying the randomness of India with trips to the Internet to talk to girls and ventures to the juice shop at 1am……….Oh yeah I always new I’d make it to page three one day- Racheal, Conor and I are pictured in the Manorama Manoram!"

... if we would be interested in hiring his houseboat (we weren't falling for that trick again after our camel-riding episode in Jaisalmer), we politely excused ourselves from the book of comments and images we had thrust in our laps upon arrival and headed into town to scope out other options. The next day we were picked up by our houseboat operators and taken to a small canal where a boat, shaped as an old rice barge was waiting ...

... all, except enjoying the views and the company. Bliss. It was at night that the bugs came out. Bugs, and bugs and bugs. So we ate dinner by candlelight to avoid the worst of them. Some of the houseboats that we went past were even more fancy than ours - widescreen TVs, hi-fi systems, huge mosquito nets covering the front of the boat; but we liked the rustic simplicity of our boat, and whiled away the evening discussing our bowels (How many days is it, Michelle, since ...

... 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 ...

... t work, so he motioned for me to go across the street to try another one, which worked. I walked back to Brent at the internet place, and we walked to the bus station to catch the bus back to Pooppallys. On the bus, Brent talked to the bus-taker man and told him that we were going to Nedumuddy bridge. At this point, it was dark outside, and we were disoriented and not able to see any landmarks, so we were relying solely on the man to tell the driver to ...

... how resources are allocated? For this one quick day, I walked around Fort Cochin, the old part of town with its synagogue and cathedrals and Chinese fishing nets and fish frying stalls. First, I visited the Mattancherry Palace to see the Keralan fresco-secco murals of the Ramayana and stories of Krishna. Full of color and detail, the friezes capture the myths and battles of Indian legend. In the evening, I ...

... town if you want to do a little shopping. The festival itself was a little disappointing but it was only night 1 and it goes for 10 days so maybe it got better as time went on. We unfortunately didn't have time to stick around. Probably a great little place to stop at if you're going on a house boat but otherwise keep on going south or north and skip Alleppey. Next Pod - Cochin, India. Love, Nath and Kat.

... ceremonies, and the families out in their beautiful sari's of an evening, paddling in the shallows! The cliff tops can be reached on rickshaw by road, or by walking a few hundred yards down the beach and up the rough steps, where the best selection of restaurants and shops exist - perfect for watching the sunset.

The last time you all heard from me I had just returned from Nashik and informed you all of my good fortune on the dance floor. Two weeks later I bring you the latest from my travels around India. This time I write from land of a thousand waterfalls. You guessed it, Kerala, South India (You did guess it, right?). My journey was prompted by a recent issue of India Today, which published a ranking of the states in India. (For those unfamiliar to India's political geography, there are ...

... Cup semi-final yet. It read: Fabien Galthie has played his last game for France . . . hang on a minute . . . injury will cause him to miss the Third-Place play-off with . . . yyyyyyyyyeeeeeesssssssssss . . . New Zealand. England had beaten France 24-7 in the semi-final of the Rugby World Cup. 5 Austrian ladies behind me looked over puzzled muttering 'Was is das?' as I let out a squeel of ecstacy and whales 40 miles out at sea stopped in their tracks. After reading on the ...