Two nights in the "Mosquito Factory"
Trip Start
Nov 04, 2007
1
33
62
Trip End
May 03, 2008
Alleppey,
India
Monday, February 4, 2008
This will be quite a short entry - some of you may be relieved to know!! We have got a bit carried away with our blog writing in recent times, but there is so much to write about we are honestly only giving you the highlights!!
We arrived in Alleppey on the boat from Amritapuri. The boat travelled along the Keralan backwaters, which is a peaceful and picturesque network of inland saltwater canals and lakes. In fact, many tourists spend a day or two just floating about on luxurious house-boats taking in the tranquility. However there is a high premium to pay for such a trip, and for us that premium would be three days' worth of our budget, so we decided that the trip from Kollam (via Amritapuri) on a passenger boat was plenty for us!
Alleppey was always going to be a quick stop-over for us en-route to Fort Cochin, and so it proved
Village children waving
. We checked into Gowri Residence, which was a really friendly and rather peaceful guesthouse. In fact probably one of the most friendly places we've stayed so far. The rooms were set around a little courtyard where we spent much time reading our books (Hugh was befriended by the resident flea-ridden pregnant cat. See - cats = good sign! - Ros). We spent a pleasant evening with some fellow-travellers who were also staying there, exchanging stories and recommendations. Apart from this we didn't do a great deal. The most eventful thing that happened was a cockroach running over Roz's foot in the bathroom (she claims it bit her toe).After two nights we were ready to move on to Fort Cochin. We were planning to get the bus, but the guy at the guesthouse said that a friend of his was driving back to Cochin that morning (after dropping off some guests from his own guesthouse) and that he could drive us for a discounted rate. It was still a little pricey (about 6 pounds for an hour's drive) but as Roz had a headache we thought we'd splurge. Our driver must have been the best Indian driver we have experienced so far, so it was rather unfortunate that he got pulled over by the police and fined for not wearing a seatbelt! Anyway, the only reason I am writing about all this is because our driver told us that Alleppey's nickname is the "mosquito factory", and judging from all the bites on my feet, legs and ankles I can see why!
Fishing boats
!Ros:
I'm going to have to put my sticky-beak into this entry again I'm afraid. I think it might be an idea if, having done two days on the Keralan backwaters - the bit of this area that many people actually fly all the way to India just to see, we wrote something about it! We've uploaded a few pictures with our previous blog entry and added a few here, which give a better description than I can, but I'll just add a little.
The backwaters vary quite dramatically - at times they are vast inland lakes that feel more like a calm sea, at other times they are narrow canals threading their way through small villages. There are a surprising number of industrial factories too, blotting the landscape a bit. But generally the waterways were pretty clean. There are a lot of small fishing boats and canoes plying the waters and the edges are overhung with palm trees and various other plants and bushes we couldn't identify, but seemed to be growing lots of wierd fruit. Every so often there are 'Chinese' fishing nets strung up - tall structures made from bamboo poles from which large nets were suspended. These could be lowered into the water and hauled back out again without the need for a boat.
We spent most of our time spotting the wierd and wonderful array of birdlife until we'd actually seen so many eagles, wading thingies, diving thingies and other such unidentified-brightly-coloured species that we got bored
Chinese fishing net
. There were even plenty of kingfishers. We could also spot fish beneath the surface of the water. And often above the surface as they jumped out of the way of the boat, much to the delight of the circling eagles. And there were some jellyfish. Erm....anything else....cows, goats, dogs and children along the wayside (the children here, in contrast to the 'saibadee!' of those along the Mekong, shout 'please give me one pen!' Some people on our boat actually tried throwing pens for them to leap into the water to retrieve like they were performing seals.). Sometimes we were even lucky enough to see a rat bouncing along in the undergrowth. (No, the rats here aren't the size of cats. Nor do they have dripping fangs or whatever other silly things people have said to us. They are just normal ratlike brown rats).Hugh:
OK, so this isn't that short after all. Sorry! You can blame Roz for adding so much extra ;-)
