Alleppey and the backwaters

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Well I'm a bit later writing about this, but I have been having a good time! Alleppey is a busy little tourist centre with loads of places to stay and take houseboats from. Still travelling with Louisa, we also met up with a friend I made in Jaisalmer, a kyrgys (from kyrgyzstan) girl called Aijan. She got there several hours before us (we had 2 long hard-chaired hot bus journeys totalling 6 1/2 hours) and found us the most beautiful place ever to stay. It was right on the lake at the front and backed on to the rice paddys. Sunrise over the water and sunset over the fields and coconut trees. Beautiful.

From Alleppey I did a canoe boat trip on the backwaters and this was great! First we took the ferry out to a village right in the middle of the backwaters and had breakfast with the family of the canoe boat owner. I was with Louisia and Aijan but we also met some Argentinian folks who were really nice. Then we went out in the canoe, helping to paddle a bit but mostly just relaxing. It was so beautiful. I saw water snakes, these dark diving fishing birds (which could stay under water for ages!) and 4 kingfishers, their beautiful blue wings being very impressive! Actually this was the first time i'd ever seen kingfishers so i was super excited! The culture of the backwaters people is so relaxed, so nice. The ladies do their washing in the water and they are slapping their bright clothes against the rocks to beat the dirt out! All the kids and men are swimming in the water and mangos and coconuts hang pleasantly over the water. It is soooo beautiful. I went swimming in the water myself actually and it was really nice. Until Louisa mentioned the word 'leeches'...shudder...

Anyway we also had a fantastic thali lunch made by the canoe boat owners wife. Served on a banana leaf is definately the way forward- no washing up and environmentally friendly!

The backwaters are definately worth a little trip to if you can!!

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