Alleppey

---

So we travelled south to Alleppey on Sunday and commuted on our first bus which was a great experience, it was over loaded completely and we were the only tourists on it so it was intimidating to begin with but really cool. There was a young boy who had no space at all so he sat on my lap and all the indians were smiling, it was cool. We arrived and got an amazing homestay called the Lemon Dew,a few young lads like mid twenties were running it and it had a very rasta feel to it so I felt right at home. It had an open top area on the roof where everyone had a few beers and a good oul social chat every night and it was great to get info about other places we are going to. The next day was prob the best so far in India, we went to the backwaters which was unbelievable, most tourists pay over the top prices for it so we did the opposite and went on the local boat which cost 18 rupee's for the 2 of us which is about 35 cent, i had bought a lighter earlier in the day which cost more. The trip was about 6 hours or so and once we got out to the middle of nowhere, we walked for a bit and it was very junggly looking and not a tourist to be seen, the people living out there were clearly very poor but with big hearts cos 1 family brought us in for tea, we met the family, took some pictures, it was the nicest experience ever and a brilliant taste of the proper indian culture. We got there address and told them we would send on the pics, such a lovely family.

Alleppey, as described in a travel guide is a quiet market town. In reality its an absolute madness. A proper Indian town with crazy traffic, lots of dirt and noise, lots of people... It didn't feel very relaxing at first. But then as we got to know the town, went for our backwaters trip and enjoyed our roof top it felt pretty good. We sank into the Indian lifestyle, went to a few very local restaurant and got proper Indian dishes for just a few rupees (118 Rs for a lunch for the two of us or 66 Rs for a breakfast with this yummy masala dosa). It's even hard to believe that such a lovely meal can be so cheap. Davy even experienced the Indian style toilet with no toilet paper, just water and left hand. I'm a little bit jealous because I never tried and not sure if I will 😊 But I had to use this female urinal which looked like a half of a typical Indian toilet just without the hole and I wasn't sure if it is actually supposed to be used 😊 The backwaters were amazing, just kilometres and kilometres of water and palm trees. Watching locals on the boat, cute children, adults coming home to the individual islands with groceries and also watching the people living on the islands, doing their dishes and laundry. But the Indian family was the absolutele highlight of the trip. Sipping hot tea with the grandfather and chatting to the children. I think they were as much happy to see us in their house as we were accepting their invitation. Coming back to Alleppey, it was getting dark, so we couldnt see much of the backwaters but were just enjoying the breeze and the feeling of being here (and lots of bugs flying around). We also saw our first elephant (just from the bus on the way down), took first picture with a cow, saw another few geckos and also visited our fist temple and took a few sneaky pictures.

We are now in Alleppey, more to south enjoying beaches and sun and sea and a blog from here will hopefully follow soon. We are just finishing our first week in India. It's hard to believe. We did so many things already, visited so many places and have so many great memories that it feels much longer than that.

Lots of love and sun from Simona and Davy



Czech version:

Alleppey, jak zminovano v turistickem pruvodci, je klidne mestecko. Ve skutecnosti je to silena zmet dopravy, lidi, hluku a spiny. Prestoze to nezni zcela vabne, nebo mozna prave proto, skutecne se nam podarilo ponorit se indickeho stylu zivota. Bloumajice rusnymi ulicemi, zacali jsme jist v mistnich restauracich opravdicka mistni (a hlavne neuveritelne levna) jidla. Davymu se postestil, i kdyz ne uplne chtene, zazitek s mistnim zachodem, kde neni zadny toaletni papir, jen voda a leva ruka. Ja jsem naopak musela pouzit zensky urinal, ktery vypadal jako polovina typickeho indickeho zachodu, jen mu chybela ta dira uprostred. Dojem z celeho mestecka zlepsilo i nase ubytovani s uzasnou stresni terasou a spoustou houpacich siti a spoustu lidi, kteri se s nami podelili o tipy z dalsich mist, kam se chystame. A samozrejme nejlepsi cast z Alleppey jsou Backwaters. Prirodni sit kanalu a rek. Odolali jsme turistickym nabidkam a rozhodli se objevovat krasy Backwaters na lodi, co mistnim slouzi jako verejna doprava mezi jednotlivymi ostrovy. Za 18 Rs jsme se dvouhodinovou plavbou dostali do vesnicky Kottayam. Backwaters, to jsou kilometry a kilometry vody se spoustu palem a ruznych druhu ptaku. Videli jsme neuveritelne velke hejno kacen. A cestou se bavili pozorovanim mistnich, vevnitr na lodi a tech zijicich na jednotlivych ostrovech. V Kottayam se nam stal uplne nejlepsi zazitek z cele Indie, mistni rodina nas pozvala domu na caj. Byli neuveritelne mili, radi, ze s nima pijeme caj. Dokonaly.

Ted jsme ve Varkale, konecne si uzivame den nicnedelani, jen more, slunicko, teplo. Ale o tom az dalsi blog.

Spoustu lasky a slunicka posilaji Simona A Davy

---