Blogs from Alleppey, Kerala, India, Asia

Chloe, Lucas and Dad got up for an early morning swim in the pool this morning and enjoyed it before there was anyone else around. So we all ended up having an early breakfast before settling in for a day of leisure. It was another stinking hot day and we were all sweltering by 10am, so desperately trying to find shade by the pool or in the house. Mum still wasn't feeling 100% and so was taking it easy and we all spent much of the morning and early afternoon reading, playing spite and malice or swimming. We had lunch at the hotel and before we knew it, it was mid-afternoon. The ducks were back at the house and chased dad for a bit which was funny before we went to the market with Anoop. The ... read more

Waking up to our first proper rest day and we all had a lie in. Just making it in time for the final call for breakfast the kids stuffed into as many cinnamon rolls as they could get their hands on - very healthy, but we deserve it! After breakfast we all made our way to the beach which was quite a sight - white beaches and palm tress for as far as the eye could see and hardly a soul on it. The temperature was fast rising so we found some shade and settled in for the morning. Chloe, dad and Phoebe headed to the sea for a swim which was like getting nto a bath it was so warm. However, the waves were fairly rough as there was a steep drop off into the ... read more

Time to leave Forest Canopy...very sad. It has been a really fabulous hotel, looking after everyone really well especially at meal times where the appetites have varied enormously. So it was an early start, and they opened up early for a special breakfast for us and then we were off. Bit of a trek in the A team bus this time round, it was about a 5 hour journey. We were better prepared this time round though, Mum, Phoebe and Chloe all took travel sickness pills and they were ready to go to sleep the moment they sat down! There were no 'accidents' on the way down to sea level therefore and everyone felt relatively fresh still when we got there. Anoop even managed to get some rubber bands for Phoebe's braces on the way down ... read more

Having spent an extra unscheduled day in Munnar due to the heavy rain fall we weren’t optimistic about getting out to Alleppey today either. We had another night of thunder storms and heavy torrential rain. The news reports in the morning were of further land slips, new dams having to open, red flood warnings in Alleppey and Kochin and of the US embassy telling its tourists to avoid Kerala completely. Despite this, and much to our surprise our taxi managed to get to us first thing in the morning. We decided being out of the area worst affected by land slides was probably a good thing, although going to an area below sea level didn’t seem the most sensible idea... Almost as soon as we left the hotel we saw our first signs of the issues ... read more

Woolly says – As we stood waiting for our days transport to arrive I hoped that we had made the right decision in booking onto a tour, Jo, bless her, had worked out a route to take us from Kochi an hour down the coast to Alleppey, which had involved two longish rickshaw rides a train journey and the chance that on arrival we might not be able to find a boat to take us out. All things considered we had voted unanimously to try another tour, I tapped my paws as the minutes passed and decided that I might have time to give the girls some much needed information on our day out……. As he retrieved several pieces of paper from his backpack I had an inkling as to what might be coming. Woolly says ... read more