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Published: January 31st 2009
A lovely luxurious journey in a taxi was a real treat for the 2 hour ride to Alleppey from Kochi, after all it only cost as much as the bus would when it was split between the 4 of us, it’s a rare treat that we get to use taxis between places as they are usually too expensive! The taxi driver was very helpful when we arrived and suggested a place to stay and as we were only planning on being in Alleppey one night we went with his suggestion - an ok fan room with (we were told) hot water.
The four of us headed out straight away to get some lunch (as at this point Donna was close to eating both hers and Neil’s right arm) and to investigate the houseboats/river cruises that Alleppey is famous for. We were all like-minded in that we didn’t want to spend a night on a houseboat like most people do and a 2 hour tour would be more than enough for us! With a boat lined up at 150 rupees per hour each, we then found a good vegetarian restaurant for our food.
Alleppey is a very small and quiet
place, with not many restaurants and if it wasn’t for the houseboat tourist trade which has sprung up there, the town wouldn’t really have a lot going for it. We aren’t really sure where this houseboat ‘craze’ comes from, yes the traditional way of living is on houseboats but the sheer luxury of some of these overnight cruises is astounding. As you can see from one of the pics, some houseboats have rooftop swimming pools! We also saw some of the ‘traditional’ Keralan families' houseboats, complete with satellite dish, 50 inch LCD tv and surround sound speakers! To us, it seems that the houseboat attractions are just another way to milk money from the tourists...every two steps we were bombarded by someone offering their houseboat with some owners underhandedly using their children to try and sell their tour over other tours. It actually got quite annoying that you couldn't take a step without someone being there thrusting a houseboat picture under your nose.
A pleasant 2 hour cruise later we were really pleased we hadn’t done the overnight on the houseboat. All the backwaters we went down looked essentially the same, yes they were pretty and different but not
worthy of us spending a lot of time and money on an overnight cruise! Heading back to our room while Stacey and Ross went off to explore, we discovered the ‘hot water’ of our room. When we checked in the guy who owned the place said to let him know when we wanted the hot water and he would ‘switch it on’. Ok, so Donna went and asked about the hot water, in the meantime we kept switching the shower on and saying to each other ‘No not yet!’. Getting more and more puzzled, and after about 10 minutes of us vainly trying the shower which was still freezing cold (what do they do to these water tanks, put ice in them?) there was a knock on the door and our hot water was delivered in a rather small bucket. Quite stunned, as the owner had clearly said the rooms had hot water, Neil went first and ingeniously dunked his whole head into the bucket to wash his hair...yep, that’s ok if you have short hair! Donna however, after asking for another bucket of water as Neil had used the first (and got a huge huff and dirty look off
the owner!) skipped the hair washing and managed to have a shower balancing the bucket under her chin, with the bottom of it jammed against the wall and doing a one arm wash routine - not an easy thing to do at all!
Meeting with Stacey and Ross for tea and comparing notes of the technique for the bucket showering we headed off to find a restaurant - Krispy Korner - recommended in Lonely Planet. We found it and it looked promising as there were a lot of locals eating here. With an extensive menu we thought we wouldn’t go wrong with what we ordered...hmmm we were very, very wrong! Neil’s chicken dish came with tiny slivers of bone in which you couldn’t see but could definitely feel when you put some in your mouth. Donna’s Aloo Gobi (traditionally curried potatoes and cauliflower) came as tiny bits of cauliflower in a white milk sauce (definitely NOT Aloo Gobi) and Stacey and Ross’ dishes were equally as bad. The locals in the restaurant only seemed to be eating one specific dish, so we weren't sure if this dish was better (it didn't look it - it looked like dog poo
on a plate!) but really, this place was the worst food we had encountered in the whole of our travels so far. Whether the restaurant thought they could get away with serving these dishes to foreigners or whether it is always like that we don’t know. But if you are visiting Alleppey, DON’T go to Krispy Korner for your food!
Bellies still rumbling because the only edible food had been the rice and tomato salad, we set out to search for some snacks before we went back to our rooms. Easier said than done because everywhere was starting to shut up...it was only 8:30pm! So we wandered around, found some raisins, chocolate éclair sweeties, bananas and carrots which we thought would keep us going until the next morning. When we arrived back to our rooms, we told the owner about the bad food and he knew straight away it was Krispy Korner we were talking about...the thing that annoyed us is that he knew we were going for food and must have heard the words ‘Krispy and Corner’ mentioned when he was standing next to us before we left. A heads up would have been nice, fella!
So
far between both Kochi and Alleppey we were very disappointed with Kerala when everyone we know who has been to Kerala has said it’s amazing and is a highlight of India. Unfortunately for us the Keralan food has not lived up to it’s good reputation and the people have been very money-hungry and rather rude. The next day we had opted to get the bus to Varkala beach where we were really, really hoping there would be better food and better value accommodation. We didn’t think our bellies could handle much more bad food and we were beginning to run on empty!
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