The Venice of India

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I am in Alleppey at the moment, which claims to be the Venice of India because of the 900km of back water canals which it connects to. Not so much. It is still quite a cool city, lots going on but not overwhelming as I expect the big cities are going to be. Definitely not Venice though! Something about the rickshaws, total disregard for traffic laws and burning garbage everywhere tipped me off.

We are now a party of 4 as LN has appeared, deciding on India over Peru at the last minute. We are staying at this homestay with two very funny Indian guys who are running it. One of them fancies himself the next big Bollywood star and has graced us with his dancing 2 nights. Words can't really describe what was witnessed, lets just say I've never laughed so hard at watching dancing before. In a good way though, he is pretty talented, he just really thinks he is amazing. Thank god for digital cameras at times like these.

We spent a very romantic Valentines Day drifting through the back waters in a canoe. At times it seemed there was a mist floating over the water reflecting the sun which was really beautiful, until you realize it is burning garbage. Ha. That is India for you. The guy who was sterning the canoe took us to his sister's house for lunch which was amazing. Eating with your hands is by far much more fun than using a fork and knife. Don't know how well that would fly at a corporate meeting in North America though. We all took turns canoeing at the front of the boat, brought me back to my tripping days, especially our trips on the Shushawps because there are a lot of house boats on the back waters.

Today we are headed to "the secret beach" as the guys as the guesthouse insist on calling it which is supposed to be a very nice beach about 10 km from Alleppey and then on the Varkala tomorrow.

In other typical me fashion I left my cell phone in a rickshaw which means I will clearly never see it again. Oh well, the screen wasn't really working since to time I dropped it in a snow back. At least I have yet to lose anything else and it is my 1 month ani with this trip so that's pretttty good.

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Photos

LN Arrives
And gets involved immediately making chapatis