Allapuzah cruiser

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An early train meant an early rise. Due to the shower still being kaput, I had to carefully feel my way back to the same room I'd used yesterday - a process that had been easy in the daylight but was more of an adventure in the dark.

The journey to Allepey (aka Allapuzah) was only a couple of hours, but the hotel allowed me to check in even though it was barely 9AM. The hotel is great, with poolside dining in the evening, but it's a couple of kilometres away from anything useful (e.g. shops, Internet) so I made great inroads into my 10 rupee note collection getting autos to and from town.

My main objective of the day was to finalise a backwater cruise. I decided one night on the boat would provide a good enough experience, so I went to a couple of places to see what they would offer pricewise. Unfortunately it seems to be a fairly busy time of the year, so my attempts at haggling the price down met with little success and I eventually settled on the offer that the hotel had given me.

The boat will be a traditional Keralan one called a kettu vallam, supposedly constructed without the use of nails. There will be 3 members of the crew, plus little ole me, and all meals will be provided on board. It promises to be a fairly undemanding 24 hours on the water.

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