House boat weekend

---

Hi again everyone!
Just back in the journalism office now, but have had an amazing weekend! A group of us from my accommodation headed to Allepey, supposedly the "Venice of the East", in the next door state, Kerala. It was quite a hard journey to get there - we had to take 6 different public buses, all of which were absolutely packed, and although we left at 10 pm on Thursday night, we didn't get to Allepey until 11 am the next day! We did manage to get some sleep though, as one of our buses was delayed by three hours, so we slept outside on the floor of a bus station - I don't think the Indian people could believe their eyes when they saw us!
When we got Allepey we met another volunteer who had a Sri Lankan boyfriend, which was very useful, since he spoke Tamil, and he organised things brilliantly. Our houseboat was incredible. I will try to upload some photos of it onto here or facebook as it was so good! There was a downstairs eating area, and three bedrooms and a kitchen with our own chef, and then an upstairs area with more chairs and beds. We then set off on our two day cruise of the Keralan backwaters. It was unbelievably relaxing - just what was needed after the bus journey! The scenery was like nothing I have seen before. There were lots of rice fields all surrounded by palm trees, with canoes and houseboats just drifting up and down the canals. To top this, our chef cooked us delicious meals, including fish that he bought from fishermen in their canoes alongside the boat.
We were also allowed to swim in the water - it was really warm, but in some places it wasn't clean enough to just jump in - at one place, I saw a huge dead rat floating along really close to where one of the girls was swimming!
Watching the sunset from the boat with a few cold beers was so nice, and then sitting on the roof of the boat watching the stars was even better! I actually decided to sleep up on top (despite the mosquitoes!) as it was so nice.
We were all very reluctant to leave the boat, but the journey back home was actually one of the highlights of the weekend. We took a different route home, via Kumily, which is in the mountains. The scenery was out of this world. Everyone was glued to the windows of the bus! We also drove through the tea plantations which was interesting. It was quite an insight to see the rural way of life here, as I have spent almost all my time in towns so far. I think perhaps I will have to make a trip back into the mountains.
So, its back to work for now, although its a bank holiday tomorrow for Republic day, and then I think I may finish up at my placement and start traveling on my own, perhaps head to the coast.
I hope everyone is well at home, keep me posted with news!
C
p.s. if anyone knows the song "Fireflies" by Owl City, then they might be able to imagine how atmospheric this was when we were sitting watching the stars with this playing on the boat's sound system - pretty much perfection!
pps - i have put more photos up - all my pictures so far on facebook to free up space on my camera so feel free to check that. i will try to make a "flickr" account which lets you upload photos for everyone to see.
xx

---

Photos

DSCF1372
House boats at the jetty

Comments

[Milla]

Houseboat weekend
Wow!!! Sounds amazing. Thanks for telling us about it. Lots of love.

[George Hatfield]

This sounds sick
Chaz, this sounds insane, you must be having such a good time