We left Varkala and traveled by train in sleeper class, or poor mans class, two hours North to Alleppey. Alleppey is nicknamed the Venice of India by the Lonely Planet author due to its canals, but thats where the similarity ends. The LP author had clearly not really visited Alleppey or was (probably) drunk. But we had come here to organise a private 24 hour boat trip out into the surrounding wetlands and the canal routes. We finally found the real tourist information centre, a lot of businesses here will advertise themselves as 'tourist information centre' but are just fronts for their private tours. We went in and asked for some information about some well known companies that offer boat trips. But, all the boat staff were on strike because their pay was such a tiny fraction of the total price of a boat tour. We finally understood the strike situation after talking to a man at the tourist office for about ten minutes. After much explanation and several "pardons" and "whats?" the guy spoke slowly enough, in his heavy Indian accent and explained there would be a meeting tonight to try and solve the problem. The general atmosphere of the tourist office and its staff was really hilarious, like a scene from fawlty towers. Three men rushed around us as we entered......"hello madam, yes sir how can we help you" and up came the chairs shoved under our bums, "please have a seat." One guy ran to answer the phone which sat on the desk behind man number one, so man number two ended up squeezed against the desk whilst man number three leaned over him, all this happening as man number one searched around for a pen scrabbling around like a squirrel under man number two and over the head of man number three, after several minutes no pen was to be found in this huge tourist office, so we lent them one of ours, all this whilst man number one chatted away to us in what sometimes sounded like English about Tony Blair and all the good the Brits had done for India while man number two shouted down the phone to some poor Man about the boats all being on strike but he should still pay and man number three wanted to know what part of England we came from..... we just waited for someone to run around shouting BASIL!!!! After ten crazy minutes man number two thought it would be a good idea for us to give him 1000 rupees as a deposit because his friend had a private boat, "But the boats are on strike" I replied "so I don't think a deposit is very necessary" We said our farewells and made a bid for escape, only man number two wanted to shake my hand for so long as to say "very good UK, very nice country, ah, say hello to Tony for me." It was so funny, they were very friendly and at the same time it was so chaotic, just like India really. Back at the hostel we weighed up the chance of a strike being called off by the next morning as very un-likely and took the train further North to Cochin. Cooper Out Love Dan & Kat