Found a nice cafe that had really good cakes and pastries for breakfast, the waiter was chatty wanting to know where we were from and what we do etc.and wanted us to visit the area where he lived, 'lovely beach there'. Got the train to Alappuzha(Alleppey)and regretted not buying a reserved seat as we ended up standing again(for the last time). On the upside we found a great place to stay called Johnsons, after the owner, he and his wife have a few rice barges so we have booked ourselves a trip for tomorrow afternoon and night. Got a fairly long rickshaw ride out to 'secret beach' which was nice we watched the sunset then called our driver over who'd been waiting for us and headed back. Had supper at a great family run restaurant called Mushroom who obviously have really good fish as the waiter was surprised when we didn't order any.

Thursday, 1st October

We walked to the beach near our guest house which was surprisingly clean and the water was pretty calm, although still not tempted to swim. Poached eggs and an ice cream for breakfast. Alappuzha reminds both of us of South Africa. It's by far the cleanest town we've seen here and the climate as well as the guest house being so laid back makes it such an easy place to enjoy. All set for the rice barge adventure we set off in the richshaw. Unfortunately the rain has started up again but once onboard it doesn't seem so bad. Once onboard we were both brought a coconut to drink from and a neclace of Jasmin which smelt gorgeous, Tom wore his long enough as not to offens the crew then passed it to me. The views from the barge are like nothing we've seen, really tranquil and so much open space. We saw a few snakes and kingfishers which were beautiful and relaxed enjoying drifting downstream watching the locals going about there day to day lives as well as the school kids squashing onto the school boat. The food onboard was lovely and very filling, nice to try different things even if you're not sure what they are. Aside from the cockroaches in the bathroom we had a great evening playing cards and listening to music whilst sipping a few beers.

Friday,2nd October

Woke up early to see the sunrise but it was raining so we went back to sleep. Had a nice breakfast, a funny squashed rice dish with spices in a leaf might have been an ala, tasted strangely nice, pineapple and some bread and rice dishes. The rain kept up for most of the journey but we saw two kingfishers much more clearly. We got off the boat at around 11 and headed back to catch up on some sleep, it's hard to sleep properly when you know there are cockroaches about even if you're under a mossie net.

Saturday,3rd October

Had a pretty chilled morning, coffee and book reading on the balcony. Ate at the harbourside restaurant for dinner Tom had noodles and I had a Groovy salad (pineapple, coconut, apple and raisins) and finger fries, strange but good. We managed to skype Matt so got to talk to him, Tom spoke to his mum and dad and said a quick Happy Birthday to Hannah who seemed very excited about her new bike, I managed to have a quick chat to Bec before the line went down. So nice to hear familiar voices.