Well, so much to tell.....

We have made it to Alleppey in Kerala (Indian name Allepuzzha). On Thursday we spent the day trying to keep in the shade, as we had to vacate out room at 12 noon and did not get the train until 9pm, so sat in some cafe's, played table tennis and went to the internet cafe which has air con! Our host in Vagator then took us to the train station early, as out ticket was from a further station (Margoa), but he assured us we could purchase another ticket to get us from Tivin to Margoa, which would work out cheaper for us. The extra tickets cost us about 70p for the 2 of us for the hour journey, so that was a lot cheaper than taking a taxi!

We boarded the train at 9.50pm and 18 hours later we arrived at our destination! All this for about 8.00GBP each. We had single seats opposite each other, with the aisle next to us. On the other side of the aisle are rows of 3 seats (bench) facing another 3 seats. The back rests of out 2 seats fold down to make the lower bed, and the upper bed is already up. There are no step ladders to get up there, but on the other side of the ailse there is a bar to step on, so it's a bit of a climb and jump to get to the top bunk! I decided to go up there though, as I felt less exposed up there, as I often get starred at over here, being so white and blue eyed! The train looks like some kind of prison train, as there are bars at the windows, you then have the option to pull down a glass covering (too dirty to see through though) or a metal shutter. (Hopefully Graham has put up some pictures of these!) The beds are quite comfy for a while, and there is enough room to sit opposite each other on one of the beds and play cards, etc. There are 4 toilets in each cabin, 1 western style and 3 indian. Down all you can see the track! They smell quite a bit and so do the stations and track when you slow down, but they weren't too bad. The only problem is that you have to pass the on/off doors to get to them, which they don't close, so you've got to be careful where you walk! This also means that people can just get off when they want to, as often the train stops or goes slow in certain areas, so peolpe just jump off onto the track! It also means in stations you can get off either side and just walk across the track.

Everytime you come into a station, vendors come to the windows and onto the trains to sell you things. They let you know what they have for sale by shouting it over and over again, very fast, often making it diificult to understand what they are trying to sell you! I bought some veg samosas from one. There were 4 in a packet for 20 Rupees (about 28p). Fron about 5am the train staff start seeling Tea, Coffee, Newspapers and food. They too shout out their product over and over again, so I awoke to the sound of 'Coffeecoffeecoffeecoppeecoppeecoppee' as the faster they go they more the words start to change! Tea of coffee was 7p per cup (much cheaper than British Rail!) They do this for the whole journey, so it becomes quite noidy as there are several of them all selling different things.

When entering some bigger stations you can hear the vendors as you approach, probably warming up their voices! The train often stays a while in each station (there does not seem to be a propper schedule, or notice if a train is running late, as ours was) therefore many people get off to walk around etc. Sometimes there is a horn to say the train is going, but often not, but they start moving slowly to give people time to run and jump on!

When we arrived in Alleppey we showed the taxi driver out piece of paper with our accommodation address on. He rang the telephone number for the place and drove us to the river. There was some confusion as to where he was taking us, we thought he was trying to sell us a different accommodation, however he had telephoned the owner of our accommodation, as we were staying on an island, which needed to be accessed by boat. We didn't realise we had booked to stay on an island! So, he took us in a boat to our room. It's great. So quiet, as we are the only tourists staying there, and a few locals around, but we have a corner view of a canal, so all we see is the river traffic. There are no vehicles on our island (we think it is maybe a penninsula, but no where seems to have a map for us to see!) There is a big veranda outside our room and a hammock in the front garden, by the canal. The man who brought us left us with his mobile number, and with an older Indian man who does not speak much English, but is very friendly. They seem to refer to him as 'cook' and we think he is like the caretaker. When I asked him about the laundry service he gave me a bucket and showed me the washing line! There is also no hot water, but it's kind of luke warm, which in this heat is great.

As it was late, we decided to shower and stay on the island. The 'cook' brought us his mobile phone and there was a woman on the other end asking us if we wamted dinner tonight, it was Veg curry and Chapati's. We sais yes and she said it would arrive at 8.30 and be about 65p each. We then started to woner if she had meant breakfast, but it arrived that evening, and was great! We ordered breakfast too and got toast and jam, fresh pineapple and omelettes, with coffee.

Lat night we had a gecko in our room. It was too fast to catch, so we left it in, to catch any flies! After breakfast we watched poeple go by in their boats, women doing their washing in the river and the wildlife around (lots of Kingfishers and Dragonflies, as well as fish). Then the cook showed us the track thorugh the island to get to the crossing, where an old man paddles a boat across, back and forth all day til about 8.30pm. Everyone has been so friendly and they are akk eager to practise their English, even if just to say 'hello'. Graham has been practising his Indian, greeting the people as they paddle past in their boats! We are in Alleeppey town at the moment. Internet is much cheaper here (28p per hour). We took a rickshaw from the river to town, which is also very cheap (about 55p). The town is quite busy, but everyone has been very friendly and helpful, as there are a lot less tourists here. We have stocked up on toiletries and snacks, and later will buy fruit and beer for tonight. The supermarkets do not sell alcohol. We found a counter with bars at the front selling alcohol. The Indians were all queuing up, but they called us over and took us in through the side door to see what they had to sell! We wonder if alcohol is limited in this state to Indians? We told them we shall go back later to purchase something.

We plan to go on a boat trip tomorrow and maybe the day after. We might go to see the beach this afternoon, as our host has other hotels at Alleppey Beach and the Secret Beach, which he said we could move to if we wanted, so we might stay here 4 nights and move to the secret beach for 4 nights. Would definately reccommend this place for holiday, and you can rent house boats with a driver who will just cruise you around all day!

Will say goodbye now as this seems the best computer, so Graham wants to use it to upload the photos.

Maggie x