27.01.08 Alappuzha

Got our tuktuk to the oat ferry by the lake for a 10:30am departure. The ferry with about 50 tourists on board left on time for the 8 hr cruise in the backwaters to Alapuzha. The cruise was dramatic as we passed village after village on the way with people going about their chores and fishing. It was a slow trip but very relaxing. These waterways have beome a major tourist destination and with over 900km of canals is absolutely chock full of rice barges converted into floating palaces which you can hire with the full complement of staff etc for a couple of hundred $NZ. The result is maximum pollution in what would have been ristine waterways at one time. You can literally not see anything below the water's surface, and this is the locals food source that has been as good as destroyed. The local govt. has brought in some initiatives to clean the barges u and some did have big solar panels on board but they still have huge diesel engines messing it all up.

We found a lovely homestay on arrival of rooms to resemble tyhe floating alaces so we decided to dtay a couple of nights and ony 200R. The owners nade us some dip tye food and one in particular set me on fire...now I'm not one for avoiding the spicy things but this was mind blowing and my throat took some days to recover!. This town of 300,000 is described as the Venice of India but is actually more like Amsterdam with it's canals and buildings on the streets and also the style of buiding. We window shopped and ate well here and visited a large gold and diamond emporium. Well there was more bling in there than you could imagine and very cheap I would have thought with 22ct solid gold bracelets from $250...is that cheap.... fortunately I'm not really a bling bling person!

Our second day was spent getting rowed into the backwaters for 6hrs which was so quiet and peaceful that it was all worthwhile...saw a couple of venemous snakes so kept our hands out of the water. At one stage we passed a young boy rowing his family across the canal and he was wearing a NZ cricket shirt so we called out to him and he just beamed back..he may have understood the significance of our gesturing but he may have just been happy to have had our attentiomn. Our boatman relied a bit on us to do rowing particularly through the lily overgrown waterways but then in the end if it hadnt been for our help he would never have got us back before sunset! And then he had the gall to ask for a tip! So not his lucky day.

We rounded off the day with a great feast of local cuisine and juices for just 200R for all of us.

Just remembered a few firsts for this place that I should record. I saw my first man without a moustache, first woman tuk tuk driver and first bottle store!