Workmen were drilling and banging as they fitted new glass cabinets to the walls. The contents of the old shelves were scattered all over the floor. Nothing odd about this situation so far until I tell you that the shelf contents were medicines, syringes and sterile hospital equipment, and the setting was a doctor's surgery where I was awaiting my fifth and final rabies jab and trying hard to explain to the lady doctor about the pains in my knee, whilst plaster dust and paint fell around my feet. "Only in India" I thought to myself, and just settled for the rabies injection before leaving Kollam on the 8-hour ferry to Alleppey.

I have the home stay bug since I came to Kerala, and made use of the public ferries to find my way to the small village of Chennamkary where Philip and his wife Marie run the Green Palm home stay, with Marie's mother doing the cooking. It's a big house on an island in the heart of the backwaters, so I was able to witness rural family life, sample home cooking, and take a solo canoe trip through some of the canals and villages. Here you can really see life in the backwaters where children are ferried back and forth between home and school, and locals work in the rice paddies and make palm toddy and coconut twine.

The backwaters are largely man made by land reclamation, forming hundreds of these little islands separated by canals that are used for irrigation. And covering over a hundred miles north to south, it is little wonder that the area is known as the Venice of the East. It's a hard life here though, with sinking houses that have to be abandoned and rebuilt every few decades, and the younger generation leaving in favour of education and a life in the city.

As well as the family, I shared my three days at Green Palms with a great bunch of fellow travellers - amongst others there were Mark, Amy and Oliver from Minnesota, USA; and Portuguese Paulo and Katie from London. Staying in the main family house, I also shared the landing with several paintings of Manchester, including one of Stockport Market in 1969, clearly showing Baker's Vaults. I did a double take when I saw this! But it turns out that Philip spends the summer working in Manchester as a financial adviser.

On a guided walk I saw the unusual and exotic flora that grows here, much of which forms the basis of ayurvedic medicine. After my unsuccessful visit to the doctor, I finally decided to see if the local medicine could help with my knee problem, and I visited an ayurvedic doctor. He prescribed two one-hour massages; the first being a lymphatic massage, and the second a leaf-bundle massage using hot oils. The idea is that the unique ingredients are massaged into the body to help re-balance the natural elements of fire, water and air. It's a slow treatment, which is performed over many days, and it was recommended that I'd need seven days of this intense massaging to be "cured". Being a tad sceptical, and on a traveller's budget, I tried a single day.

I was struggling to understand how oils alone could fix something like a torn ligament or cartilage. But the next morning was the first in weeks that I didn't howl with pain when I got out of bed and first put my weight on it. A few days on, and I definitely have much less pain and have gradually been able to put my weight back onto it whilst walking. I'm impressed!

I've now been in the backwaters for just over a week. I've been on big boats and little boats, public ferry boats and private boats, long rides and short rides; and seen some beautiful scenery and village life close up. The only type of boat I haven't tried is one of the large luxurious houseboats, which are beautifully converted rice barges. But they are expensive, and cruise the large canals only, so I have left that experience for the couples and groups. Tomorrow I will move on, probably by ferry again.