We had the two most enjoyable days of our Indian adventure in a small village called Nedumudy in the Keralan backwaters. The area is a series of canals and rivers which people live alongside farming rice. We stayed with a local villager called Matthew and his family who wer perfect hosts, feeding us plenty, providing travel tips and teaching us the Indian board game of Corram which we were hopeless at. We had arranged the homestay through another local man, Thomas, who also arranges guided walking tours which we joined on our first evening. It was incredibly interesting to hear how the islands had been made by his ancestors, how rice farming worked and how the local Communist party had been such a success, including achieveing 100% literacy rates. We watched the sunset over the rice fields and were canoed home with local folk songs to keep us entertained through the dark.

Having enjoyed our first day so much we immediately decided to stay for a second night and spent the next day, after being almost force fed our breakfast, canoeing around the incredibly tranquil side canals and filling up a few bags full of rubbish on the way. We had been made to feel a little guilty about our previous houseboat excursion due to the pollution and there is a bit of a litter problem from tourists (mostly Indian it has to be said) chucking their rubbish overboard.

This morning we got up at daybreak and watched the mist rise on the river as we joined up with the morning walking tour which talked us though the various plants and crops on the islands and explained how they were used in the everyday lives of the villagers. The rest of the time we spent chatting with Matthew and his family and the other guests or generally enjoying the seriously relaxed pace of life in this little part of the world. A really enjoyable experience.

Don't miss the 5 recently updated blogs including Alison's take on India life in the Varkala blog.