Day 37 - Alleppey - Tuesday 22nd November 2011

We arrived in Alleppey at noon with the sole purpose of securing a house boat for the following morning. Every guide book or reference to Alleppey says that you will be hassled as soon as you step into the town with offers of the houseboats and so c*** sure, we ventured around with our best haggling heads on. After 3 hours, 2 cups of chai, an egg masala with poorta and asking about a million people "house boat?" to which most didn't reply or just look at us puzzled, we gave in and headed to the tourist office. He had a boat for rental but we were keen on seeing the boats ourselves and choosing and so asked him where we could do this, he said that the finishing point of the boats was about a 15 minute walk away so we quick marched it down there. Because we'd left it quite late, it was about 4pm by this time, most of the boats were already out and we were told that the best time to look was first thing when the boats are coming back in - at about 9am. So with that in mind, we decided to just chance our luck and try again in the morning.

We slowly ambled back to our homestay and took some of the town in whilst we walked - they say that Alleppey is like Indian's version of Venice. I'm failing to see this, but it is pretty and the canals definitely give it a different feel to the other towns we've stayed in. The only downside to the numerous canals is the bugs. Man, they are everywhere. It's a sure sign that mozzies are around when your homestay provides a net over the bed.

We settled down for the night early, but not without the well needed chai and bourbon to send us off to sleep.