Early morning start, the village tour and cruise on the backwaters today. We were going with with lakesnboats our hotel owner runs it. We were waiting for him I take us to the ferry port at 7.30am, but of course when he said that he meant Indian time so that's 10-15 minutes later. Reached the ferry port which wasn't far from where we were staying, our hotel manager bought us two waters and two Pepsi for the day - how lush of him!
All aboard the ferry, it was a tatty old thing that's used trough all the canals of the backwaters to get to the little villages.
Once we got off at some little island we stopped at a little restaurant where we had breakfast, it was really nice just watching all the houseboats race through the canal; they're huge things! Entirely made of wood... Quite impressive!
Before breakfast was served we watched a guy climb a palm tree using steps made out of coconut shell hanging over the canal. They chop the palm leaves off the stems and stick a plastic bottle over the stems, every morning and evening they slice a little bit away which must help it.. And a sort of sap is produced which is coconut beer. Later on in the trip we did try it, it's not too bad, much better cold I'd expect and i would say it tastes more like cider!
Anyway... breakfast was lovely, we had rice cakes which are made with milk and coconut and we poured 'gravy' over it which was more like a thin stew with potatoes in it, very tasty! And we even had to get in the Indian groove and eat with our hands - yummy!
Scott spotted an eagle perched on the roof frame above us, our guide shooed him down and we had him on our shoulders and arms, he was so tame! He had lived with the village family next door for 20 years, he wasn't clipped either! Didn't think they could be that tame!
Walked through the village to our canoes, don't ask me how these canoes didn't sink or topple over with us in this tiny boat! Our balance today had to be spot on getting on and off this boat! Aw I didn't want to fall in hat water!
Finally sat down and scared to move, we were off! And then drive started wobbling the boat; not funny. Scott encouraged him even more!
The lakes and canals are all made up of fresh water, it certainly doesn't look fresh! But I suppose the colour goes with the greenery and makes it that little bit more picturesque!
The locals wash in it, swim in, wash their clothes in, brush their teeth using it (felt sick seeing them do that!) and the government provide water tanks with clean water in their taps to drink and cook with, surely they could use it to wash their teeth! We seen a few older women cleaning little fish on the side of the water but they were scrubbing them against little rocks to get the scales off of them. We could hear it scrapping across the rock which went through me - yuk!
It was really nice to see the villages though, our drive knew everyone! We went passed his grandma and mother's house, his grandmother was sat in the window staring at thin air and he didn't even shout to say hi or wave!
We stopped at a 200 year old house which was owned by a god in Alleppey, he was Christian and from Italy. Helped to build schools and give education, hospitals and provide medicine for cholera (he didn't do a very good job at educating people now you get cholera because they're splashing about in that canal like it's the cleanest and safest water in the world)!
Seen a water snake fishing, didn't do pretty bad either, he caught a fair sized fish for the size of him!
We had breakfast at one of the village houses, flies were everywhere! We were sat in their front garden at patio table, they came out with banana leaves, and placed little bits on it, we had papaya chutney, beetroot chutney, green beans in a curry paste, lemon chilli chutney, a mound of rice and some sort of sweet lentil curry on it, with the option for a fried fish but we left that one because the skin was still on it and loads of little bones in it, can't be dealing with that!
We learnt how to eat with our hands, scooping it onto your first three finger tips and pushing it into your mouth with your thumb, Scott got in a right pickle! The locals had a right laugh watching him pick the food up in his hands, knock his head back and drop it in from high up! He was In a right mess, haha! But fair play to him, he tried it all and did really enjoy it, shame he needed a spoon to scoop it all in! Haha.
On our way back to where we started we had a sing song, our guide was so funny! He was teaching us how to sing in Hindi and we were singing Tom Jones - Delilah to him, loved it he did! Giggling his little head off sat in the back! Then we was teaching us to say 'sister/brother, how are you?' Getting us to shout at the locals walking on the canal bank, must have thought we were bonkers!
We had to get to the other side of the canal (in between all the massive houseboats) literally dicing with death, but no problem with the master of rowing on our boat! We dodged them pretty well, although the huge waves from them rocked the boat a little too much for my liking!
I was thankful for the cover we had over the canoe today, it was incredibly hot! I burnt my feet because they were poking out at the bottom.

I thought, if you don't like water or you get sea sick on boats you pretty much screwed! You can't go anywhere other than by boat so you would be stuck in the one place, all the time, forever! Can't even pop over to your mates house or mainland Alleppey!

We had a rickshaws back to the guesthouse after the ferry to the mainland, already paid for by our hotel manager - he's a goodun!
We were pretty tired after a long day lounging on the canoe watching he world go by so went for bite to eat early and to watch the sunset by the beach; as Scott wanted to needed the football because it's 'an important game tonight' aren't they all!?

*week three on the toilet subject - both feeling rather well, we haven't eaten anywhere dodgy this week, other than the beetle nut scraped on the floor and the leaf that was wrapped around was the tender hands of the local guy that probably hadn't washed in a few days... Oh and eating with our hands off a banana leaf and Scott finding a fly cooked into his pompadom. So we are on to a good start for week four!
Imodium and stomach antibiotics at the ready!