The Nehru Trophy Boat Race - The spectacular and world-famous annual Snake boat races were to be the highlight of our Kerala jaunt but today they were postponed because of severe floods in Kerala. The race had existed for 66 years (the same as Dan) and this was the first time ever they were postponed. We had booked a hotel for three days close to the finishing line so that we could enjoy the festivities of this event but decided to go anyway.

We arrived at the hotel via train and tuk-tuk and were totally amazed, the hotel was surrounded by water, set on its own island. When we told the hotel reception how impressed we were - they explained that although the hotel faced onto the lake on one side, the other three sides were actually flooded paddy fields and only two weeks previously, the hotel itself had been waste deep in water. Getting around was very difficult so except for an evening cruise and some local walking there was nothing much to for us to do……. They did have a very nice swimming pool and served alcohol...... our 3 days were sorted