Saturday 9 January 2010

Early start - we're off to Alleppey for the weekend, to do the Kuttanad backwater trip we all have heard so much about.

So we catch a train bound for the North - a sleeper class carriage - along with families boarding it for the next few days as they make their way up to Delhi! Yikes! We are glad our trip is only 2.5 hours long and we feel its great value at a mere 101 rupees (roughly £1.20). We make ourselves as comfortable as possible, shifting around when someone arrives who has reserved the seat we are occupying!

Both Toms are still very jet lagged and so they curl up and manage to sleep most of the way. The other passengers are very curious about us and stare a LOT. We carry on a few light conversations but on the whole there is too little English and we have no Malayalam.

The Indian railways are the largest employer in the country and you can easily see why. It is a form of transport that everyone uses and has great respect for.

Views from the window are fascinating and there is plenty to distract the eye and mind.

The trains have funny names like Nizamuddin and Jan Shatabdi as well as the more obvious ones like the Mumbai Express.

We get offered everything from chai and coffee to puris, vada and other exotica by tartan shirted chaps who wander up the train shouting out their wares as they come through.

The Kuttanad backwaters are probably Kerala's most famous attraction. They link a whole network of rivers, canals and lakes that run parallel to the coast from Kollam to Alleppey and further North.

We start to see some of these waterways quite

soon from the train window.

We have chosen to explore the Alleppey end and NOT do the expensive rice barge trip but a

more eco-friendly and shortened version mentioned in the guide book. We hope we won't be disappointed.

Alleppey arrives soon enough and we are collected by an auto sent by our hotel - the Palmy Residency. We come into town and startto understand why this is called the Venice of the India - canals everywhere and bridges.

It is quite lovely in a very old fashioned sort of way.

There are wonderful old boats moored or plying the water - ferries, cargo and pleasure craft.

We venture into the main downtown area across the ladder bridge. The two Toms need to get their money changed and then we grab a quick lunch "thali" in the Hot Kitchen restaurant.

We are in the centre of the bazaar, beside a busy temple, and there is plenty going on. Alas, we have little time to spare as we have fixed our backwater tour to start at 2 pm.

A rickshaw takes us through the back streets to a small creek covered in water hyacinths. We walk along the retaining wall of the canal following a guide.

Sure enough, it takes us to our boatman "Raju" - who awaits us smiling and greeting us with rather good English. "You come looking" - "I take picture"?

The deal is he steers from the back, one of us sits in the front and paddles and the other two sit under the canopy and relax.

We set off in this eco-friendly dugout canoe and spend the next four hours exploring the narrow and not so narrow waterways.

We are not alone by any means but we are not really bothered by the big boats.

We tend to stick to the peaceful shady sides and stop when we feel like it. It feels good not to be making a loud engine noise, not to be polluting the water with oil and fuel. It is good to hear the birds singing and the people chatting on the water's edge.

There is so much going on: washing of all

description - dishes, clothes, bodies -

children swimming,

grannies paddling loads of this and that, the fishmonger peddling his wares calling out from his boat as he approaches each little house,

a little girl fishing very solemnly.

The houses are perched on a narrow strip of land between the waterway and the acres of paddyfields behind.

Each house seems to have a garden space and a few banana or coconut trees, maybe a hen house or a cow house. A public path winds its way along the front of the house facing the water where a dugout canoe is moored beside the washing steps.

The pace of life seems delightfully slow and yet purposeful, the neighbours friendly and chatty, the children happy and playful. Idyllic really!

Raju steers us over to the bank every now and again and moors the boat.

He has something to show us - rice paddies or animals, a small tapioca plantation and banana trees, a magic rose, a mango tree with minute mangoes just appearing, an ylang ylang tree with a very strong scented blossom. Large kingfishers flit across our bows.

We even go for quite a lengthy walk out to some houses built on individual islands on the edge of a lake. And others that "will be" islands when the heavy rains come and flood the rice plain. He is very chatty and knows the facts and figures of the local economy - enough to answer all our questions.

On the return journey we stop for a tea break at one of the many riverside shops. The neighbour's daughter comes out to chat to the boys and practice her English. She is doing her B.Com. at the college in Alleppey.

The sun is going down as we return to our destination. And as Raju has predicted we witness the birds all flying home to roost in the trees and the bats gradually emerging from their nests and flying off over the paddyfields in search of fruit and other delicacies.

We are truly delighted with our day, which has been greatly enhanced by Raju's knowledge and guiding. Four hours well spent and eminently to be recommended for future visitors - and in many ways, it was enough.

Home for a shower, change and off to the Harbour restaurant on the beach, a 10 minute rickshaw ride away. We want to check out the scene and are hoping for some good seafood. We are not disappointed and even make time to run out to dip our toes into the sea. We vow to return the next day!