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Other entries in Alappuzha

"The thing is...i don't really like coconut..."

Arriving in Alappuzha around 6pm gave us time to find a guesthouse and use the Internet for a bit to catch up on e-mails etc. The last week or so had involved some pretty relentless travelling, so we were knackered. We had a quick walk around to find somewhere to eat but couldn't seem to get our bearings. Both maps we hadn't didn't seem to actually fit the streets, so we gave up wandering around and got a Boss to take us to a restaurant recommended in The Books. Typically, he didn't know where it was, and ended up taking us to a crappy place that was totally lacking in soul and didn't have great food. Still, neither of us could be arsed looking around anymore...

Having spent the previous day going up the backwaters on a relatively sizeable ferry, we decided to go back to basics. We hired a canoe-boat with two boatmen to row us further around the backwaters. We set out at 9am for a nice, relaxing morning on the water. Our main boatman/guide was called Anthony, and was quite talkative. The rowing looked like pretty hard going, so when he asked if i'd like a turn, i politely declined. Agent Dolac accepted the offer and became our lead rower. A short while later, seeing him dripping in sweat with some rather nasty blisters forming on his hand, i came to the conclusion that i'd made the right decision.

Being in such a small boat was really nice, such a contrast to the ferry. We were basically floating along quietly, no engine, and no other tourists. Very serene, and yet, the occasional ferry and/or houseboat would steam past us, producing waves that rocked our boat..."No problem!", cried Anthony each time. Going so slowly down the rivers meant we could get a better look at what's going on - families bathing in the river, washing their clothes on the side etc. Some of them have collected empty plastic bottles that have been littered by tourists and tied them all together with a piece of string. The bottles float in the water, creating a water-fence that marks out the boundary of their property (if you can call it that). We saw people stop their little boats, put a long stick into the water, and start diving (without any kind of technological aid - just holding their breath for ages) down underwater, surfacing a minute or so later with their hands full of shells. There's lots of fields either side of the river - when it's the monsoon season, the rivers flood, and the fields obviously get a lot of water to help grow things. Speaking of water, Anthony told us that the last time it had rained here was November...! Nearly four months without rain!

After an hour or so, we stopped to take a break. Anthony led us down a path alongside the river to a little coconut stall. We've seen these all over India - someone will be stood there with a massive pile of coconuts that've recently been pulled down off a tree, and a load of plastic straws. You buy a coconut and they get out a machete and start hacking away at the coconut, until the top comes off. They put a straw in through the hole they've made, hand it to you, and you drink straight out of the coconut itself. Normally that's it, once you've finished you give it back to them and go. But at this stall, once you'd finished drinking they got the machete out again and hacked it up into quarters, giving you the solid coconut inside to eat - a nice touch. Agent Dolac is somewhat fond of these stalls, and began devouring the first coconut put in front of him. Anthony kept asking me if i wanted one, and i kept saying no thanks, but he kept on asking, and saying coconut is a Keralan specialty that they're proud of etc. Eventually, i gave up being polite and just told him i didn't really like coconuts! The look on his face...poor guy!

This coconut stall also had two eagles sat on it, pecking away at the empty shells, and being fed little bits of coconut by the people working there. I don't think i've ever seen birds like that sat inches from me without them being part of a zoo exhibition or something. No chains or anything keeping them there, just sat there happily eating away...weird.

We got back around lunchtime, promised Anthony that we'd send him a photograph of himself to give to his family when we got home, gave him a nice tip, got ourselves a dosa and did a little bit of shopping. Then we went to the beach - not the best beach we've seen so far, but not bad. We bought some drinks - Agent Dolac's bottle of Sprite had an unbroken seal, but when he took the top off he found an ant inside. Quite how it got in there is a mystery to us! Wandering down the beach, we had a group of young lads run up to us and insist that we take their photograph. We also met a chap who said his profession was "poet", and proceeded to reel off some lines about how our skin is white and his is brown, but our shadows are all the same colour...

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