Category: India

Alappuzha (Alleppey) was nothing exciting in and of itself, it’s more of a gateway to the backwaters. It sits roughly in the middle of the at least 120km long (north to south) stretch of backwaters; I’m not sure how wide it is (though it is wide too). Basically the area goes from Kochi (Cochin) at the north end all the way Kollam in the south (which is just north of Varkala). It’s so large that we actually travelled on “national waterway no. 3″ for part of the ferry ride! And there are canal-side signs showing direction and distance to towns, just like highway signs!

Popular cheap backwater cruises include: Kollam to Alleppey (8 hours by public ferry; the guidebook says this can get boring, but a few travellers I’ve met say it was interesting, what with all the village stops along the way) and the public ferry from Alleppey to Kottayam (2 1/2 hours), which is east of Alleppey and has more frequent trains to Kochi.
There are recommended half or full day tours out of Kollam, Alleppey and Ernakulam (the mainland part of Kochi, which is where the train station is).
You can rent houseboats designed like a kettuvallam (rice barge) which come in a range of sizes and luxuries; all of them are relatively expensive.

These 2 pictures are from the canoe ride I did out of Alleppey with Annerose:

The highlight for me, though, was doing a 2 night backwater village homestay. As the guidebook puts it, “set in a typical and ridiculously picturesque backwater village.”
The erudite Thomas, who spoke great English, had homestays in his house and his sister’s newer house next door, plus “overflow” of sorts in a group of 10 or so other villagers’ houses.
The home-cooked food was very good (Thomas’ mother did the cooking), with the 2 lunches being spectacularly tasty!
The cost for a single was Rs750/$18.75 in the older home (which I took), or Rs1000/$25 in the newer home, including all meals and cold bottles of purified rain water.
The village itself, on the island/village of Chennamkary, was a 1 1/4 hour ferry ride (Rs5/$0.13) from Alleppey. Actually, Chennamkary is an almost circular island that is 30km in circumference, with a population of 4,000. However, most of the land in the centre of the island is rice paddies (at 1m below sea level), leaving really only a narrow band of solid land (100m wide or less) along the island edge for houses.

I walked in the village, rented a bike to explore the island further, and we hired a motorized boat for a 3 hour sunset cruise. Thomas’ mother also gave cooking classes (no time for me though).

One night we even took a canoe ferry across the canal to the mainland (although it looks like another island) and an auto-rickshaw to a temple to watch a Kathakali, a traditional Keralan dramatized play performance, with a green-faced actor accompanied by a few other actors and drummers and singers. The main character uses mainly mudras(hand gestures) and facial expressions.  Here is the main Kathakali character, who has the divine power of always telling the truth:

Misc notes about Kerala, which is an understandably proud province:

• highest literacy rate in India (and if treated as a country, one of the highest literacy rates in the developing world!)
• lots of schools, and lots of kids in school
• little poverty (and few very rich people)
• state govt has put money/effort into land reform and infrastructure
• state govt is the communist party but democratic

See also previous posts on Alleppey and backwaters…

Tip: skip the night in Alleppey and head straight for Chennamkary village homestay!

The flight was great, though I was only in Bangalore (in the state of Karnataka) long enough to sleep, eat breakfast and wander the veg/fruit/flower market. The cones of coloured powder are kumkum, used for bindi dots on the foreheads of married women, as well as for religious rituals.

Update: By the way, Bangalore looked like a western city at night from the airplane, with real suburbs and such. It was also quite clean, at least until I got near the market… The air was noticeably cooler in the evening than anywhere else in my trip thus far, quite refreshing. And in Bangalore, by law, the auto-rickshaws have to use the meters (which are never used anywhere else), which are Rs12/$0.30 for first km plus Rs6/$0.15 per km after that.

Then I took a 2 hour express train at 11:00 to Mysore, which is southwest of Bangalore. I’ll be here 2 nights, then on Tue I will take a mid-day train to Bangalore, spend 9 hours looking around, then take a night train north to Hospet, the gateway train station for (fabulous) Hampi (where I’ll spend 3 nights before going to the beaches in Goa).
In a fit of planning activity, I have my next 3 trains booked!

There is a big Maharaja’s Palace here, which is lit up with 96K light bulbs on Sunday nights for one hour – and as it turns out, today is Sunday! They also light it up for the Dussehra festival in Sep/Oct.
I saw this girl at the train station in Mysore right after I booked a future train – she reminded me of that famous photo of the Afghani girl with the blue eyes (which I recently saw on a book cover in a shop).

Update:  I bought some fruit today in Mysore, since I have been a little negligent in that department. Some at the market, some on the street. Four plum tomatoes for Re1/$0.03 (Rs5/$0.13 per kg, I think he rounded up my 4 tomatoes without weighing them), a red papaya for Rs10/$0.25, 15 finger bananas for Rs10/$0.25 (they range from Rs16-20/$0.40-0.50 per kg), and some “peas” (single pea-like pods on little leafy stalks). I didn’t buy any (to avoid over-buying at once), but pomegranates were also Rs18/$0.45 per kg.

I was hoping to get the backwaters written up tonight, but I’m just too tired. And I’m not sure if I’ll be up for it after a 12 hour organized tour of Mysore and surroundings tomorrow!