Alleppey Backwaters

Alleppey, India -- October 15-16 -- Day 1-2

Compared to the bus, the overnight train has the advantage of on board toilets -- well, holes in the floor leading onto the tracks -- and a smoother ride. Don't get me wrong, there's little luxury here. I am absolutely convinced that the bathrooms have never EVER been cleaned. It's hard to believe that urine, sprayed around and allowed to bake and ferment for years can smell so bad. But I digress. Since there are no announcements for stops, we set our alarms for 5:00 a.m. in anticipation of the 5:15 arrival in Alleppey.

Once again, the train was remarkably timely, and we were outside the station arranging a taxi by 5:30. Alleppey is primarily known as point of departure for houseboat trips into the Kerala “backwaters,” a network of waterways along this section of tropical coastline. Consulting the Lonely Planet guide, we chose Johnson’s Guesthouse, piled into another tuk-tuk, and were on our way.

Johnson's Guest House

Johnson himself met us at the front gate. Dex and Kylie were thrilled to find an Indian horse (apparently recognizable by their unique ears, closely together and sticking up and forward.

In the end, we opted for a backwater tour arranged by Johnson instead of a more elaborate house boat trip. Unfortunately, we were getting short of time in the southern part of India and would leave again the next day for Trivandrum and a flight north to New Delhi for the second half of our India adventure. As a result, a five hour canoe ride excursion would have to do.

The trip was moderately interesting, but our guide spoke essentially no English, so we weren't able to learn much about what we were seeing. Still, Dex and Kylie seemed to enjoy it, especially the abundance of floating water lilies that completely clogged some water channels. The canoe was a traditional wood boat with a few wood braces to sit on. I paddled in front while our guide paddled in back. It was a reasonably pretty area with basic cement houses scattered among the palms. Meg and I, though, just couldn't get over the ever present trash -- plastic bottles, bags, and other garbage indiscriminately tossed. Trash is clearly a huge problem here in India... but, then again, there are many huge problems here in India. The pictures below intentionally avoid the garbage.

Our canoe guides house

Rental house boat

We did get a chance to swim in one of the larger lakes at a set of docks moored in the center, which was a nice change from squatting in the canoe. Also, toward the end, we each tried our hand at fishing using chapati dough as bait. Our guide's wife fed us a simple breakfast of coconut and rice filled chapatis for breakfast, and, after the canoe ride, fried fish and rice for lunch.

The next day, Sunday, our only plan was to visit the nearby beach. The beach itself was not very beautiful, just a long, expanse of sand strewn with bits of trash and with an ugly dirt road, construction and a few shops running along one side. This is no Goa; however, the water temp was near perfect and the kids played for hours while Meg and I caught up on the blog.

Broken pottery sea creature 

Flower petals and seeds

Getting out of Alleppey, however, turned out to be harder than expected as our 3:12 p.m. train was delayed first by three hours, then three and a half, four, and finally four and a half. Meg was none too happy as we sweated in the waiting room (actually a relatively clean place) but were subjected to the constantly increasing delay.  

Uncle John's lunch stop before going to the station

Train station dog

At 7:30, the train finally crawled into the station.  We were hot and sweaty, had little confidence that the advertised duration of three hours would actually come to be, and therefore were not especially looking forward to the ride. Ten minutes later, though, we were moving, which created some much needed airflow. Dex and Kylie shared a Chicken Bryani for dinner sold by a man walking up and down the train cars.

At around 11:00 p.m., we stumbled off. Meg had fortunately stayed awake so we wouldn't miss our station. It was as hot and humid as we had experienced so far in India -- probably not surprising given that we were also as far south in India as we'd been. We found a taxi, this time an actual car, and headed off towards the Residency Towers hotel where we had reservations.  It was a fairly impressive lobby, with marble floors and a nautical theme, though showing the inevitable signs of age and deterioration. I've gotten the distinct impression that nothing stays new in India for long. When we got to the room, it was almost frigid, which none of is minded as we piled into bed. I read a recap of the latest Clinton/Trump debate to the family before drifting off to sleep. One blessing in India: not having 24/7 news coverage of the election.