23/02/2012

I had very little sleep last night because of the pills and my stomach, only about 1.5 hours. But I/we were determined to have a great day. We got up at 7:30, had showers and packed as much as we could.
Last night I had asked for some Western food in the form of Omelet and toast bread for breakfast this morning - Claire joined in and ordered the same. We got it as ordered and it turned out to be a great idea. My system seems to have craved some solid food and my stomach actually calmed down, even after I popped yet more antibiotics with my meal.
So we finished our packing afterwards and then came the really sad moment - our driver arrived at 9:30 and we had to say goodbye to our great hosts at Breeze Homes. Both sides seemed quite emotional, although I didn't spot any major tears, and we even got a nice small lamp (for oil) off them with the name Breeze Homes engraved. That did it for Claire I think - and she is going to work on sourcing an Irish horse shoe to hang up over the door for them, something she had spoken about with them over the last few days here. Annette watch out, you're going to be involved in this little project! ;-)
We went off in the car but were soon after stopped in the middle of the road by one of the co-owners who shook hands with us - he too, was quite emotional. He really enjoyed talking to us and sharing information about what to see on our journey through India throughout our stay. Shortly after we were on our way - to Alleppey, where we had booked a very nice house boat for a day trip (the company is actually called Elite Houseboats).
It only took about 45 minutes to get there and after a bit of path finding we finally found the Alleppey Finishing Point (Nehru boat race) and got hold of someone who knew where the house boat was - there were literally 100's, not just next to each other, but behind each other as well. We ended up climbing our way through 4 house boats (deep) before we got to ours. After a 10 minute introduction and wait we were on our way.
The shores and plantations along the lake are some of the most beautiful I have ever seen - simply amazing. I have taken many pictures and I will share them later.
At around 12:00 we stopped at a shop on the backwaters and did a bit of shopping. There we also met a bunch of very happy-go-lucky Chinese tourists, one of which was an elderly man who was great craic. In fact, he stood on a stone in the water and let the small fish in the lake do a fish pedicure, i.e. gnawing away at his dead skin, all for free in Kerala - as opposed to paying 20 for it in St. Stephen's Green shopping centre in Dublin ;-)
Then we had a bit of a photo-war with the same guy, trying to get pictures of each other and our house boats to share on Facebook - all good-spirited fun! ;-)
After 10 minutes there we were on our way again and sailed for another 30 minutes, before we came to a lake where all the house boats seemed to "park up" while making and serving lunch - ditto on our boat. We were served a small grilled local fish, Keralan rice (just as big/thick as Risotto rice), a type of fried cabbage, a spicy dal, potatoes fried with mustard seeds, curry leaves and turmeric, as well as a yoghurt/raita with what seemed like mango and ginger - all really nice stuff in huge quantities and variety. I tucked in mainly to the rice and yoghurt and had some of the potatoes and fish too, which seemed to do me some good. Claire tried it all and was well impressed too.
After about an hour's lunch and relaxation we were on our way again for a couple of hours - the backwaters are very impressive and well worth a visit. House boat was a nice addition too - but you didn't really need to see the backwaters on a house boat for a day trip, a bit of an overkill really for only a couple, although you did get near total peace and privacy. There are other and much cheaper boat options too with a roof and recliners instead, although you would probably not have gotten lunch.
As we returned we met Joffy from Elite Houseboats and had a quick chat with him. He ordered a rickshaw for us, which arrived a couple of minutes later. We were off to the railway station and were there for 1.5 hours before our train was scheduled to depart. This time we had booked Second Sitting (no aircon, but lots of fans in the ceiling all a full speed - and a natural breeze coming in from the open, but barred, windows) because there were no better classes available on the train. We did however have designated seats and the seats were fine and about 1/2 of the price of the next class up. As the journey was only 2 hours and 108km we were fine.
Towards the end and as we got up, got our luggage and moved to the exits, I even met a young, local and chatty Indian who had just started studying to become a mechanical engineer - although he wanted to become a manager and not doing an actual engineers works, weird but, well... We were talking for a bit about travelling in India and about Europe too and he was very interested and asked very direct questions such as age, occupation etc - very Indian, as a Westerner you nearly feel like you're under interrogation - but that's the Indian way, they're very "nosy" ;-)
We got off at the station about 10 minutes late, which is pretty good going here, and immediately bumped into a local cab driver who offered to get us to Mango Villa for Rs.100,-. As both of us were tired we didn't really try haggling and we knew it was a decent price so we jumped at the opportunity and were soon on our way. About 15 minutes later we arrived, after the driver had navigated through a bewildering array of very narrow and windy streets, some with tall walls on both sides and room only for a car and at a(n Indian) stretch a scooter on the side.
As we arrived at the villa we were very impressed with what we had booked. The hostess is from Europe and very nice and the villa was very nice and clean - the room was very clean too and had a nice sized bed and very Italian style (open) wardrobe and facilities. There is even a nice imitation marble floor and a relatively big balcony with chairs, as well as a tiny garden in the front.
We spoke for a bit to the hostess and then closed the door, had quick showers and at 21:00 went to be and watched some Burn Notice before going to bed.