Homestay

Well another train... This one was a short one though only about an hour and a half in seats.

We then took tuk-tuks to a bus station/boat launch and waited for our boat to take us to our homestay.

Alappuzha , also known as Alleppey, is a city in Alappuzha District of Kerala state of southern India. The name Alappuzha is derived from the geographical position and physical features of the place. It means the land between the sea and network of rivers flowing into it.

The backwaters in Kerala are a chain of brackish lagoons and lakes lying parallel to the Arabian Sea coast (known as the Malabar Coast). Houseboat or Kettuvalam rides in the backwaters are a major tourist attraction. Though we did not stay on one we did see many on the water even though it is not high season.

We met Mr. Gopal who was who Thom and I and some others stayed with. Him along with his wife and his neighbor and his wife would be serving us meals while we stayed here. They greeted us with a kind of lemonade and his wife blessed and welcomed us with little flowers and marked our foreheads with a light pink dot of spice.

The houses are right on the water and it is quiet and so beautiful and relaxing.

They served us some pakora which is fried chilies in chick pea flour with toast and bananas as a snack. Then we settled into our really nice rooms while the rest of our group took a ferry across the water to settle into other local family houses.

We relaxed and then had a great home cooked lunch as well as chai and cookies at 4:00

Then we all met up together to do a walk and canoe ride through the channels. Mr. Gopa knew so much about all the plants from the different count trees to wild herbs used for all kinds of thing like cooking and medicine.

One of the major feature of this land is the region called Kuttanad, the 'granary of Kerala'. Kuttanad is also known as the rice bowl of Kerala and is one of the few places in the world where farming is done below sea level.


We met up with the neighbor who is such a great guy I feel horrible not catching his name. He was a jack of all trades helping to cook, serve and guide our canoe.

A town with picturesque canals, backwaters, beaches, and lagoons, it was described as the one of the places known as "Venice of the East"


The people we saw along the way were great and friendly.



That night we had a great meal all together with homemade rice pudding for dessert.

It was such a great experience!