The Good, The Bad and The Backwaters

Hi Guys, Hope you’re all well.

After our blissful week chillaxing in Goa, we jumped on a bus towards Goa’s capital Margao for a sleeper train to Kerala. The train, as we have come to expect in India rolled in an hour late, but in fairness it had been running for 2 full days before getting to us. Once we had settled and put our bags away we managed to go to the end of the of the carriage to sit out and take in the views of the Karnataka countryside. Pictures below.

We arrived in the small town of Aluva at 3am, where this time we were slightly more organised and had a driver waiting for us. Our friend recommended before we left that we should book on an organised tour of Kerala as we had a limited amount of time there and the roads can be very dangerous when on public busses. Our driver was a friendly chap named Mr Saji, who had very little English apart from ‘you can pay now’. He drove us straight up to Munnar where we arrived at 6am pretty jaded and looking forward to a dew hours sleep. When we checked in to the guest house we found that they had actually run out of rooms in the Homestay section, so they kindly upgraded us to a room with this view!  Also a hot shower and a proper mattress and duvet so we were definitely living the dream!

As you can see from the picture the views were amazing waking up and looking out on the stunning scenary was an absolute treat. The tea fields as far as the eye could see and a crashing waterfall of to the left it was breath-taking. We left with Mr Saji and had a day touring around Munnar. Our first stop was an old tea factory in all its gloriousness, old wood and clanky metal chambers drying and sorting tea into different strains and qualities a real interesting place and again the views surrounding us were perfect. We then took in the massive Mattupetty dam and a dubious looking garden centre where most of the plants were quite past their sell buy date. We tucked into a fresh coconut and some ‘home made’ chocolate, which we both dreadful and headed into Munnar town centre for a show.

The following day Mr Saji took us to Alleppey which was an absolute dump. The main reason for going to Alleppey is to visit The Backwaters, a section of waterways stretching for miles in land and down the coast. The town had a beach, with a few bars but mainly heaps of rubbish, sad looking stray dogs and huge partially built flyover.

That said, our trip on the backwaters was memorable for all of the right reasons. We took a short ferry from where we were staying to a small village where we had breakfast waiting for us (pic below). We then grouped up and hopped in our small canoes and started our tour around The Venice of the East. Miles of waterways leading to small canals with communities flanking each river bank a real insight into what life is like there. The water was a thick brown colour, like with everything in India there was the odd plastic bottle. The locals didn’t seem too bothered as they were washing clothes, food and themselves in it. Children played and squirted water out of their mouths and everyone carried on their lives around this beautiful yet murky river. We heard that 20 years ago the water was clear and you could drink from it, sad to see hundreds of house boats polluting the river and ruining this beautiful place. Were very glad we have seen it now, as they are not sure it will stay this beautiful for much longer.

Back into Alleppey that evening and we met up with some of the guys we met on the boat trip that day, Ellie and Dayle. We had a great evening, too many beers and a very wet walk home but it topped off a great day.

On to our last leg of our Keralan (and Indian!) adventure in Cochin. We only had half a day and with the rotten hangovers we had we weren’t in much of a sight seeing mood! We mooched around for an hour and thought it would be best if we saved what energy we did have for a walk into town and for a nice last meal in India. We headed to a restaurant called Fort House, right on the waters edge but as with everything in India the beautifully lit restaurant was tainted by Cochin’s harbour, of heaps of rubbish and rotten smells. We did however have a fantastic meal including a fish moilee (coconut and mustard curry) and pork vindaloo, both dishes were stunning nothing like the fiery nonsense served in curry houses at home but a refined moreish dish, a perfect meal to end our Indian adventure.

Kerala was a beautiful place in parts, with nice food and nice company. We really enjoyed our day in Munnar and on the backwaters. It left us excited for our next adventure in Sri Lanka.

Lily and Luke