A Day on the Backwaters
We chatted to the lovely, smiley neighbour who had her English exam today before leaving for a day of adventure. We walked for about 1km to the bus stop. Here we caught a bus to the main Allepey jetty. This is where the local ferries head on to the Kerala backwaters. Instead of paying a huge fee for a house boat, we took a local ferry to explore the waterways. The beautiful 1.5 hour journey was less that 30p.
Eventually, we arrived at our stop and clambered onto the shore. We then caught a local bus and an auto to a famous restaurant. Here was a sunken boat with snakehead fish and eels swimming around inside.
There was a huge variety of dishes but we chose a duck curry with paratha, yam and casava to take away (packet). A short walk along the banks of the backwater and we arrived at a nice shady picnic spot. A cool breeze was blowing off the water which was wonderful. We sat amongst the tranquil waterways of Kerala and ate! A cute dog sat and shared what we left
Being rather too relaxed in the majestic environment, we missed the ferry back. However, that gave us enough time to devour a mango ice cream each before the next boat arrived -1.5 hours later!
This time our route back was from a different location. We passed many schools and as sunset was approaching, an enormous amount of house boats. Another beautiful journey, this time accompanied by some really nice music. We disembarked and went to a small restaurant opposite the river. Here we drank Chai and ate unacaya, delicious banana, coconut, raisens and other great ingredients mashed together.
Walking through the centre of Allepey was fairly pleasant. A fairly small town with cute temples and not too much traffic. We caught an auto to the bus station, immediately boarded a local bus to the road we were staying in. We then walked the 1km home. Interupted by friend's of our friend on their shiney new blue moped. It was a lovely colour and their child was very cute!
In the evening we were treated to a magnificent feast. Pearlspot fish in an amazing sauce with risotto. The fish was wrapped and cooked in banana leaves and was just wonderful. The fish was cooked whole and the bones were huge and easy to find. Pineapple and banana for desert was just perfect. We then settled down to old BGT and AGT for a few old tearful episodes before watching YouTube. YouTube was a great way to show us some of the places we are heading next ...
