Friday 7 December 2012

Alleppey on motorbikes + a backwater cruise through a little piece of Indian heaven!

Friday 7th December

So on the Friday we left for Alleppey around midday, Laura was with Jin and I was with Jin's mate who was so lovely and made sure he only drove fast when I wanted him to! It took us an hour and a half to reach Alleppey from Kochi and the drive was amazing! Motorbikes are way less scarier than mopeds and when driven by locals who know how to drive them! Some of the roads were very bumpy but the majority of the ride was smooth and straight and it was such freedom to ride along the coast of Kerala with the wind in your hair, watching the green rice paddies float by, driving through local villages, watching the coast glide by in amazing blues and chatting to the guy driving your bike! (I forget his name! oops sorry!)

We got to Alleppey around -3pm in the afternoon and got a medium sized bamboo boat to take us along the backwaters, big and small canals. It was lush! We saw lots of scenery and houseboats, stopped off along the way for local village food (spicy oysters, beef, tapioca rice and fried fish which was all absolutely amazing but so so spicy!) We also stopped for some toddy tipping. Toddy is Coconut Beer, it's weird, it tastes like sour coconut water, that's extremely alcoholic!

Then we floated along the canals, watching the sun set over the backwaters, listening to some amazing tunes and some Bob Marley at sunset. It was pure bliss! I still listen to some of the tunes and will forever be reminded of our day in Alleppey! Then it was time to set off home, we were hoping to get back before dark but the sun had already set and dusk was setting in, so we knew we'd end up driving back in the dark. We stopped off at Alleppey Beach for some food on the way back and then had a long 2 hour drive back to Kochi. It was quite scary in the dark as everywhere is pitch black - hardly any street lights other than when you get to the villages. But the view of the stars while driving were amazing! The sore bum and cramped legs upon arrival in Kochi however, was far from amazing! We had to be dropped off round the corner from their restaurant as the police station is next door and local men can get into trouble if found with foreign women. On a couple of nights the police literally followed me and Laura back home to check we got back ok - so at least the police here were on the ball I guess! lol

We made plans to head to Cherai Beach tomorrow (on Vypin Island, a short ferry ride from Fort Kochi), and then the guys told us that Saturday was the main party night in Kochi (in Ernakulam, the mainland) and wondered if we wanted to go. So we agreed we'd probably go along and we'd pre-drink before hand as it sounded pretty cool, then headed to bed.

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