28th Jan - Kochi to Alleppey

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Up early felt good and like exploring on my bike. I have decided to head South to Alleppey even though I am actually heading North on my trip. Alleppey has the best Backwater tours of Kerala and some friends have highly recommended that I include this in my visit to India. Had breakfast at the same local restaurant and then packed up and braved the crazy city traffic. I think that in the future for trips in the center of cities I will just put my bike and bags in a Ricksaw as I am less likely to die! It was certainly an experience anyway - nothing like a bit of adrenaline to wake you up in the morning.

I managed to pick up some basic maps of the area from the Hotel and I used these to make my way to the tourist information center. They were pretty useless regarding general information and did not have any better maps. Most people seem to say that there are no good maps of the area. Therefore I think I will mainly be using google maps on my phone. This should not be a problem as coverage is supposed to be good in India and I finally got the connection setting for my phone today and so have internet access :-) £1.50 for 2GB internet access on my phone! Yippeee.

I caught the passenger ferry across from Kochi to Fort Kochi. Fort Kochi is where all the old Portuguese buildings are and where the old town was developed. It is quite pretty and the architecture is nice. I found it similar to that of Goa's old ports. It was strange as when I stepped off the ferry there were suddenly loads of white people. It was definitely a "tourist" area. There were loads of restaurants with different types of food and really expensive prices (in comparison to what I had been paying). I explored the town by bike (a lot less traffic) and walked along the water front and saw the Chinese fishing nets. There were several Indians giving a demonstration to tourists and wanting a small tip in exchange. It was interesting to watch. The nets are lowered into the water by the men pulling on ropes with heavy stones on the other end. The weight of the heavy stones is then used to raise the nets from the water (hopefully with fish in them).



I left the main tourist area and found this fantastic little cafe called the Rainbow Bar. The people were really friendly and the served "Italian Coffee"! It made me very happy. John who works there was really interested in my bike as he used to race before he had an accident during a bike race and broke his arm and his bike.

I had lunch at a "locals" restaurant for 25RS - 36p. I had a "Meals" as they call it. It is vegetable curry, rice and about 4 other side dishes (like pickles, curried cabbage, chilli things, coconut milk with spices). As all restaurants do this food in bulk and a lot of people eat it everyday at each restaurant it is really cheap. Apparently it is usually made freshly everyday and is very healthy.
I decided to head South to get to Alleppey on the coastal back road rather than the main highway. It was quite difficult to find and took me a while but once I was on the right road I was a very happy bunny. It was fantastic! The road was quite and meandered through little villages with the coast on one side and the backwaters and villages on the other side. I saw loads of the Chinese fishing nets but this time they were actually being used to catch fish and not tourists!

The people along the way were really friendly and the kids kept on coming up to say hello. It was lovely to see 4 boys all riding on one adult size bike. The little shops and churches/temples on the way were very cute. One of the temples had decorations all around it and also on the stretch of road that it was next to. Just a lovely afternoon cycling in a very different country to England.
About 20km from Alleppey I asked for directions and unfortunately rather than them sending me on the direct route on the little back lanes I came out on the main highway. It was very busy but interesting to see. There were people walking along the side of the highway, kids riding their bikes, people pushing their carts, old men riding their bikes in the wrong direction, hundreds of motorbikes, tuktuks, the occasional car, busses with people hanging off the sides and lorries. This is on the MAIN highway. The people walking and riding their bikes in the wrong direction along the side were not on the dirty road part - but actually on the tarmac. The scariest part was the old men biking the opposite direction. When I was heading straight at them I had no idea whether they would go to my left or to my right.....

I managed to arrive in Alleppey in one piece. It was getting dark and so I stopped off at a few hotels on the way into town to find the best price. For a laugh I went and asked at this beautiful luxurious hotel with a big pool, beauty parlor, gym, restaurant - the whole lot. It was £22 for a night for luxury! I was soooo tempted - but it would totally blow my budget and was completely unnecessary! All I needed was somewhere for tonight which had a bed and a western toilet and I felt safe in. I was planning on organizing a house boat cruise for tomorrow anyway. It is amazing how much my view on what is a lot of money for a room has changed from 1 year ago :-)

I was biking through town trying to find somewhere to say when a couple of lads on a motorbike asked me if I needed accommodation. They seemed nice and so I went with them to look at the room round the corner. They gave me a very reasonable rate and I took the room. Fawaz is 17 and is the nephew of the owner. The other lad of the same age, Suhail, is Fawaz's best friend.

Once I had unpacked they invited me up to the cafe/restaurant on the top of the building. It looks out over the whole town as it is about 1 story above most of the surrounding houses. The cafe/restaurant is not open for food at the moment but is a nice place to chill as was access to the internet and friends and family of the owner sitting around and chatting. As it was closed the 2 lads walked me to the restaurant around the corner for dinner and then picked me up afterward. They took it upon themselves to be my chaperons and to tell me about the area.

After diner, I sat and uploaded some of my blog on the internet in the room on the top of the homestay (small hotel). It was fantastic as a few friends of the owner where having a few drinks and one of them was a amazing singer of traditional Indian music. They were quietly drumming while he was singing. The sound was incredible. I could not have had better music while I was tapping away in the office area. The owner bought me in a drink while I was sitting playing on the net. A great end to a lovely day.

Today I really feel happy that I have decided to visit India. The people have been really friendly has I have been biking though and the scenery fantastic :-)