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Got up early and went for a run along the beach. I was in a great mood and really happy to be running again. I took my camera with me to take pictures of the fishermen bring in their catch. Unfortunately, they were earlier today than I thought and so most of them had already bought in their catch. I did get a few pictures though. There are about 25 men for every boat. They are all needed in order to roll the boat in and out of the water on wooden rollers, as they have done for hundreds of years. The boats are very heavy and made of wood. The fishermen have all painted their boats in really colourful ways and they looked great. About one third of the boats had caught any fish. Apparently that is really good in comparison to normal. The fishermen are considered really poor even by Indian standards and they receive government subsidiaries to keep the industry afloat.
There were a large number of elderly men still working on the boats. I find it difficult seeing elderly people the same age as my granddad still having to work.
Loads of the fishermen kept on coming up to me asking me to take their photograph. I am still getting used to the fact that Indians love having their photo taken and do not see it as rude! It is great for me :-)
It was very funny to watch flocks of birds that stick together and run in and out of the tide trying to catch the crabs but not getting caught by the water.
I also enjoyed watching the Indians having fun by the sea. The area is a real tourist hot spot for Indians as well as Westerners. The rich Indians that come here on holiday dress very differently from the locals but the women still wear all of their clothes when going into the water.
I managed to run for about 10miles and felt really good after it. I stopped off at a cafe by the beach for some breakfast and tea on the way back. I got chatting to an Indian customer there called Natchew. His English was brilliant and it was great to have a flowing conversation rather than a bitty conversation with simplified English. He works abroad but his family lives in Alleppey and he has just bought a house with his sister. He invited me to go to the breakfast Housewarming with his friends and family tomorrow morning. Cool. It should be interesting. Apparently the breakfast housewarming event is a traditional thing. They are obviously a reasonably well off Indian family.
I had spent much longer running and chatting to Natchew than planned and so I did not get back to the homestay until 1ish. I met with Fawaz after showering etc. We were supposed to be catching the ferry at 2 but it turned out that his gran was not getting back home till later and so we decided to get the ferry at 3.45. I went with Fawaz on the back of his motor bike into town and we got a "meal" at a cheap place right next to the ferry dock.
The water taxi was very cheap to his Grandmothers house. They are mainly used by local people and are reasonably busy. They travel much faster than the house boats and you can't see as much as the house boat and so although they are traveling through the same stretch of water as the houseboats the experience is very different. A boy of 6 sat next to us on the journey in his school uniform and decided to show us how good he is at English - which meant a monologue for about 10 mins describing his whole life story. Very cute.
It took about 20 mins to get to Fawaz's grandmothers house. It is a new house and quite big. His grandmother, several aunts and many children all live their. They were very welcoming but did not speak very much English. I think they were wondering why Fawaz had befriended me.... so am I actually....
It was great to meet them and see how they live on the back waters. I took the kids loads of chocolates which the devoured in seconds.
We did not stay long as we needed to catch the next ferry back. When we got back to Alleppey we took a walk though the poor area of town to try and buy some Toddy (a locally made alcoholic coconut fermented drink that I wanted to try) but the shop was closed. We had another wonder around some shops in the center of town and then we went to the cinema. I really wanted to see an Indian film and Fawaz offered to take me to see a film called "Traffic". It is shot in Kerala and people talk in Malayalam (the local dialectic). It was supposed to be a low budget movie (in comparison to the Bollywood films produced) but I was really impressed with the quality of production, acting and general story line. Even though it is in a foreign language I did not find it too hard to follow what was going on. It is about a traffic accident and the transportation of the donor heart from a victim across a big city to get to the recipient.
Traffic Film Trailer
There is much more shouting and clapping at the film than there would be in the UK and they have an interval about half way though for 10 mins. We had Indian snacks and a cuppa chi in the break.... a bit weird.
After the film we headed back and sat on the beach and chatted until late again. Very much enjoying Fawaz's company. :-)
There were a large number of elderly men still working on the boats. I find it difficult seeing elderly people the same age as my granddad still having to work.Loads of the fishermen kept on coming up to me asking me to take their photograph. I am still getting used to the fact that Indians love having their photo taken and do not see it as rude! It is great for me :-)
It was very funny to watch flocks of birds that stick together and run in and out of the tide trying to catch the crabs but not getting caught by the water.I also enjoyed watching the Indians having fun by the sea. The area is a real tourist hot spot for Indians as well as Westerners. The rich Indians that come here on holiday dress very differently from the locals but the women still wear all of their clothes when going into the water.
I managed to run for about 10miles and felt really good after it. I stopped off at a cafe by the beach for some breakfast and tea on the way back. I got chatting to an Indian customer there called Natchew. His English was brilliant and it was great to have a flowing conversation rather than a bitty conversation with simplified English. He works abroad but his family lives in Alleppey and he has just bought a house with his sister. He invited me to go to the breakfast Housewarming with his friends and family tomorrow morning. Cool. It should be interesting. Apparently the breakfast housewarming event is a traditional thing. They are obviously a reasonably well off Indian family.I had spent much longer running and chatting to Natchew than planned and so I did not get back to the homestay until 1ish. I met with Fawaz after showering etc. We were supposed to be catching the ferry at 2 but it turned out that his gran was not getting back home till later and so we decided to get the ferry at 3.45. I went with Fawaz on the back of his motor bike into town and we got a "meal" at a cheap place right next to the ferry dock.
The water taxi was very cheap to his Grandmothers house. They are mainly used by local people and are reasonably busy. They travel much faster than the house boats and you can't see as much as the house boat and so although they are traveling through the same stretch of water as the houseboats the experience is very different. A boy of 6 sat next to us on the journey in his school uniform and decided to show us how good he is at English - which meant a monologue for about 10 mins describing his whole life story. Very cute.It took about 20 mins to get to Fawaz's grandmothers house. It is a new house and quite big. His grandmother, several aunts and many children all live their. They were very welcoming but did not speak very much English. I think they were wondering why Fawaz had befriended me.... so am I actually....
It was great to meet them and see how they live on the back waters. I took the kids loads of chocolates which the devoured in seconds.
We did not stay long as we needed to catch the next ferry back. When we got back to Alleppey we took a walk though the poor area of town to try and buy some Toddy (a locally made alcoholic coconut fermented drink that I wanted to try) but the shop was closed. We had another wonder around some shops in the center of town and then we went to the cinema. I really wanted to see an Indian film and Fawaz offered to take me to see a film called "Traffic". It is shot in Kerala and people talk in Malayalam (the local dialectic). It was supposed to be a low budget movie (in comparison to the Bollywood films produced) but I was really impressed with the quality of production, acting and general story line. Even though it is in a foreign language I did not find it too hard to follow what was going on. It is about a traffic accident and the transportation of the donor heart from a victim across a big city to get to the recipient.Traffic Film Trailer
There is much more shouting and clapping at the film than there would be in the UK and they have an interval about half way though for 10 mins. We had Indian snacks and a cuppa chi in the break.... a bit weird.After the film we headed back and sat on the beach and chatted until late again. Very much enjoying Fawaz's company. :-)
Kerala is one of the most beautiful destination to travel during the days of the tour. It is the best place which the every tourist prefer to visit. Once i have been to this place along with my friend from Vijayawada in the year 2015. We had a lot of fun there and made the days of the journey a successful one.
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