We left the rain of the Thekkady area on yet another 5 hour bus ride. We would be heading directly west, down from the Western Ghats to the coast, specifically to Allepey, home of the backwaters. The bus ride started with fantastic mountain scenery but then degraded to busy commercial towns down in the flatlands.
Naomi enjoying our chocolate banana pancake for brunch dessert:
Off to the station:
Crossing the busy laundry river:
The tea plantations continued:
Where's Naomi?
There she is!
And I'm coming back from a rupee well spent!
At one point the rain was pretty heavy and the buses don’t have windows but instead they can be closed up by an accordioned cover that descends from the top of the window. Unfortunately this means the bus gets dark and stuffy very quickly so we defiantly kept ours open as it would not help Naomi’s propensity for motion sickness.
A little out of focus but you get an idea of the bus "shades":
We reached the wetlands known as the backwaters. There were many houses along some of the manmade canals with wet rice paddies behind them. Boats of all size could be seen plying the waters. Cool, tomorrow we’ll be on a houseboat!
The start of the back waters:
Arriving at the backwaters:
Super lush:
After settling in at the Gowri Guesthouse that was arranged by Saneesh back in Kumily, and after Naomi had had a tour of the various rooms on the property some of which looked like houseboats and another that had a big tree right next to the toilet in a roofless bathroom, we wandered down the main street to explore Allepey under a wonderful orange light of the setting sun bouncing off of low clouds. The street was busy with action. There were many types of shops with people walking and many riding bicycles while the ubiquitous tuk-tuks honked their way through the traffic.
The back area of our guesthouse:
Which has a room with a tree growing in the bathroom:
Naomi entertained by our strange doors:
Settling in:
There was wonderful light at sunset:
Believe it or not but this is a high school:
On the street in Allepey:
The air-conditioned air that hit us as we entered was a nice relief but I felt a bit odd walking into this shop in shirts and a t-shirt and definitely not interested in buying anything. Naomi was interested in looking at gold rings and we were direct to go upstairs. We sat down at one counter and this tall fellow with curly, wavy hair sat down across from us. Naomi told him that she was looking for a small, simple gold ring without any stones. Sounds simple doesn’t it? Well turns out it wasn’t. The clerk started to ask us some questions in his broken English. At first harmless: “From where you are?”, “What is your name?”, “What do you do?” And then he asked if I drink. “Yes, I like beer” I responded and he remarked that I had been drinking the night before as he could see it in my eyes! Whoa dude, are you actually trying to make a sale? Interesting strategy if you are. He mentioned that he had a passport and wanted to visit Israel so could he get Naomi’s email address and maybe she could sponsor him....okay, time to leave. What a strange jewellery store experience!
The strange jewellery store:
I really felt like we were entering a casino in Vegas:
Meanwhile back at the guesthouse Knuffle Bunny found a new friend between the sheets:
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