Mon, Apr 24: Kochi, Alappuzha backwaters

Today we docked in Kochi (formerly called Cochin) on the west coast of India.  We boarded a tour van and headed a couple of hours out into the country...

to the town of Alleppey where we boarded a houseboat (a kettuvalum)...

for a cruise through the backwaters of canals around the Allapuzha area and Lake Vembanadu, one of the largest lakes in India.  Our group:

Our itinerary:

The houseboats are covered with what looks like reeds and have a style distinct to the area.  There are no longer people living on the houseboats; they all now cater to tourists.  This is not the high tourist season so there were few houseboats out on the canals. 

However, the canals were beautiful

  and we did see a few boats plying the waters.

Most of the canals were lined with picturesque houses and churches.

Many of the homes facing the canals also backed onto rice paddies in the back.  These paddies were said to be slightly below sea level.  They were definitely below the canal water level.

We traveled at a leisurely pace were we saw women fishing from the shores and washing laundry in the canal waters...

and some children playing in the canal.

We also saw a couple of farmers in boats “herding” (or whatever the correct term is) a rather large flock of ducks down the canal.

We stopped at a riverside stall where they had gigantic prawns for sale.  We bought a bunch for the group...

 and our chef cooked them for lunch, along with a number of other Kerala dishes.  Lunch consisted of typical Kerala dishes including the prawns (grilled), a couple of chicken dishes, okra, long beans and beet root, and a couple of potato dishes.  It was cooked by Angelo (local Keralan but yes, Angelo was apparently his real name). 

We were back at the ship by dinner time but we weren’t too hungry so had only a light dinner.  After dark, when it started to cool off a bit, Mary took a walk on the jogging path.