Day 3. Into the backwaters..
A travelling day. Up at 0800 and back packs sorted. Quick goodbye and coffee with Bernard at the Dream stay hotel and we were off.
The plan was to get us nearer to kottyam so we can head off into the mountains for the next leg of the journey. In order to move us closer to the major terminus I had arranged for us to stay at the "backwater retreat honeymoon hotel". Sounds idyllic.
The plan was to use the bus both for the experience and to save a few rupees. However as there is no direct bus it would mean a tuk tuk to the customs ferry, then the ferry across, then a Tuk Tuk to the bus station, then a bus to alleppy, then a bus to Kottyam, then a Tuk Tuk to Anayam, where the backwater retreat honeymoon hotel is situated. Total travel time around 13 hours. This being unreasonable I managed to blag a private car operated by a young guy called Jose. He said he would take us direct for 1300 rupee in a travel time of 2 hours. Again no contest so the car it was.
It actually took just over 3 hours as the Backwater Honeymoon hotel is miles from anywhere. There's remote and then there's the middle of bloody nowhere. And that's where we are now.
Its a five bedroomed hotel on the edge of a river in the middle of a jungle. Not surprisingly we are the only ones here. Its clean, and tidy, but sparse. As we are so far from anywhere the young guy who booked us in has just gone to cook our tea. There are no other places to eat for miles. The only problem now, as we are in the jungle are the bugs. There's things crawling and flying around here that could eat a medium sized dog. The only compensation is that there are no monkey,s.
We are here for 2 nights and the plan was to spend time exploring local keralan village life. Well it turns out the village we are near, not in, can be explored 3 times over in under 2 minutes. I'm going to have to come up with a plan if I'm going to stop Crispy getting bored. I think the duration of the stay here will be decided by the quality of the food this evening.
One small highlight was that as we arrived we were introduced to the mad professor that lives across the river from the hotel. He was a professor but has retired to run a small spice plantation in the mountains but still lives here in the backwaters. He offered to show us around his spice garden and his enthusiasm was contagious. Pepper, cardamom, nutmeg, coriander were all explained whilst his 4 year old grandson plucked various strange items of foliage from the mass of trees.
He would present you with a small leaf or fruit and stand their with his grandad smiling until you ate it. It was amazing but made your teeth feel furry. Then came the hit. 100 rupees each for the pleasure. I asked him what he was a professor of and was not surprised when he said commerce.
Just waiting for tea now sat on the balcony being eaten alive.
I have failed on both counts of lemons and chewing tobacco so we are at the mercy of the moggies.
Its dark and the jungle is waking. Let's see what tomorrow brings.
Bare and Crispy signing off, somewhere in India.
A travelling day. Up at 0800 and back packs sorted. Quick goodbye and coffee with Bernard at the Dream stay hotel and we were off.
The plan was to get us nearer to kottyam so we can head off into the mountains for the next leg of the journey. In order to move us closer to the major terminus I had arranged for us to stay at the "backwater retreat honeymoon hotel". Sounds idyllic.
The plan was to use the bus both for the experience and to save a few rupees. However as there is no direct bus it would mean a tuk tuk to the customs ferry, then the ferry across, then a Tuk Tuk to the bus station, then a bus to alleppy, then a bus to Kottyam, then a Tuk Tuk to Anayam, where the backwater retreat honeymoon hotel is situated. Total travel time around 13 hours. This being unreasonable I managed to blag a private car operated by a young guy called Jose. He said he would take us direct for 1300 rupee in a travel time of 2 hours. Again no contest so the car it was.
It actually took just over 3 hours as the Backwater Honeymoon hotel is miles from anywhere. There's remote and then there's the middle of bloody nowhere. And that's where we are now.
Its a five bedroomed hotel on the edge of a river in the middle of a jungle. Not surprisingly we are the only ones here. Its clean, and tidy, but sparse. As we are so far from anywhere the young guy who booked us in has just gone to cook our tea. There are no other places to eat for miles. The only problem now, as we are in the jungle are the bugs. There's things crawling and flying around here that could eat a medium sized dog. The only compensation is that there are no monkey,s.
We are here for 2 nights and the plan was to spend time exploring local keralan village life. Well it turns out the village we are near, not in, can be explored 3 times over in under 2 minutes. I'm going to have to come up with a plan if I'm going to stop Crispy getting bored. I think the duration of the stay here will be decided by the quality of the food this evening.
One small highlight was that as we arrived we were introduced to the mad professor that lives across the river from the hotel. He was a professor but has retired to run a small spice plantation in the mountains but still lives here in the backwaters. He offered to show us around his spice garden and his enthusiasm was contagious. Pepper, cardamom, nutmeg, coriander were all explained whilst his 4 year old grandson plucked various strange items of foliage from the mass of trees.
He would present you with a small leaf or fruit and stand their with his grandad smiling until you ate it. It was amazing but made your teeth feel furry. Then came the hit. 100 rupees each for the pleasure. I asked him what he was a professor of and was not surprised when he said commerce.
Just waiting for tea now sat on the balcony being eaten alive.
I have failed on both counts of lemons and chewing tobacco so we are at the mercy of the moggies.
Its dark and the jungle is waking. Let's see what tomorrow brings.
Bare and Crispy signing off, somewhere in India.
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