Nick and Natty see water, water, EVERYWHERE

By Natalie Hough Part 1 of this blog will explore water of a positive nature. But part 2 will explore the downsides of excessive hydrogen hydroxide. Part One After saying our goodbyes to Deano and Ems, Nick and I set off into the backwaters of Kerala, finding ourselves in a strange town called Alleppey. Strange in it's air of a small town, but a population of a small city! In the evening the streets were packed with people and you had to push yourself through the crowd and avoid all the young boys selling flutes. Nick noted that for every boy carrying flutes for sale of which there were atleast 100 flutes, maybe more, there were not enough children in the area to buy all the flutes. While sitting on the beach one afternoon we saw three flute-sellers all walking along within 10 metres of eachother pipping away on their flutes, (that's atleast 450 flutes in a 10 metre radius) and there were maybe at most 100 children on the beach, and that is pushing it. What's more, none of the children had flutes, and to be honest none of them looked paticularly interested and preferred to play with the kites made of recycled material on sale.

So aside from the not particularly thriving flute industry in Alleppey, there is a much more lucrative houseboat industry which we had come to the backwaters for.




We ended up using the guesthouse we were staying in to organise the houseboat just like Deano and Ems had, and their recommendation was brilliant! We looked at one other boat which was more expensive and pretty grotty! Our houseboat was lovely. We had to 2 nice men (whose names have left me I'm afraid!), one the captain and one the cook, on the boat with us. We made our way slowly through the backwaters from midday onwards watching the world go by and lolling in the sun or under the shade. In the evening we were left to our own devises as we moored by the guys village so we relaxed with a couple beers and did some fishing (or attempted to with no bait-it got pretty boring pretty quick!). The cook had promised to return to feed us at 8, but a bit after 8 his brother showed up from the boat moored next to ours saying his nephew had been taken ill and his brother had gone to get medicine, and did we mind if he cooked for us? Of course we didn't, we were grateful to be fed, and before he'd finished cooking his brother had returned with time to serve dinner up! What amazing food we had on that boat! My goodness! Definately without a doubt the best food I've had in India! I put on about a stone in 24 hrs. Our boat costs us 3000 Rs for 24 hours, which is approximately 40 quid, about all we could afford with the months left of travel we have. The boat that was moored next to us where our cooks brother worked was 80000 Rs per night, which is around 1000 pounds! No way! It had AC throughout and it was basically an amazing posh apartment on water! We slept in our comfy but sweaty room and woke at 7am just before breakfast. We had yummy omelettes and set out for Alleppey with legs dangling in the fresh backwaters and the sun on our faces! Not the worst way to wake up!

We had to spend a couple more days in Alleppey after this waiting for the day of our train's departure, with a little trepidation that our train ticket would not get us seats, as in India if you don't book well ahead for sleeper train you tend to get put on a waiting list which can be hundreds of people long. Despite this we somehow had our sleeper seats and settled in to a not so long 19 hour train journey. At this point the monsoon decided to show it's not so pretty face for real, and this leads me to part two of my story...

Part Two

With tired eyes and hopeful hearts we settled down for a wobbly (and seasicky in Nick's case) nights sleep in the sleeper, dreaming of sunny days spent on the beach in Goa, relaxing and reviving ourselves before our long and arduous journey on the rickshaw. The reality of the situation is this: we have arrived in Goa just as the monsoon has decided to really show up. For the past 3 days there have been few moments when it hasn't been raining and half the time this is not just rain, it is a downpour of torrential proportions! We rented a scooter and yesterday we ventured 40 miles away to the capital of Goa (there was no point sticking around the wind and rain whipped beach) with Nick driving through what can only be described as a natural liquid exfoliation, rain tearing at exposed flesh and blinding our eyes! I was lucky enough to have Nick's body to partially shade me but poor Nick despite our newly acquired waterproofs, was soaked to the bone all day. Despite all this we managed to look at some old Portuguese houses which are in the process of rotting to the ground, and also to visit Old Goa where all the old Portuguese churches are and where the former capital stood. It was a shockingly fun day, as once we got over the fact that we were wet and were going to stay wet it didn't really seem to matter anymore! So there you go! We plan to head up north in the next couple days to stay with a friend of Nick's cousin's husband who apparently has a nice house on the coast, so that should be nice! After that we'll return to Colva and get ready for the Rickshaw Run! Not long now! The party the night before we leave has been confirmed as a beach theme party, so I'm now trying to think of some exciting ideas to make a more original costume than just a bikini. Nick says he plans to wear his lungi, that skirt thing he bought with Deano, so maybe I need to man up for the event since my boyfriend will be the most effeminate man there. Keep your eyes peeled for pictures after the 12th... Much love and hugs to everyone, Nattyxxx

Here is a random video to illustrate the wierdness of India...this is taken outside a jewellery shop.