That’s Captain to you!
- Sep 30, 2016
- 3 min read
We drove to Alleppy and the next morning went in search of our houseboat. We went down some backstreets and waited with the rep from the tour company, a boat pulled up in the spot we were waiting for… but it was a day trip boat. They moored up and left to go to the shops or something, then our boat arrived! It had nowhere else to park up so went parallel to the day boat and we jumped across.
It was pretty lovely and we settled down with our books and the sun on our faces for a tour around the backwaters of Kerala. It’s a hard life…
Once we got some petrol and out onto an open lake, the captain asked Greg if he’d like to drive the boat… Lord help us.
Much to the Captain’s dismay I quickly jumped into the seat after Greg and demanded a turn too. I know I’m a girl, I doubt the ship will sink if I’m left in charge for two seconds. Evidently he felt confident I wouldn’t faint under the responsibility and left me to drive.
The food was awesome, though in the evening we sat inside to avoid the GIANT mosquitos that appeared and became a very interesting exhibit for the locals.
Whilst we were eating, a smiling face popped up at the bottom window and started chatting asking us to open the door. We smiled and said no, we wanted to eat our food in peace.
The man wouldn’t leave and eventually the Captain showed up and to our apprehension, opened the doors. The local guide then asked if we wanted to go on a tour with him first thing in the morning.
There is no escape.
They will find you.
We said no, quickly finished the meal and went straight to our room where we could close the curtains and avoid being offered tours whilst currently on a tour.
(Local racing boat called a "Snake Boat")
The next morning, we were happily eating a big breakfast and drinking the water given to us when to my horror I saw the water was full of bits and an off colour! I had visions of parasites and waterborne diseases making the next 24 hours fairly tense. Thankfully we were fine, but reminded us to never let our guard down in India!
Varkala was amazing. We pulled up to a fabulous hotel, probably the nicest we stayed in, dropped our bags and went straight to the cliff edge. Quickly we realised that this is a local beauty spot and we hit the jackpot with our hotel, view point, and lovely restaurants being within a two-minute walk of each other. Paradise!
We went down to the beach to watch the sunset and got some beautiful photos (if I do say so myself). As we stood there and chatted an Indian tourist who was there from Delhi with his family took my favourite picture of us:
He came over and said sorry to bother us but he’d taken this photo and would we like it? Yes, please! Thank you, you lovely man!
We spent the next three days drinking coffee on the cliff top in Coffee Temple and ate more seafood.
There were restaurants and shops all along the cliffs so we walked and looked for stairs down to the beaches. It wasn’t a safe place to swim so we just paddled and sat in the sun.
The south is pretty sweet, a different world to Northern India.
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