Alleppy to Munnnar

album links:

Alleppey-- 

AlleppyBackwaters

Munnar--  

Munnar

 We arrived in Alleppey on the boat from Kollaam (via the Ashram) just at dark and we were whisked on a terrifying tuk-tuk ride to our pre-booked accommodation—our first homestay. It was a dump, even by Roger’s standards.  We didn’t bother unpacking and decided to search for better accommodations immediately. We got on another, more terrifying tuk-tuk and careened through crowded, loud streets until we reached an even dumpier dump. In a state of exhausted frustration, we just had the guy drop us at a restaurant mentioned in Lonely Planet.  It was nearly empty but we found a table next to two western girls; we were thoroughly spent.  Roger, using his travel-savvy experience, plunked himself at their table and begged pitifully, “You must help us.”

They turned out to be two lovely young Brits—Jane and Abbie—and they saved us.  They took us to their Homestay, The Bella City, gave us a much-needed orientation to how the town was laid out, and pointed us back to our dump. A homestay is supposed to be like a B&B where you get to experience Indian family life, but as close as we got was when Salim let us watch him and his family eat rice and curry with their fingers.  The next morning we got out FAST and went to Bella City, where we met Biju and his Polish wife Natasha, and everything clicked once again.  They set us up with an Alleppy Backwater Tour—the main reason we were there—and Natasha thrilled us with amazing tales of adapting to Indian life.  She had worked for a Polish tour company for several years and she knows India like the back of Roger’s hand (he actually uses the back of his hand to describe locations in India, much the same way that a Michigan native uses his “mitten”).

We were able to get on a boat that morning.  Biju escorted our tuk-tuk to the docks on his motorcycle, schlepped our bags, and introduced us to the captain and three-man crew of our small houseboat, The Eco Boat. Grant Jepson is a fifty-something yacht builder from the UK who spends six months a year in Alleppy, where he has built his own small houseboat in the Keralan style but he has also designed an eco-friendly water filtration and sewerage system that uses the local coir, or coconut fiber. 

He has been unable to get it certified by one of the Keralan state bureaucracies responsible for such things, though.  This is a big deal for the Alleppy backwater ecology, as there are hundreds of tourist boats plying these waters that dump raw sewerage into the canals daily.  But Grant couldn’t negotiate the required bribe successfully, and he’s waiting for state elections next month and a change of administration (Grant claims that Kerala’s own lab tests show his effluent discharge is cleaner than the water he draws in).  How Tragic!  Here you’ve got a woefully under-developed and primitive infrastructure in a brutally poor society, and you’ve got pay bribes to get the needed work done!  This reminds us…is Kwame Kilpatrick still in the state prison system, or have the feds got him now?

The overnight boat trip was spectacular, lazing through the backwaters on The Eco Boat, with meals cooked by the local crew served on board that was some of the best food we’ve had in India.  Just before dark we put into a small village where Grant and his crew had begun building the boat four years ago, and we spent an hour wandering through the village and the rice paddies.  The people were incredibly friendly—especially the children, who all wanted to practice their English and show off their knowledge of America (Obama is a huge hit here.  We even had an enlightened political conversation with a tuk-tuk driver the other day.  “Where you come from?  America?  Obama a great man!  Bush no good!”  It was one of those rare political discussions that had no arguments.)  We hope the Alleppy photo album, which may or may not be attached near the front of this post, does the amazing experience some justice.

Then on to the misty mountains of Munnar—high in the Keralan tea country known as the High Ranges.  We set out by local water bus—a 2 ½ hour journey on a dingy commuter boat.  Kerala state government is currently ruled by the Communist Party, and public transportation here is almost free, though certainly decrepit.  The boat ride cost us 10 rupees each—that’s about 22 cents, boys and girls.  Check out the photo album (also attached, we think) for Munnar and the incredible experience we had at Pavritham Homestay.  This was the real deal, with steps leading up from the back garden onto a for-real tea plantation, where we were free to roam the miles of manicured tea landscape, totally alone.  It was cool, it was quiet, and it was pristine.  And this is India!

The only misadventure happened when we were accosted by small dark man with a machete named Ghee who claimed to be Tata Watcher.  We don’t think he meant it in the American sense.  He was actually a watchman for Tata, Ltd., the privately held conglomerate that owns the auto industry, the cable company, the tea plantation, and apparently the rest of India.  You can see his fearsome visage on the Munnar album.

Next stop—Fort Cochin, back on the coast, then to Goa, which we hear is infested with thousands of stoned Russians.  We are heading to the extreme south—Agonda Beach-- which is supposed to be outside their main feeding area.