Alleppy, Kerala backwaters, India

So after completing the ferry journey from the ashram we arrived in Alleppy (which is a gateway to the Keralan backwaters) for the second day of a temple festival. We dubbed it the "poundland festival" as one road was lit up with fairy lights and silver bunting and was FULL of stalls selling every crappy, tacky, plastic, random, cheap item you could EVER want. Seriously though, the Hayes family would go mental at all the tat and Kieran had to restrain me when I saw the paper star lanterns with a nativity scene!!!!

After a lovely sleep in a quiet, comfy bed (really 2 cms of foam is luxury for us now) we took a traditional Keralan houseboat for a 22 hour trip along some of the main lakes and rivers. The landscape is much more open and less jungly than expected, with waterways separating vast reclaimed paddyfields (the backwaters are below sea level). We blew 4 days' budget on our own private boat with driver, chef, and were waited on hand and foot for a day and a night - it was FAB!!!!

A perfect sunset concluded a great trip, and it was only slightly marred by being woken up at 5am (I mean, it was still dark!) by the nearby Hindu Temple chanting the 10,000 names of the eternal mother over a loud-speaker system.

Hopped on a bus when we got back, to Cochin where we hope to do a smaller canoe-based trip to the backwaters, then visit a tea plantation before heading to the mountains for Christmas.