Day 39 - Thursday - Alleppey Backwaters

10.30am. Awoken by kids and voices. As I walk out of our room the guys that I met last night are sitting around with their feet up. Aidan gets up after an hour or so. He checks out the details on the houseboat and wakes the lads to be ready to leave in an hour. Understandably, they are not too chuffed to be moving so quickly just after waking up. We order beers and food for the boat journey and head for breakfast. As recommended by the guys we find Hotel Jaws around the corner. It is not quite what we expected although well overdue. We have being fairly looking eating in a lot of places that cater for westerners. Now we had just walked into a local place filled with locals. There were some bigs tables laid out and handful of people eating and drinking. Watching the number of flies and the general grubiness of the place put most of us off eating. Aidan was super positive and started eating some of fried bread they put on the table in front of us. The rest of us declined and did with the cup of black coffee they served. Four coffees, a piece of fried break and 6 bananas cost 21rps. We picked some snacks for the boat as we walked back.

The guys drove us to the backwaters in one of the flashest looking jeeps I have seen since I arrived in India. The guys had the sound banging with the most ridiculous base cannon thumping away in the boot. Eoghan had organised for a Karam board to be delivered on the boat, so we stopped to pick up the kit of pieces and chalk for it. We arrived at the dock which was lined with rows upon rows of whicker style houseboats. We followed the guys on board and were shocked by the large flat screen TV and the sweet lounge that greet us. They guys continued walking through the boat and asked us to follow. It was the boat behind this one. It was not far off in layout. A little more basic although really something else. Kind of like a 45 foot deluxe mobile home with two double ensuite bedrooms. A dining room, kitchen at the rear and a lounge on an upper deck with chairs and a large mattress bed overlooking the front. It had satellite tv, dvd player and stereo with electrical points throughout. We were at home straight away. The boat began reversing immediately. The whole lakeside was lined with one houseboat docked after the other. Some double parked. The boat gently moved along with the greatest of ease. It was peaceful, calm and serene as we floated along. The engine made very little noise. The waterways had numerous other houseboats travelling gliding along in different dirrections. I just there, still, absorbing another world as we moved along. It is quite a spiritual experience. This much visited tourist pathway cuts through water based villages with peoples homes being observed like goldfish in a bowl. You watch them washing their clothes, heading to work, walking back from the shops with bags of good. School kids skippig along the narrow pathways on their way home from school. There appears to be no road network, only one canal after another. Behind each house lies more paddy fields. You can watch women and men toiling away in the distance, collecting the paddy. Palm trees line the horizon in every direction. It is quite a beautiful sight, while at the same time it feels slightly obtrusive. It crosses my mind, do they look at the rich people floating along in the palaces with any form of contempt. The cost of one night on board one of this luxiourous boats, might be as much as a half years wages. Does it make them to want to be one day the person on the other side of the glass.

We dock for a lunch of chicken and a collection of local vegetable dishes cooked by our staff. We munch away hearthly and adventure to taste just some of the unusual taste placed infront of us. I find that the more western food we've started eating the less Indian food you are tempted to try. The staff relax for an hour after lunch before motoring off again. The normal village life continues to move along as we pass through it. I notice at one point a group of nuns on board a school boat. Actually come to think of it, we have passed numerous schools alonmg the banks. Another thing that peppers the canals are boat stops. Just like a bus stop, accept for baots. These seem to be serviced regularly by numerous ferries, similar to the one we caught in Kochin. The rest of the afternoon goes by as smoothly as the silky dark water. The boys entertain themselves with books, PSPs, while I spend the moajority of it just observing and taking it all in. We have beiong told that the boats are not allowed to sail after 6pm or so and true to its word we dock at 6.15. The Karam board is brought on board within minutes, much to the delight of Eoghan, whom has being eagerly waiting for it. The next few hours are spent playing Karam. I revert to the PSP and my book. Dinner is served just before eight and is another wonderful feast beautifully prepared and presented by our captain/chef. We finsih up pretty much everything that is on offer and head back up to play some Karam. The rains have being falling for the last 2 hours and the mosquito are gathering in their droves. These are followed by moths and then by geckos. A small food chain all in itself. Of course man's arrogance suggest he is at the top, always forgets the mighty mossie. Not tonight. After a few hours of Karam and loads more beer the bugs get the best of us so we retire to one of the bedrooms to watch a movie on the laptop. The four of us sit, t-shirts off, nothing sexual, purely sweatbox heat watching the Eastern Promise on Ian's XPS. The heat is ridiculous as we can't tunr on the fan due to its beyond loud noise. Ian leaves first and I stick it out till the bitter soaking end. The movie is trash. 2.5 out of ten. I lie down and sleep comes quickly, as always.

Day 38 - Wednesday - Fort Cochin

We packed our bags in preparation to head south to Alleppey. I was originally going to wait for the boys on Fort Kochin although decided at the last moment to stay with the group. We had beakfast on the roof terrace. Eoghan looked like he hadn't had enough sleep. He pulled out his Barry Tea Bags and asked for a pot of boiling water. You can't leave home without them. The lads told us Peter's face had swollen baldy during the night. Peter was in no state to go anywhere. He wanted to check with the dentist what was going on. He was not in pain although he did have a rather ape like face on him. Didn't take photos. You'll have to let your imagination do the work. We checked out and left our bags in the hotel. Peter and Eoghan headed to the dentist, Ian and Aidan went to get cakes and I went off in search of the Post Office to get some stamps.

By the time I got back to the internet cafe Peter was there. The dentist was not due in until after 4pm. I remembered seeing a rather smart looking dental clinic the day myself and Ian went for a cycle so I suggested this to Peter. We jumped into a rickshaw and were there in less a moment. We sat waiting for over an hour. While we were sitting there we met a guy from Belfast. He had comes over to India specifically to get dental work done. This particular dentist had being recommended by someone in Ireland. Suddenly, it made so much sense. If you can find someone that is good and it costs at least a tenth of the price if not more. Any cosmetic work is going to save you a fortune. All you got is the cost of the flight plus the time needed to do the work. Peter finally got to see the dentist and when he walked out he seemed a little thrown. He told me that it was a different tooth to his wisdom tooth and some work was going to need to be done. He didn't want to explain it until everyone was around.

We met back with the group and went to Coffee Day. He told us that he was probably going to need to stay a minimum of ten days. This included a root canal and recovery time as there was going to be a lot of pain and swelling. We decided he was going to book into a good hotel with internet and room service. There was no point in us hanging around and we might be better off heading on to Alleppey and he would meet up with us in ten days. With that all decided it was just a matter of finding the right hotel. It came down to a choice of the Malabar House for €120 per night or the Brunton Boatyard for €90 per night. He went for the Malabar. We greeted him farewell and headed to Ernakulam. We jumped on the government bus and journey across in the direction of the railway station. The skies opened and the monsoon rains began to fall. The journey was the usual roaring engine and bone chattering jolts and bumps. Pot holes seem to make the majority of the roads in India. I realised as we were travelling that there was an enormous naval base also on Willingdon island. It took around an hour and the bus was jammed by the time we arrived in Ernakulam. Eoghan picked up to pairs of new flip-flops and we headed to railway station. The next train to Alleppey was not until 11.30pm, only 5 hours to wait. We left the bags in left luggage and headed to get food and see if we could find somewhere to buy PSPs for Ian and Aidan.

The city was packed and bustling at night. We found an Indian styled KFC type joint by the name of ChicKing. Fast food is not what it was. It looked like a fast food joint although they took your order and your food was finally delivered around 15 minute later. Meh. It was okay. Not enough chips and the drink was a mouth full that you got with the meal. We left still feeling hungry although the lads were determined to find the PSPs. We found a music shop called Planet M that had one for sale. They were so chuffed at the chance of making a sale they rang another shop 3km away and got the shop owner to come with another PSP and some games. This was at 9.20pm. The boys did a bit of haggling and got 6% discount after an hour. We head back and found a smoke filled bar. It was like something out of a movie or the type of bar we've all seeing at some christening you've being to down in a country hotel. We tried to order in the none a/c side and we nearly gave them a heart attack. They pretty much refused to serve us. We sat drinking our cold Kingfisher as locals and staff walked by staring as Eoghan and Aidan strummed the guitar.

We boarded the train just in time. It was packed and people lays asleep everywhere. This is not an exaggeration. They were actually lying asleep on the overhead baggage shelves. Some men lying asleep on the chairs woke and allowed us some room to sit down. We arrived and hour later in Alleppey station. The rain was pouring down. All of our spirits were high. We stood waiting, chatting to locals. Our rickshaw driver agreed to 40rps and all four of us and our bags piled in. We were dropped off at the Vrundavanam Guest. We were warmly greeted by two young guys that showed us to our rooms. The place had an amazing over grown garden courtyard surrounded by guest quarters. Each room had an ornate heavy doors at its entrance. We threw our bags in and sat for an hour or so chatting to a group of four Indian friends that all ran the place. They were amazingly welcoming and when they heard I was not doing the boat journey they insisted I do it with the rest of the gang for free. They insisted so I thanked them. I headed off to bed shortly afterwards and left Aidan and Eoghan chatting away to our new friends.