Alleppey - The Backwater Beauty

The trip was coming to end, but the scenery was getting better and better. After unsuccessful venture into Periyar Reserve, we started for Alleppey, also known as Alapuzha, which is famous for backwaters.

We left these green carpets behind ...

and entered into the land of backwaters...

Our driver took us to a place where we could hire a boat - similar to houseboat (shikara) - for couple of hours and take a ride through the backwaters. We were about to get duped here, but thanks to Meghana's persistence, we successfully escaped.

What happened was like this. There seems to be a single contractor who dishes out the boats to the tourists. We enquired about timing and what all things would be covered etc but didn't realize that there would be different types of boats available that too at the same rent! When we were asked to ride a boat, it looked okay. Two chairs and two reclining chairs. As we settled and the boat started, we got to see another boat which was beautifully decorated from inside as well as outside. Stark contrast to our boat. We immediately asked the boat driver, but he seemed less than enthusiastic to answer anything. We (read Meghana ;) ) forcibly asked him to make a U turn and we blasted our car driver for not guiding us properly. Probably out of guilt or whatever, but he helped in getting us another boat which we beautifully decorated and had all the facilities for relaxation! And there started our two hours of journey through the water.

The boat was sailing slowly. Only noise was of the motor, which was also kept to minimum. It was an amazing feeling to just float around.

We could see houseboats of various sizes everywhere. Some of them were really huge, which could easily host a group of 20 people for a day. We were wondering if we should have taken a day ride instead of just 2 hours ride. But as we saw more and more houseboats, realized that many people were getting bored on the boat and ending up just watching TV!!

Some relaxing moments on the boat:

As we were returning, Meghana got a chance to capture this lone ranger!

After finishing the boat ride, we checked into our room at Abad Turtle Beach Resort. Evening was spent briefly on the beach, as clouds were closing in. We were sure Allepy would give us first showers of the season. It didn't rain that day, but we got it the very next day!

We had planned to stay only for a day here and then move to Kovalam - beach destination. But the way things unfolded next day, we ended up staying in Alleppy for rest of the trip!!

Alleppy-Kovalam was about 4 hours of journey, so we started around 10 hoping to be in Kovalam by 2 or so. As we were going towards Kovalam, our driver informed us that our resort in Kovalam is not really a beach resort and it's about 15 mins of walking distance, that too through some residential colony. This got us really irritated. Alleppy was a place known for backwaters and we were not given a resort with backwaters view. Look at this option, which we noticed during our boat ride:

And in Kovalam it wouldn't be a beach resort!!. (Check the location on google maps - here)

Meghana reached out to our tour operator and literally fired her for not doing the groundwork. We gave two options to the operator, either to transfer us to a resort which has a direct beach access or transfer us back to Alleppy Abad Turtle Beach Resort, which had direct beach access. She chose the other option and we returned back to Alleppy after a brief sight seeing on way back.

And this how Abad Turtle Beach Resort welcomed us back:) The room was absolutely next to the beach, we could see the beach, hear the sound of the waves and that calmness!! Beautiful!