Allepey, Kerala, India (by the adults)

Hi everyone,
Last time we blogged, we were in Cochin. On Wednesday the 5th of March (it is March already!!!), we took an Uber to go a bit more south. We drove to Allepey (or Alappuzha since 2012) in the district of the same name in the state of Kerala (south India). The drive took us around 1 and half hour and during all this time, there were no interruption of houses on the road. The cities seem to never end, when one finish another one starts, but there is also a lot of trees and bits of nature as well, merge into it. It is hard to describe!
Allepey is know as the Venice of the Eastern world, because of its many canals, backwaters, lagoons and beaches.
We arrive to a lovely guesthouse with a room much bigger than the last one, which is nice and with AIRCON!!!! I try not to use aircon too much at home (back in Australia), but here it is very much appreciated as it is so hot and humid! We did our regular walk around, had a lovely lunch (in a vegetarian restaurant: I think I said it before, but I love how many vegetarian options there are!!!) and we had to buy Andrew some new shoes, as his were broken down. We are staying in a homestay, so there is a family living here with a 6-year-old boy. The kids have a friend to play with. It didn’t take long for them to play foosball, hide and seek and other games with him and to be invited to play cricket later in the afternoon when it is less hot (is it ever?!). We’ll go play cricket another day for sure (edit: we didn’t manage to find the time to do that.). This is one of the conversations we have the most here: when people found out we are from Australia, cricket!!! After that we went to the Alappuzha beach. I was a bit hesitant with the experience we have from beaches so far, but this one is good! It is massive to start with (1.5km) and relatively clean. We saw a few rubbish but not more that we would find in Australia (unfortunately, still too much). The kids had a ball playing on the sand and getting their feet (and legs and shirts) wet. This is a popular spot so there is a lot of people, but as the beach is big, it is not overcrowded. After that, it was dinner near the beach and back to the homestay for a movie night.
On the 6th of March, we went to visit the lighthouse of Allepey. It was build in 1860 and was the first of its kind in the Arabian sea coast of Kerala. With its red and white colours (it used to be white but got repainted red and white in 2000) and the well maintain garden at the bottom, it is a very pretty sight. Inside there is a wooden staircase with 105 steps which will take you to the top to enjoy view of the beach and the area around. I was surprised by how green it is around. From the top of the lighthouse, you can see construction everywhere but also lots of green. I am sure plenty of forest got destroy to build the cities, but coming from big city, I know it can be way worse, and it is nice to see so many trees around. The kids were delighted as we saw 2 trains passed while we were at the top.
After that, we had a quick snack made of samosa and other deep fried delicious things that I don’t know the name of!
In the afternoon, we went on a trip on the backwater. Tuktuk drive for 45 minutes to get away from the city. We arrived at someone’s house, Valentine, a very chatty and friendly individual who organised our afternoon. At the back of his house is a small canal with a long thin canoe and hop we go. No motor on that boat, just a nice fellow, named Mr Cullen, with his paddle. We went around the canals, some small one and some a bit bigger. It was nice floating on the water and looking for birds, especially the kingfisher. It was enjoyable being in nature, but there is always a couple of houses around. It is never completely in nature. But it was nice watching the lives along the river: women washing clothes or doing the dishes in the river, people taking their shower in the river as well, women with their beautiful, coloured saree (traditional Indian clothes) walking along the river to do their errands, groups of man chatting after their work day next to the river, just everyday lives here, a little bit different than ours.
Around 5pm, we meet with Valentine again for an afternoon snack on the side of the river, made of fried bananas, samosas, coffee and tea. After that, we are off again to a bigger part of the river until the sunset and into the night. It was a bit different floating on the river with very little light, but luckily there are no crocodiles in that part of India (I asked), so it was pretty safe! Around 8pm, we got back to Valentine’s house for a homecooked dinner made of grilled fish, rice, a lot of different sauces and little side dishes, bananas and delicious pineapple, and even a few chips for the kids! We were very full by the end. Tuktuk back to our homestay and we were exhausted, despite doing nothing but sitting on a boat all day, so quick to bed!!
The next day, we spent some time doing school work: the kids wrote their blog and did some research on things for the day before. We saw a lot of rice field and we even stopped to look at the rice grain, so Andrew did some research about how rice grow and the type of rice that grows in this area and Emma did some research on the birds of the area that we might have seen during our boat trip.
After the hard work, the fun part. We went to a small park with a small zipline, pedal boat, rope bridge. The funny thing is Kev and I weren’t super impressed by it, as it is not super well kept and relatively small, but the kids loved it. I have to remember to keep my child eyes on a bit more often. Andrew as usual loved the zipline. Emma is still not ready to do it. I think she is like me and height is not her friend. But she is learning to push herself a little bit every time. She started the rope bridge and did the first obstacle and that was enough for her. But we are very proud of her for it.
After that, we promised the kids that we could go back to the beach and they could get as dirty as they wish! And they did. Water, sand and waves, is all they need to have fun. We spent a couple of hours watching them play in the waves. After that back to the homestay for a clean and back out again for dinner. It was a relax day, but we need those sometime!
The next day was museum day (we haven’t had one for a while 😊). We visited the Revi Karunakaran Memorial Museum. This is a private museum with an amazing private collection. Revi Karunakaran, died in 2003 (I think) and his wife decided to create a museum in his honour to display the art and antiques that her husband (and his father and grand father before him) collected. The collection is insane: it covers antiques furniture, artwork from all over the world, crystal piece of art (a lot of Swarovski), jade pieces, painting, porcelain, sculptures… and many more!! I unfortunately have not photo, as it was forbidden to take any. What surprised me is that we visit museums often, and none of the public museum we saw, have been that well kept and abundant. This is things you can do when you have money…
After that, we went to the coir museum. What is coir you might ask? I didn’t know either. Coir, also known as coconut fibre, is a natural, coarse fibre extracted from the outer husk of coconuts, used for various applications like mats, ropes, brushes, and mattresses. I had no idea that this was used! This is a big trade in this area, hence why the museum is here. The museum explains the different way to extract it (traditional and more modern) and how it is transformed into thread and then into products. It was super interesting, especially the room with around 15 to 20 looms and other machines (to do door mat for example). We really enjoyed ourselves in this museum.
Dinner in the evening was lovely except for the mosquitos. This is one of the things here which I struggle the most with, and the heat of course!!! But anyway, we are getting better at knowing what we like and to eat with our hands without making too much of a mess!
The next day and our last full day here, we went to the Kumarakom bird sanctuary. Andrew saw that when he did some research and as he loves watching animal, he asked to go there. So we went. It was a bit underwhelming. To get there, we took one tuktuk, then a ferry, then another tuktuk. At the entrance was a map of the park, where we saw written “otter watch”: the kids got super excited as they looooove otters! We start walking the trail, trying to spot birds (as it is a bird sanctuary), which was a bit hard, but I was hopeful as there was 3 watch tours on the map. We got to the first one, on the other side of the small river we were following with no access to it. Great, we keep walking to the second one. One the way, we spot of few fish and turtle in the river, and a fair bit of rubbish too. The second tower came into view and yes, we can reach, but there is a sign on it saying, “under maintenance”. Okay… That’s ok, we keep going to the 3rd one, yes, this one we can reach and climb on! We manage to see a fair few painted storks from it, but not much else. While walking the trail, we were trying to see how to get to the “Otter watch” area… not accessible from the park…. Very disappointed. Why put something on the map that you can’t access!!! After a few hours of walking and trying to spot wildlife, we get hungry. After lunch, we decide to rent a boat to go on the other side of the park on the lake side to try to spot some otters. We had to convince the driver of our boat to go that way, as normally he takes people on the river way to see canals (but we already did that a few days ago). After a bit of chatting he took us toward the lake. We manage to see more birds than in the park! But unfortunately, we didn’t spot otters. But it was still nice as we got to see some wildlife and enjoy a boat ride! Tuktuk, ferry and tuktuk back to our homestay for a rest before heading out for dinner.
Today is packing day again. Tonight we will take our first night train to go to Mysore. I am a bit apprehensive as we never took a train here, even less a night train. I am not quite sure what to expect. We have to leave our room, but we are allowed to stay in the homestay, so we don’t have to look for a place to stay with our bags all day. That is great. We are going to spend time doing school work and blog. I’ll let you know on my next blog how was the train!
Mel

5.3.2025. Finished packing and hoped in the taxi Mel organised. Hour and a half later and we're in Allepey, think that's how it's spelt. We checked in to our guesthouse and are shown to our room. Well not our, the room next to it. Our room is getting a new toilet, so we're spending one night in this room then switching tomorrow. Anyway, whatever, we'll just not unpack too much. We need lunch, so we're off in search of sustenance. Found an ATM, holy crap the first one we tried worked (we've had our troubles with ATMs). Walked for a bit in the direction the guesthouse owner said and found a vegetarian restaurant. Good food and a coffee, that's me sorted. Andrew's Aussie thongs keep blowing out, so we have a new mission. Find our little bloke some new foot falcons. Tried one shop, no luck, but they pointed me in the right direction. Walked for a bit, that's what you do when you’re traveling, walk. Found the appropriate shop, found the appropriate footwear, Andrew sorted. On the way back to the guesthouse we dropped into a small supermarket and grabbed some supplies, water and breakfast nibblies (plus some lollies). We had a chat and organised a trip for tomorrow afternoon with the owner. We decided to have a walk down to the beach. Much nicer than anything you will find in Kochi, way cleaner for a start. We stayed there for a bit, and watched the sun go down. Found a restaurant near the beach, had some good food and tried another Indian beer (Kingfisher, but different type). Back to the guesthouse, shower, movie, bed.
6.3.2025. Had some of our breakfast nibblies and set off for a lighthouse. 32m high and we got to climb all the way to the tippity top to have a look around. There's also a little museum with some old school ways they used to light it up. Including LPG, petrol and lots of big bulbs. They stopped the bulbs pretty quick as it was very expensive. Found some snacks on the side of the road on our way back. Now waiting for our afternoon trip. Picked up by a Tuktuk and set off to our destination. A small village away from the city, surrounded by rice fields. We met up with the owner of a homestay, Valentine and his boat paddler Mr Cullen. Quick introduction, hop in the big canoe and Mr Cullen paddled us around the backwaters. We were off, starting in a small canal? I guess you would call it a canal. As we travelled further, the canal began to open up, getting bigger as we went. We hit some river plants that blocked off the whole canal. Mr Cullen was having trouble paddling, so he handed up a smaller paddle and asked the kids to “push” river plants away from boat. The kids relished this, they love helping and being involved, especially something new. We cruised along, looking at birds and whatever else we could see. We saw Kingfisher’s, some kind of woodpecker, lily walkers and egrets. We saw rubbish, lots of it floating in the canals (nowhere near as much as in the city). We saw that there are no natural sides to the canals, maybe there never was idk. It's completely lined with rock and concrete. After floating for a couple hours, we made a stop at the bank of a church. Where we met up with Valentine, he had brought us some fried bananas and samosa, tea and coffee. After a bit of a chat we were off again. We travelled further, into bigger channels. Almost saw the sunset, clouds got in the way. OffWatched a guy climb a coconut tree so easily, collecting coconuts for what they call “toddy”, a sort of coconut wine. Apparently it's sweet and refreshing as is, they also ferment it to give it some kick. We finished back at the homestay, where Valentine had prepared a tasty dinner for us. Tuktuk back to our room and bed, cause its late.
7.3.2025. Had a late start as we had a late finish last night. Did some school work, blogging and laundry. Kids prepared and delivered a presentation on some research they were asked to do involving India. Andrew was asked to research rice types and how long it takes to grow. Emma was asked to research birds of India. Both delivered a great presentation, Emma's written and Andrew's a slideshow on his computer.
After that we headed out for some lunch and adventure. We ate, then walked to… Seaview Park! Kerala's only adventure park apparently. Zipline, paddle boat, suspension rope walk stuff, kayak, swing and some dodgy looking playground stuff. They both did the cable car. We all did the paddle boat. Then it was time to zipline! Andrew has no hesitation in regards to ziplining. Emma however, still did not want to do it. Which is a shame because we're sure she'd love it, just taking that first step off a secure platform is scary. Next was the suspension rope stuff, two layers of equipment and you start from the top. Andrew blitzed through it (Andrew slow down you only get to do it once so enjoy), Emma was more hesitant. The first obstacle was a series of steps hung from ropes around 10m above the water. Even though your harnessed up and clipped on, it was still a lot for Em. She got 4 steps out and frozen a bit. Took a lot of encouragement to go 2 more steps, then froze again. Poor little lady, I feel for her. Mel got harnessed up and went up to help, which was a big thing because Mel don't do heights and was almost brown trouser time. With mum's help Emma got to the other side of the first bit. Had a look at the next bit and said, NOPE! Worked her way back across the first bit and came down. A bit upset and pretty sweaty, I gave her a hug and told Emma I was proud of her. I don't have a fear of heights, I can't imagine what it's like, but I know she took a big step today. Not in conquering her fear, just not letting it control her so much. Had a go on a two person swing after that, getting pushed by a bloke that works there. Emma had no problem with that, even though the kids were getting swung out over the water pretty high up. I think it's because Emma had something solid under her. Kids seemed to have fun, but to me the park was kinda lame. We left the park and wandered back along the beach road. We had decided to let the kids play in the ocean as much as they wanted today, regardless of how grotty they got. Man did they get grotty, sand everywhere. We took the swimsuits but there was nowhere to change, so in they went in the clothes they're wearing. After a couple hours and a bit of a chat with one of the local lifeguards, it was time to take the wet rats home and try to clean them. Hosed down in the front yard before allowed inside, then straight to the shower. Rested a bit before heading out for dinner. There is no way we could afford to eat out twice a day in Australia, be broke as a joke. Had a couple more Kingfisher Strong Malt beer, my favourite so far. The adventure continues tomorrow.
8.3.2025. Visited a couple museums today. First one is a private collection, accumulated through three generations of the same family. They made their money through exporting coir products. Coir is what they call coconut husk here. They separate it, spin it and then weave it or use it in looms. This museum had nothing to do with coconuts, just a huge collection of antiques, paintings and artwork from around the world that this family had acquired over the years. Amazing what you can do with money. The next museum was a museum about, don't spill your drinks, coir making and it's history!! We learnt about how it first was made and the advancements made in the technology through the many years. Was interesting to see how they made improvements to the process. I watched the kids as they checked out the machines, trying to understand them and tell me how they thought they worked. I have pretty cluey kids, sometimes. We wandered around the museum, stepped through a door and we're in a huge room with 15-20 looms and other equipment. We had a look around, quickly working out that they were all still in use. We assume nobody was there working because it was Saturday. We weren't sure we were supposed to be in there, but we were gonna check everything out we could before we got kicked out. Nobody came to get us, pretty sure they didn't really care where we went in the place. Safety is not a top priority here, WHS would lose their shit. We found a small house inside that was pretty much made from coconut. Pressed husk makes boards for walls. Husk in bedding and pillows. Think that's enough about coconuts today. Back to our room, aircon on and relaxing. Dinner later, another day done, that's it.
9.3.2025. Today we got up a bit earlier and made our way to Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary. Rode a Tuktuk to a ferry terminal, then ferried across the lake to the sanctuary. Payed our fee and off we went. We could hear birds, spotting them was another matter. They have three watch towers, only one is accessible towards the end of the walk. Went up it and saw some nesting storks. We made our way back to the entrance. It was nice and the kids had fun, but, we saw bugger all. For a “sanctuary”, it was not maintained great and there's lots of rubbish. We walked across the street and had a nice lunch. I'm really starting to like chicken biryani. We went back to the sanctuary as we had seen they do boat rides as well. Hopped into a boat and set off. We had a look around the lake and saw so many birds. We were hoping to maybe see some Otters, but that didn't happen. The guide pointed out lots of different birds for us, answered our questions and generally made it a nice ride. After the boat trip, we made our way back to the ferry and waited to board. Back at the room, shower time then head out for dinner.
10.3.2025. Packing day, yay. Blogging day, yay! We have to check out at 10-11 and our train isn't until 7:30 tonight so we weren't sure what we were gonna do all day. We talked to the guesthouse owner, who said we can leave our bags here during the day and he'd be ok with us staying in another room. So hopefully that sorts that problem. Working out what to do all day with all your bags. More to be written later.
KevRead more