Houseboats for Rent

We have traveled 1.5 hours south of Cochin to Alleppey ,or Alappuzha in the local dialect (Malayalam, actually, a completely different language to anything else in India). Alleppey is well known for its backwaters, and much of its tourism is centered around backwater tours in which tourist rent out large converted rice barge's and travel around some of the 600 km's of backwaters around Allepey. The numbers of these houseboats has risen dramatically over the last 2 years and it is guessed that 350 new houseboats have entered the scene in the last 2 years.

We have met up with a guy we met on coushsurfing here and stayed a few night at his house. Manu rents an old ancestral home and has a volleyball net in his backyard which attracts all the local lads there in the afternoon. He's developing an 'eco resort' here and also has an interest in purchasing a houseboat. We spent a few hours 'tyre kicking' one such boat on the lake here - he feels the market for houseboats is still good?

Sadly, after a night at Manu's drinking beer, playing bongos and twirling those balls on material (common in Byron, I'm told) with some girls from Turkey, I (scott) have come down with some sort of feeling really sick, sort of sickness...I won't go into it. It col be giardia, or malaria, or...?????????????

We have moved to thatched cottage 3 meters from the water in a small 5 room 'resort' (resort meaning in India - no hot water and no pool necessarily). It's a great place and the family who run it are great. They cook us Kerallan dishes every night as we watch the peak hour backwater boats go back into Alleppey after their 24 hour cruises. We know the boats hired by Indian tourists, because they are the ones which take pictures of us as we rad in our deck-chairs - flashes and pointed fingers and everything.

Thanks Colin and Leah for your comments. Can' wait to see you Uncle in 12 days - sorry about the 2nd teast old chap - you can never write the old Aussies off!

Cheers

scott