Backwaters, seriously stunning

Me on our upper deck
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We arrived in Allepey from Munnar with the sole purpose of doing a backwater cruise, as it seems is nearly everybody els in the town.  Getting off the bus we teamed up with 3 Israelis and managed to get a room in a brand new homestay for 300Rs.  The massive room was made even better when we realised we had managed to bag the 'master' room at the front of the house, compltete with our own,private, ENORMOUS balcony!

The next day we spent shopping around the diferent houseboats on offer and decided thatif we could get another two people to share with us we would go with the homestay's double, if not we'd take a smaller one from town.  Luckily for us when we got back to the homestay two german guys had arrived and we decided between the four of us to take the suer duper boat for one, possibly two nights and split the cost.  So we got the double decker one for 7000Rs per couple, bargain! Included in this price is basically everything, except alcohol and pop, that you could eat or drink.  We had three crew on our boat too, a chef, a driver/captain, and the engine boy (who i think the older two just seemed to make do everything).

Some other houseboats - couldnt get a pic of ours coz we were on it!!
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We set off from Allepey on our third day there and after 4 hrs on the boat all our of us decided to take an extra day, it was just so good! We didnt do very much except eat the delicious food cooked for us, laze on the upstairs massive sunbed and sit downstairs trying our hands at fishing (we were unsuccesful, suprising as e were using sticks, string and raw dough from the kitchen!)

Anyway, the two days on the boat were great, we stayed up all night with the german boys (both 23 and still at uni), eating, drinking beers, watching the moon rise (i didnt know it actually rose, it just seems to appear there) and enjoying ourselves! We were so sad to leave but our money was seriously down after all the indulgence! Ended u staying another night at the homestay to recover fromn the lack of sleep on the boat before getting the train to Varkala.