Kerala part 2: Kochi & Alappuzha

On the 6th day of our trip we were driving back to Kochi from Munnar. On our way we saw few locals extracting honey from a honeycomb which was on one of the many trees along the road. We requested them lend us some as we had never tasted pure honey straight out of the honeycomb. They were too sweet to give us alot of it. Our journey now was us licking honey whilst watching the evergreen landscape. We then stopped at the same place for having Sadhya where we had on the first day of our trip,which was the best and I have mentioned in my Munnar blog. The person serving us recognised us and seemed delighted that we visited them again. We reached our hotel in Kochi at around 4 in the evening and jumped right into the pool. The weather there was hot and humid quite similar to that in Mumbai. We were chilling in the pool for about an hour and a half then had some snacks and waited for mum's friend to come over. We then headed out for dinner near the Marine Drive. After dinner we went for a walk at the Marine Walkway. It is famous for evening strolls and night walks. It offers backwater views and cruises leave from jetties by the water. We were enjoying the cool breeze and the crescent moon. We went back to our hotel to get good sleep as it was a long day. Also we had interesting activity lined up for the next day. On the 7th day we headed out after breakfast from the hotel around 11 am for enjoying the most famous activity of Kerala i.e. boating in the backwaters. For that we drove to Alappuzha from Kochi. There we hired a huge boat for the 6 of us. We knew we were going to make the most of it. We hopped onto the boat excited for our new adventure. As we started the backwaters was narrow, there were a lot of shops, bus station, roads on either sides. After 20 to 30 minutes the landscape changes completely. Tall palms, paddy fields, salt pans, new hotels under construction, house boats, wider landscapes, children swimming at the edge. We then stopped at a small hotel there, where mostly every tourist boat is stopped for refreshments. There they had few snacks, tea, coffee, juices, coconut water. Near that hotel there were few trees which beared fruits looking like mango. The locals there told us that they were known as suicide mango. It is a specie native to India and other  parts of southern Asia. In earlier times, due to lack of awareness some tourist have eaten them which caused death. Now a days the locals make sure that they spread this information to as many people as possible so that everyone is safe. There were also purple mangoes which were alien to us. We also saw few ducks swimming nearby. It was a sunny, breezy day and also the presence of trees around us kept us cool which made our experience more joyful. After we were done, we went to a nearby restaurant to have lunch and explored around for a bit. It was 5 in the evening so we decided to go to the beach to watch the sunset. Watching sunsets is one of my most favourite things either by the beach or with a scenic view, it is always so calming. We went to the beach, had ice lollies, clicked few pictures, sat by the shore. Unfortunately it was a cloudy evening and we could not see the sun set but none the less we had a great time at the beach. While returning we had to cross a temple, there was a procession going on, everything was lit up and it was a beautiful sight. Due to which we got stuck in traffic but not complaining about it, it was an whole new experience watching the  procession. Later that night we went for dinner with mum's friend. After getting back to our hotel we packed all our belongings as we were to leave the next morning. We had one another mum's friend meeting us in the morning. We had breakfast together then left for the airport.