1854 KM
We missed the boat to Kuttanad, we did not get Toddy, we had hard time to back up our photos and now we are waiting for our bike to be delivered after a service. Why to waste time, let me start writing about our experience earlier this morning.
On the way back from Punnamada, we stopped at a tea shop and could able to gather some information about this place with sipping that authentic kerala style black tea. One of the local private boat operator helped us with lot of information about private boats. I guess more over he was marketing for a ride. Private boat two hour visit would cost you something like bellow.
Off Season Time : (2 Hour)
1-6 PAX - INR 500/-
1-10 PAX - INR 750/-
Tourist Season Time : (2 Hour)
1-6 PAX - INR 1500/-
1-10 PAX - INR 2000/-
Though the boat person was busy with his marketing strategy, I would really thank him for the other information about this place, he shared.The village area consists of some of the major villages like Kainakary, Ramankary, Nedumudi, Kaipuzha, Chennamkary etc. and the entire region is called Kuttanad. It's the region with the lowest altitude in India and one of the few places in the world where farming is carried out below sea level. It is the major rice granary of Kerala, where vast stretches paddy fields are interlaced with enchanting backwaters to create some of the spectacular sights. Four major rivers in Kerala Pampa, Meenachil, Achankovil and Manimala joins the backwater.
We started heading towards the home stay and suddenly Santhosh noticed a government ferry boat on the other side of the river. We just rushed to the other side and started gathering information about the ferry boat. Lizy, a college girl helped us with all the information about exploring Alleppey with spending less money. Soon we parked out vehicle at a paid parking area and started towards the boat station. On the way we just got held up by a private boat broker and missed the boat to Kuttanad, may be by 2 minutes.
The next boat to Kuttanad was at 10.45 AM. We quickly decided to fix up the impact of last day crash followed by a quick service. We reached the Royal Enfield Show Room and found it as closed. I checked the date on my watch, asked few people about any festival today and got to know the show room opening time is 9 AM. We were quite hungry and figured out a place for breakfast near to the show room. First time Puttu and Idiappam satisfied our stomach well, though the curry was not that impressive. At the Royal Enfield show room, while the store keeper was struggling to find the RE 500 Classic Break Lever from his store database, one of the technician helped her to find the lever from the store rack. It was that moment which made us so happy today.
Bike was at service center and we both started exploring the place by walk, actually looking for fresh Toddy. It was me "Santhosh!!! white board and black letter", for which Santhosh replied, "Sala woh doctor ka board he be" (Santhosh!! it's white board and black letters. Dude it's doctor's board). Most of the toddy shop in Kerala would be we with this convention, "White Board, with Black Letter". Since we are "Malayalam uneducated", this is how we were finding the toddy shops. Sometime it was doctor's board and sometime lawyer's. Out of all those guessing, some how we found a Toddy Shop. But we could not manage to get fresh toddy, as only after 11 AM in the morning and 7 PM in the evening fresh toddy would be supplied to the shop.
Looking at the available time, we backed up our photos in my smart phone, as we struggled a lot with both of our pen drives. As both of us are Linux junkies, a Windows XP machine didn't go well with us. We spent some time collecting some of the tools for the bike from the local market and came to the showroom. The servicing is almost finished and it will take another 15 minutes to finish all paper work. We still have time to catch the boat to Kuttnad, but we also need to collect our luggage from the home stay. Hope we can make it today.
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| Robot at RE showroom |
We just reached Maraikkulam beach and met Josheph. Joseph is a resident of here and his house is just in front of the beach. With his moral support, we put the tent over here. Though it is quite windy outside, I think we did a mistake by putting the tent.
Earlier today right after collecting the bike from show room, we reached the home stay. The room fragrance was it's best by that time, when we vacated the room. Luckily the owner of the home stay did not ask anything in the room, I guess he was drunk and could not able to smell that. We were lucky, we did not have to pay anything extra for last night's blast.
One bad thing had happened with us, because of which we had very less time to catch the ferry to Kuttanad. The same pay and parking which allowed us in the morning denied us saying, it's only for four wheeler. Some people suggested us to park the vehicle out side towards the end, but we never wanted to leave the vehicle out side with all our luggage. Hoping to get a parking place at another pay and park, we headed towards the other side of the river. It was the same story there even, but somehow we managed to get a cozy place near to the gate.
After that wonderful boat ride, we headed towards the boat station and took one of the boat to return Alleppey. It was evening where we could able to capture some of the sunset moments with backwater. After a warm see off from Nitin and Mataxia, we got down at a ferry station near to the pay and park. The motorcycle was safe and luggage was untouched, but we struggled a lot to take our motorcycle out from that cozy place. With some local finding and confusion, we somehow found the beach road. One thing I understood with all those confusions, that people in Kerala are confused about directions. So it's good to follow their hand signals rather than what they say. For them both left and right are some time only right and they even count the curves with directions, while guiding some one. And never think their circle could be something very big, most of the time it used to be a small junction for us.
In the morning we had bad luck with Toddy, but in the evening we were able to find a Toddy Shop on the way to Mararikkulam. While we were drinking Toddy, local people stared chatting with us and were very impressed with our travel experience. It was so good that some one offered us another glass of toddy, while we were planing to end up. But we denied and started towards the beach after a good bye from them. After spotting the place safe to spend the night, we went to a local hotel and finished our dinner.
Not sure how we are going to sleep inside the tent. It's warm and very humid. Our tent is not allowing any air to get in. Myself and Santhosh are sweating a lot. Hope we can sleep tonight.
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