Boating in Alleppey

When I woke up, I found myself in the middle of a large open space with nobody else around. It was rather disconcerting, but thankfully there was Pavel just beginning to stir on top of his dinner tables bed. He looked like a King with his politician cap on.

<- King Pavel

We went to the private beach once again as Pavel wanted to take a dip. It was a big moment in his life, as he was swimming in the Arabian Sea for the first time. After getting ready and having breakfast, we met the rest of the gang who were in the process of deciding the next course of action. Some just wanted to laze around in the resort, while Vidya, Leena and few others wanted to go for a boat ride. I joined the boating group, and we went back to the backwaters where we were yesterday. After some negotiating, we agreed upon a price with one of the guys who owned a boat. It was a large boat, but without any shade to offer to its passengers. Nevertheless, it was a good ride in deep waters till about halfway to the mouth of the sea.

On the way back, Vidya and Leena made up their minds to have a dip right there. Once these ladies decide on something, its no mean task to make them change their minds. The boatman and his buddies had a tough time convincing them to hold back their swimming plans. Once the boat was close to one of the islands, Vidya and Leena just jumped off the side.

They were soon joined by Dilip and Tanya. Now this was too much temptation for me to handle! So I took off my shoes, gave my wallet and camera to Pavel, stood on the side of the boat, and made an immaculate dive into the cold water (at least it was immaculate in my mind!!).

The knight in shining water ->

But swimming with my jeans in the salty water took a Herculean effort, and I soon got back into the boat to dry. Once everyone was on board again, we started our return journey. This time Vidya and Leena had a tough time keeping the boatman and his buddies off of them :D

On the way back, Rex took all of us in multiple batches to a small toddy shop for lunch. It was an extremely sidey looking place filled with drunken shady men, but the food... that was something else! I tried various types of meat from fish, prawns & squid to chicken, pork & beef, and everything they brought to the table was delicious.

I don't remember much of the rest of the trip, except that we stopped somewhere for dinner, and reached Bangalore early on Sunday morning, for yet another boring day at the office :(