From Fort Kochi, it was a half hour rickshaw ride to Ernakulam railway station, before a 90 minute train ride to the Backwaters in Allepey. We left before the sun came up, and was on our 15 rupee train by around 8am. It was a smooth journey, and comfortable enough for me to go to sleep (sleeping anywhere is a skill of mine, so don't think this means it was luxurious!) for an hour of it.
A very busy Ernakulam station
Tickets please! One way ticket for the 4 of us to Alappuzha (Allepey)
Our first time on a train in India, realising that there are no doors and people just hop on & off whenever!
Nap time for me while Marta and Helena get into some reading
Once we got to Alappuzha station, we took a rickshaw to the local ferry that goes along the backwaters. Usually to do a backwaters tour it would be at least 700 rupees for half a day on the water, or much more to stay a night in a houseboat. While this sounds lovely, I had heard mixed reviews on the experience (as talked about in a previous post) and we are also on quite a tight budget, we decided to take a 15 rupee local taxi boat that goes down the same canals and lasted two and a half hours.
So it wasn't as pretty as the tourist boat... but you're there to look out anyway, right? ;)
A wider section of the canal, lined wth palm trees
A lady stopped to chat with friends
House boats are available to rent out, if you want to spend a few days on the backwaters
Customers hopping on and off
Beautiful flowers and plants floating on top of the water
We hit one spot where the water was overun with plants, and so many great egret birds
Of course, the boat was nowhere nice as the tourist boats. We passed a few and they were beautfiful dark varnished wooden boats, with a maximum of ten seats on board, and they looked really nice... but sometimes the budget just has to dictate! I think that half a day would also be a little too long, we were ready to head back after an hour on the waters (Helena even fell to sleep in the boat!), so I think a whole afternoon would have really dragged on. It was a nice boat right, but I wouldn't say that it was really up there on the "Top things to do in India" list.
After the boat ride we made our way to the train station (It was a one-way cruise so we were much further away now) and got out ticket back to Ernakulam. We wanted to head to Varkala to check out the beach (this one is actually meant to be nice!), but sadly we didn't have time. We finally got on our train back, after asking three members of station staff that each told us different times and platforms, and enjoyed the view out the window of the sun setting on Kerela.
Pretty much no health and safety on trains, as expected!
The train home was a sleeper train, so the top bunk was much comfier!