All the way to Alleppey

For one night!

Alleppey, further south along the Keralan coast, is another way to enter the backwaters and, as I discovered, not much else for tourists. After leaving pretty Fort Cochin with its rich sense of culture, my expectations were high and Alleppey, for me, not quite cut the mustard.

I needed to strap a sandwich board onto me saying "no houseboats, thank you!" as Alleppey is a place where flocks of people, many holidaying from other parts of India, come to take a houseboat along the backwaters. For a cost!

The houseboats, which fabulous air conditioned bedrooms and luxurious dining and communal areas, sail along the backwaters and cost a minimum of Rs 15,000 for one night, about 200 pound sterling. Glorious, but not on my backpacking budget!

With the French girls, I took a quaint and much cheaper boat through the backwaters once again - and they hadn't lost their charm.

However, the great highlight of Alleppey was our serendipitous invitation to eat at a local wedding reception. Earlier that day, by chance we wandered up to a modest Hindu temple nearby our friendly hotel. First of all we were invited into a room to hear a singing practise. India girls have a very unique, almost shrill tone, to their singing voices and we were spellbound by the music they produced, serenaded by just an old and battered accordion.

We then stumbled across a small, local Hindu wedding. Not quite knowing what to do with ourselves, even though we had been invited into the temple, we were eventually beckoned over by some of the wedding guests, who insisted we go inside and eat. We were hesitant but they insisted we try the food and celebrate with them. We were led to a lofty room, adorned with many chairs and tables in long lines. Paper imitations of the traditional banana leaf were laid out in front of us. The men dished up a feast (it is surprising in India how male-dominated the restaurants and food outlets are) of many different parts, including fried banana and hot, fresh chillies. They crowded round as we tucked into this unexpected meal with just our right hand. In India, the left hand is seen to be impure and therefore it is proper to eat with the right hand - a task I find difficult being an avid lefty!

The food was delicious - and deliciously messy! I ate every last thing I could pick up, despite having a big breakfast. After chatting with the wedding guests, and seeing the bride taken off to her new home with the groom's family, we went outside to face the midday sun - feeling very lucky to have been gifted this experience.