How nice, a bit of a lie in. After a delicious breakfast we were collected and driven about an hour and a half from Kochi to the jetty at Alleppey to board a houseboat for a cruise and overnight stay.

Houseboat cruising has become a big tourist attraction in the area where there is a very large inland lake leading to a mass of channels of decreasing size. The houseboats are kettuvallam rice boats that have been converted as houseboats and are very comfortably appointed and come with a crew of three; ours looked very similar to this.

Once you are on board there is absolutely nothing to do, I cannot ever remember a period of time spent doing so little! The views are constantly changing as you look forward past the helmsman

and then periodically you are brought delicious food cooked on board

all the time the views are changing

later in the day we stopped here to buy beer for me to have with my supper.

All in all it was the life of the mythical lotus eater. But, and it’s a big but, for a northern European at this time of year it’s just too darned hot. On water the humidity was so high and the outside temperature was more than I could cope with. By late afternoon I was feeling quite I’ll and was very happy when the sun set

and the air conditioning came on in our cabin. After another delicious meal we headed to bed where I slept under a mosquito net for the first time in my life. The only trouble was it was only eight fifteen in the evening, a long night was ahead.

19 March 2015