Monday, May 3rd

Today, we drove through an area of India where the richer class of people live and saw many beautiful homes with gated entrances. The strange part is – right across the street or next door is a broken down shack. So, it’s nothing like what you normally see in the U.S. The finer homes are scattered among the lower class residences.

Our journey took us to Alleppey - the backwaters of India where we boarded a houseboat for the night. When the Arabian Sea rises – it fills the backwaters. There is always some level of water in these areas – it just increases and decreases with the sea levels (similar to the bayou’s of Louisiana).

The ride on the houseboat was unbelievable. The backwaters are located in the state of Kerala meaning (Kara = Coconut, La = Land). After seeing coconut trees – I will never look at palm trees the same way again. The coconut trees have longer broader leaves than palm trees and they are just exquisite. (Can you tell I like them?).

The meals on the houseboat were terrific too – delivered with much care for the presentation and taste. For lunch, we had king fish with lots of trimmings. For dinner – chicken. And for breakfast, eggs and toast with fruit.

When the sun finally went down - the misquitos came out in full force, so we retired to our room.  Sleeping on the boat was heaven.  The slow rocking motion completely lulled me to sleep.