Kumarakom - In The Kerala Backwaters

And a Bird Sanctuary with No Birds (it was the wrong time of year)

Sightseeing

The beach at Anhakarahazi. Gives new meaning to the word "dump"

A toddy shop. Kerala State is very anti-alcohol so it's very hard to find but a local hooch made from the sap of palm trees is sold in joints called Toddy shops. Almost entirely male the one we visited had secret cubicles and they brought the toddy in a 1 litre clay jug. It's about 10-12 % but tastes pretty revolting, obviously. A jug of the hooch plus a fried fish and rice is less than 500 rupees or a fiver.

The government ferry from Muhamma to Kumarakom. 8 rupees each I think for 30 minutes ferry ride.

The official Kerala State beverage shop in town because the hotel was dry. Long lines of Indian gentlemen in crash helmets queuing for their quarter and half bottles of scotch.

A guided boat trip round the small backwaters by the man from the Bird Sanctuary because he said there were no birds in the sanctuary at this time of year. There were however tons of birds in the little backwaters

The Driftwood Museum - the quirkiest museum ever with a personal guided tour of every piece of petrified wood "recovered" from the sea around the Andaman Islands. It's not permitted nowadays to take these precious natural items away.

An Indian Wedding at our hotel staged on barges in the lake and accompanied by extra loud music. Amusingly this clashed with the hotel's flute player so we were getting both at the same time but he kept going until one of the clientele complained then the staff told him to leave.

Another boat trip by a friend of our auto driver who took us past loads of Kerala Houseboats of all shapes and sizes as well as seeing the birdlife which is stunning.

Some wildlfe in the hotel a grey musk shrew in the atrium pond and the little palm squirrels running all over the roofs

Kottayam station to catch the train to Coimbatore

We stayed in Rythym Kumarakom

A lakeside resort with the longest swimming pool in India. We had a nice poolside chalet with sitting room and outdoor style shower room very spacious. Food slightly underwhelming and NO BOOZE to be had. On the Saturday night the hotel were hosting this Indian Wedding so all the cooks were busy and there was no buffet dinner for the likes of us. We got basically a Tesco takeaway job. Not impressed.

Funny story the auto driver from the ferry took us to the wrong hotel which was a super-luxe place. they gave us garlands, whisked away our luggage, hot towels, marked our foreheads and handed us a coconut with a straw. Then they found out we weren't booked in there but at a place down the road at a third of the price. But they were very nice about it of course!