OMG!!! Finally in India!!!!: ALLEPPEY

Our journey to Alleppey was one that we probably will never forget! We have been riding "public buses" all along so we weren't ready to take a REAL public bus, meaning the crowded ones people take to go to work, the ones that have no AC, where 3 people sit scrunched together, where you can barely get into the door because it is so crowded and nobody will move. It's like a 2nd class train just even worse. Haha

At the beginning of the journey we were really lucky to be at the beginning of the route so we got an empty bus but as we kept going more and more people got into the bus making it a little uncomfortable and overly crowded. Nonetheless the heat put many of us to sleep... Haha

Once we reached Alleppey we rode rickshaws to the homestay which happened to be across the river in the backwaters so we had to cross it in a little canoe.

Our driver

There we go...

This is my 3rd home stay and it was nothing like I expected it to be. Usually we go to a locals house and interact with the people from the village, help them out in their daily activity, and live the way they live. This time it was called a home stay but the family we stayed at rented rooms in their house, therefore calling it a home stay.

Thomas, the son/ brother, was our tour guide on a walk through the island.

It was incredible listening to his stories and learning how people from the island live. He took us to the rice fields which are watered with the backwaters. They created an irrigation system by opening channels from the river all the way down to the field, he explained that it's all natural and that the land naturally slopes down which makes it perfect for the water to run from the backwaters all the way down to the rice fields.

Aleisha trying to see if the mud is as good for her skin as Thomas said! Haha

A great panoramic! Haha

A very cute girl we found on a walk

Woman washing..

Walking to see the sunset... That had already set!

The walk was very informative about the backwaters and the way that people live out there, the views were beyond amazing and the sunset was just beautiful!

We ended the walk by going on a canoe ride and watching the colors of the sky change into beautiful shades of orange and listening to Thomas and the boat guys singing in Malayalam... It was just perfect!

Here's the group with Tk, our CEO

The next day some of us decided to go on an early boat ride through the backwaters. This might have been my favorite activity of the whole trip! It was beautiful! I loved seeing the daily routine of the people living in the backwaters, we saw many people taking baths, women doing dishes, people washing clothes, brushing teeth, kids walking to school etc.

Sunrise...

Sneaky guy getting a lift

People carry huge rocks in boats for construction

This man pushed the boat with rocks... No engine

These men amazed me! All of a sudden I see a head pop out of the water and it turned out to be a man working underwater!... with no equipment other than a bamboo stick!

These men hold their breath and go to the bottom to do whatever they need to do, no goggles, no oxygen tanks, no machines... Simply amazing!!! Did I mention that they are fully clothed?!?