Alleppey was our first stop of the trip with a beach you could swim in (although that’s up for debate according to TripAdvisor) however the main reason we stayed here was to access the backwaters of Kerala. We considered staying on a house boat but instead opted for a canoeeing tour because it was much cheaper. This turned out to be a good decision because our canoe paddler/driver could take us down lots of different small channels that wove in and out the the communities.
Most of the people that lived there either farmed rice or were involved in tourism (i.e. working on a houseboat) however most of the rice fields were still flooded after a major storm in 2018 broke many of the banks. Despite this our host asured us that everyone was happy and ‘life is good’ on the backwaters. Rebuilding the banks was still in progress which has created many temporary jobs. This has apparently been primarily funded by Germany.
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