India: A land of astonishing beauty but terrible organisation

Monday February 4

It is absolutely picture perfect.

The uninitiated dismiss India as a wholly dirty and dusty country - lazily lumping it together with every desert a long way from home.

But Kerala's backwaters are truly beautiful and an absolute must visit on any trip to southern India.

Although our boat ride was brilliant the journey was far from smooth. When you are finished reading look at the next post on just how badly organised it was.

Beautiful Kerala: Our view on the backwater boat cruise

Cruise: We travelled down the Muthuvappa river - one of 44 separate rivers and canals in Kerala

A mazy network of 44 rivers and canals runs through the southern province.

We started our journey at Vaikom, in Kottayam district on the Muthuvappa river. Our 60ft narrow boat was gently propelled down the river by two men dragging us forward with bamboo sticks.

This man pulled the boat along with a giant bamboo stick which went right down to the bottom of the water. At the back of the 60ft boat there was another man doing the same thing

One of them was at the front and the other at the back. They stuck to the shallow edges so they could poke the stick right down to the bottom of the calm waters and drag us forward.

We visited a tiny village by the water where the locals live in the most primitive conditions. Although there is the occasional electric light, it was otherwise like being transported back 200 years.

There is a nearby doctor offering basic care and these people never venture too far away - they are truly stuck in a time warp. Even the nearby towns - relatively undeveloped by western standards - must be wholly alien to them.

Primitive: A small community who live along the river banks. Their living conditions were so primitive it was like being transported back 200 years

A fisherman

The people work with their hands making the most of what the lush landscape has to offer them. For example, coconut shells are soaked for nine months before the thin twine is rolled together into a thread called coir. It is a painfully slow and very labour intensive process.

This can then be used to make door mats, brushes, mattresses and furniture.

We have the noise, the dirt and the smells of India's biggest cities to come. But this is a perfect introduction to India.

Me on the boat. There was a picture of me and Kelly-Ann on the boat together but she vetoed it