11 Feb In India, Touring the backwaters of Alleppeny by bicycle

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.”
Helen keller

Saturday, January 31st, 2015

After my time in Chennai and now arriving to Kochi India, I felt that a break might be in order before I move onto a story I plan to tell just east of Kochi in Pathanadu India. So I booked a bicycle tour that begins a few blocks from my room here in Fort Kochi and heads out of the city to the backwaters of Alleppey. With much of beautiful Kochi bordering the Arabian Sea and with a small inlet that allows water from the sea to fill up miles of back channels and waterways, this area is a beautiful paradise of glassy smooth water. It is known for its old wooden boats that you can sleep on, think several hundred year old houseboats with extremely ornate woodwork. Dibin Devassy, at Art of Bicycle Trips did an amazing job of getting myself and two others around the beautiful Indian backwaters, boarding old handmade wooden boats with our bikes as we made our way through the backcountry of India. Perhaps the most memorable part was being invited into a a very sweet families little “coffee shop” located literally in the middle of nowhere. Their three children, Adheena, Sofia and Joseph absolutely redefine the meaning of the word beautiful!! In response to my learning to pronounce their childrens names nothing would do until I shared photographs of my family – Carol, Christina, Jacob, Marshall, Tessa, Matthew and Carissa and they had learned to say their names. The amazing backwaters of Alleppeny.