Just over a canal at the Alappuzha central ferry station were lines and lines of houseboats - now floating hotels - as well as small engine cruisers designed for tourists, and at times on our route I watched the wealthy foreigners sunbathing on board, all oily and pink and blubbery, booze and waiter at hand. Their tickets cost thousands of rupees.
At 3pm there was a public ferry, much like a water bus, that picked up the locals and took them home after a day's shopping or visiting friends and family, doing business or running errands. Grandparents and mothers accompanied excited kids. That didn't surprise me at all because the number 7 bus to Tonbridge used to excite me and this was way better.
The ticket I bought cost 13 rupees (18 US cents) and would drop me off in a village at the very end of the line after an hour and three quarters on the water. It was a blissful journey spent puttering across the lake, up and down small and large rivers, putting people down and picking more up, and I got the feeling that the boats ran almost always on time, passengers waiting patiently on land while coconut palms fanned a breeze rustling rice paddis and wheat fields at the end of the spring season.
At 3pm there was a public ferry, much like a water bus, that picked up the locals and took them home after a day's shopping or visiting friends and family, doing business or running errands. Grandparents and mothers accompanied excited kids. That didn't surprise me at all because the number 7 bus to Tonbridge used to excite me and this was way better.
The ticket I bought cost 13 rupees (18 US cents) and would drop me off in a village at the very end of the line after an hour and three quarters on the water. It was a blissful journey spent puttering across the lake, up and down small and large rivers, putting people down and picking more up, and I got the feeling that the boats ran almost always on time, passengers waiting patiently on land while coconut palms fanned a breeze rustling rice paddis and wheat fields at the end of the spring season.