Alleppey to Munnar (December 18-20)

Just a quick flip through the next 2 days in Alleppey...

We had heard about Amma, "The Hugging Mother", and wondered if we could see her at the ashram in Amritapuri, south of Alleppey. Ralph was supposed to go with a guy he met at the beach; but Faisal warned him to avoid that guy, so Ralph went with us instead.

It was a long trip, we had 2 bus changes.

When we arrived, two Americans pushing a cart of trash bins gave us directions. We told them we are only there for the day, and they said they thought they would only be there for a day and ended up staying for years... meanwhile, I was thinking, "shoot, I didn't bring extra clothes."

Ashram temple.

Alleppey (December 16)

We didn't want to bother looking for places to stay when we arrived in Alleppey that afternoon so this time we went straight to the place recommended by Ramee from Bamboo House in Cochin. 

Faisal's guest house was ok, and just in front of a beach that was surprisingly clean. Nobody talks about the beach scene in Alleppey so we were happy to have a quiet place, not too many tourists wandering about. They were all at the backwaters after all :)

There were a couple of people there already. One of them was Bonnie, who heard us asking about toddy. She showed us around the market area and then took us to the toddy shop and the alcohol store. We wanted to hide the bottles of beer, rhum and toddy that we had. We didn't have a lot, but still we wanted to be discreet. The store gave us this box... Not sure it was a better alternative.