The bus ride to Alleppey wasn’t so much the adventure I had expected it to be. Two busses from here in Cochin saw me there in 2 hours. And then about the cheapest and nicest breakfast I’d had in a while at the bus station in Alleppey. 
The reason for such an early start was to be able to do a bit of recognisance so that I could find a good spot to watch the Nehru Cup Race on Saturday. Not only did I manage that but also I managed to have a particularly enlightening and enjoyable day. A lot of things happened which would take too much time to write about but there are a couple of things to tell.
I soon found the finishing point of the race where some large stands have been erected. I followed the race route back to the start and it was there that a guy had just parked his motorbike. I got chatting to him and found out that he was an army officer going to his home about half a km behind the starting point. He invited me to go with him and without much to do till I would have to leave and return to Cochin, I accepted. To cut a long story short his home was only a little distance from the training camp of one of the racing crews and I had some lunch with them. Not exactly small crews here; about 115 men per boat.
After that I was taken back to the starting point in a perilously small wooden canoe, a decision made in a moment of madness. Couldn’t help worrying about my cameras, no problem getting to the side. Then I watched some of the crews doing practice runs and the antics going on amongst all the other craft that were cruising up and down the backwaters. It was all pretty noisy but quite a scene and there was even a floating car promotion accompanied by a bunch of drummers. That’s all for now. This is another shorty because I need to get to bed soon and I don’t think I’ll have many opportunities for any blogs for a few days now.
cheers derek
