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Alleppey - Boat Day 1

We woke up early for the drive from Ft. Cochin to Alleppey to start our boat journey.  The drive down was great, as there are always so many fascinating things to see in India--mostly just the people and living daily life here.  Also our first afternoon on the boat.

Indian Navy Trainees Early morning training exercises	Bananas anyone?	Or how about a bucket?
Maybe a chicken?	Gotta love elephants	These guys were HUGE!
Romeo! This "sporting" guy is a HUGE bollywood star in Kerala. What I've finally realized is that each state has it's own movie stars, because each state has it's own movies in it's own language. Kerela speaks Malayalam. Oh, Romeo-- what a hunk!	A Hindu temple in Alleppey	Dave in "tinsel town" This whole street was covered in this silver paper stuff. It was quite festive.
Makes for fun shopping	A popcorn stand... no, I don't know what the brown stuff is.	She's famous! I had no idea she had her own bakery here! I'll have to talk to her about that. :)
At the river side	YUM! We had some deliciously ripe pineapples on this trip... reminding me of Hawaii!	A very old church... Check out the next photo for the dates
The Old Church Sign	A simple dock in Alleppey It was these scene that increased my anxiety about the trip we were going to take. Fortunately, this river was too small for out boats to be on.	On the boat!
Our driver... spoke very little English: "fishing," "kingfisher," "eagle," I believe those are the only words I heard him speak. Oh, and "crocodile" with a big grin.	Home base... where we were originally docked.	Carpet of flowers
I do believe the boat is full...	Watching from shore	Birds, birds... everywhere Even with a stop at a bird sanctuary, we saw more birds on the water than I've seen in my whole life.
Our bath mat... Gotta love it!	Chinese fishing nets	Dinner... Richard pulled off a leg and pinched a wing in hopes that this gecko would have a good dinner. He tried, but wimped out after he couldn't get it down.
Many fishermen	Lone canoer... I think I took several dozens of pictures of guys in canoes. It never lost fascination for me. It was so peaceful and simple.	Kazoos... We stopped at an island in the middle of the lake and sitting on a bench with no one around were these kazoos. Weird!
Cool flowers	Ewwww! There were so many awesome spiders on this island	Camouflage
Another...	A side shot...	Outhouse? Nope... whatever this guy did in life, he warranted his own temple on this little island.
Kelly and I... on the other side of the island	Through the jungle... There was no trail so we turned back and went a different way	A different way... shortly after this shot we came upon the very large Cobra skin recently shed... we turned around and made our way quickly back to the boat.
A flower for me... Our cook picked a flower for me... Awwwww!	An afternoon with a book He was starting to feel a little sick	A stop in town... Dave, Richard and our cook stopped at a little town to buy some veg for dinner.
Stopping in town...	Sick... sick... sick...