We awake this morning to the sound of Indian music drifting over lake Vembanad - thankfully a bit more tuneful than the guy on the biscuit tin last night. An ample breakfast of huge masala omelettes, piles of toast with the ubiquitous red jam and a plate of fresh pineapple is prepared for us which we eat gazing out over the lake, before we set off once again for the 'finishing point'. We now understand that it's called the finishing point because it's the finish line for the annual snake boat race which takes place in the second Saturday in August. Apparently this is the biggest event in Alleppey and attracts a lot of tourists. We won't see it of course, but we do see lots of people, mainly youngsters, out paddling canoes, kayaks and sculls which are kept at a purpose-built boatshed on an island near the finishing point.

Our trip finishes promptly at 9am, and already the shore staff are preparing for the next guests at 11am. This was certainly one of the highlights of our Indian adventure.

Clive - Because the rest of the day was not particularly interesting (we spent it doing some shopping to stock up on basic things) I'd like to give you, Dear Reader, a lesson from the Indian book of Road Laws (I can't actually find a copy,so I'm going on experience). This lesson is titled 'Turning Right' (To be read in an Indian accent).

Let's imagine you're approaching a cross-roads at which you wish to turn right. We shall assume the you're currently on the left-hand side of the road, the correct side, although this is by no means a foregone conclusion. At about 20m from the junction, you hang your right arm out of the vehicle window or door and move the hand in a sort of circular motion. This is to indicate to other motorists that you're intending to turn right at some point, but the signal should be almost imperceptible so that hardly anyone else notices. Immediately after giving the signal you should start to drift over to the right hand side of the road. It is most important that you don't look behind you before doing so. If there is anything in the process of overtaking you as you drift across its path it will loudly and urgently blow its horn. Only at this point should you glance to your right. If the vehicle sounding its horn is smaller than yours, then no further consideration of it is required. Just keep drifting, and the other vehicle will have to look out for itself. If however the other vehicle is bigger than yours, a Tata truck for example, then you will need to take immediate avoiding action. If nothing hoots, then keep on drifting until you are on the right-hand side, the wrong side, of the road. At this point you are likely to encounter vehicles coming straight towards you. Again, the size of the vehicle will dictate what action you take, but in any event it is important at this point to lean heavily and persistently on the horn to let evereyone know that you are coming through on the wrong side of the road. It is likely at this point that you will have vehicles passing on both sides of you. It is not necessary to pull completely over to the right-hand-side, but if you can achieve this then all well and good.

Now, lets assume that the right-hand corner you are about to negotiate is a blind corner - that is to say there is a large building on the corner preventing you from seeing round it. This should not be a barrier to the next stage of the manoeuvre, which is to swing round the corner into the face of oncoming traffic, whilst paying scant regard to any vehicles already on the junction - unless of course they are bigger than you. Remember, you should still be leaning on the horn to let other traffic know you are there, but nevertheless there is a good chance you will meet another vehicle head on as you turn the corner. That vehicle will also be sounding its horn and will, therefore, probably not have heard yours. Split-second decision-making is called for at this pont; to go left or right of the other vehicle. The decision will depend on a number of factors, but will ultimately come down to what you think the other vehicle is likely to do. If it's bigger than you, it will probably do nothing but carry on. If it's smaller than you, then there's no need to take any action. Just carry on. The difficulty comes if both vehicles are the same size, e.g two auto-rickshaws. It's then necessary to invoke the psychic powers that only Indian drivers have, so that in the space of a millisecond you, and the other driver, assess the best avoiding action to take. The most likely scenario is that both vehicles will swerve to different sides, narrowly missing each other and other road users. The fact that one of these vehicles, yours, is on the wrong side of the road at this point is of no relevance. Once the corner has been successfully negotiated, the horn can be released. It is most important that throughout this manoeuvre you do not apply your brakes or show hesitation.

It is now necessary, but by no means mandatory, to move back onto the left-hand side of the road. The favoured method is to drift across the road keeping your eyes straight ahead until, and unless, you are hooted at from behind, in which case the law of largest vehicle will again apply. When you are comfortable with your general position in the road, and you are not being hooted at, speed up and continue on your way. Of course, these instructions are applied to a sanitised scenario which assumes you are sharing a well formed road with other vehicles only. In practice the road will be uneven and pot-holed and you will want to avoid these hazards, and you will be sharing the road with bicycles, motorbikes, pedestrians, cows and dogs, all of which are working to a different set of rules.

Sarah - Although Clive says nothing interesting happened during the shopping trip, one point may be of interest. We were walking down a nondescript road, nothing at all out of the ordinary, when we came across four or five umbrella shops. Given that we haven't seen one umbrella shop in our whole holiday so far, this in itself caused us some amusement. But these were not just corner shops selling general goods, these were shops selling nothing but umbrellas, with very flash showrooms (yes, showrooms - think Gucci or Louis Vuitton) and a wide range of umbrellas for sale. Of course in India umbrellas are used as sunshades as well as for keeping the rain off, so we wondered whether Alleppey was particurly sunny, or particularly wet, enough to warrant so many umbrella specialists. I almost wished I needed one so that I could browse, but I'd bought one in Dibrugarh, Assam, at the start of the holiday for the princely sum of NZ$3.