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We left Mr Waltons - a nice clean place, very friendly. We had organised a taxi to take us, with another couple, to our homestay in the Keralan backwaters. The journey took a couple of hours - first down the highway, then across the lake and finally down little lanes. The homestay is basic and very rural but does give another perspective on India. (I am writing this looking out over vast rice fields and palm trees). George, our host, is a Syrian Orthodox Christian and suggested we might like to go to the next town that evening as it is St. Sebastian's day and they hold a festival there. We arrived at the town to see great big neon images of the town's 2 churches and everywhere decorated with tinsel and fairy lights. We walked down the street and eventually arrived at a fairground - we struggled through this to get to the 2 churches (the old & the new). The procession goes between the 2 churches, down a large square full with people, we were told later there were 100,000 people. The bells started ringing and the procession started. It was led by men with torches - fuelled by some kind of oil that forced them to stop every 20 yards and get oil poured over the coconut shells (which were alight). It all looked very dangerous. Then came a series of icons, followed by hundreds of people. It did a quick circuit of the new church then it was time for the fireworks. Lots of ooohs and aaahs, but it was difficult to see as it was a bit of a crush. We headed back - realising we had not seen another white face all evening!
Next morning we set off to do a tour of the backwaters - the cheap way by ferry. It involved walking through the village - with all the kids saying 'hallo, what's you name'. The ferry took us down the canals - stopping at various little villages on the way. It was then across the big lake - unfortunately when we got to the other side, there was nothing there so we just waited and caught the ferry back.
We had an early start the next day as we went canoeing at 7:00am - beautiful in morning light along the canals. It was amazing watching the locals washing their clothes, themselves, cleaning their teeth and pots and pans all in the narrow stretch of water. We stopped at the church and also saw the famed snake boat. (An annual event where 100 man boats from various villages compete). After the early start, we had a quiet day apart from a walk round the village.
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