Cycling in Kerala-Day 2, my birthday

Day 2 was my birthday!  Happy 35th to me (and what a way to spend it!)

We went from the homestay to the famous Kerala backwaters-where there are rice paddies galore and a large network of water connecting and irrigating them.  A very popular vacation is to go on a houseboat and cruise along some of the wider and deeper areas of the backwaters for a week.  Needless to say, we wanted something more active.  After riding in the morning (with a coffee break), we kayaked around the backwaters-and in the smaller tributaries as well.  In the evening, we took a sunset cruise, and rested for the next day.  It was all really fun, as you can see from the pictures below!

The ride

Just starting off-me in the white shirt I wore every day (because I only packed one SPF shirt stupidly) and Sandip all fancy in black.

Stopping for a coffee break about half way through our ride.

These are the rice paddies we rode all around and through.

The south is a Communist stronghold and we saw signs like this one everywhere.

A view of the kind of road we were on through the rice paddies.

 

Kayaking on the backwaters.

Seriously this was awesome.

This is an older canoe we traveled by.  You can also tell how murky the water is.

A bridge connecting the smaller area on which we spent most of the time to the bigger area.  Directly ahead is the place we stayed that night. 

Typical houseboat.

The sunset cruise 

Cheers for my birthday boat cruise!

Great view of one of the larger sections.

This is what one side of a bridge looks like.

Transportation-literally from a different era.

This guy is transporting someting. Really amazing what we have been able to see out here.

Look at the light on the sunset!

Seriously awesome, right?

How do the hotels and houseboats get their soda you might ask?

View of our hotel-the side that faces the water.