Tranquil backwaters of Alleppey

Alleppey resides in the Southern area of India, in a beautiful state called Kerala. When you think India, you might imagine the restless noise of markets, the hustling bustling cars and tuktuks jamming across one another and cows just strolling around every side block. Kerala though, is completely different. Except for cows, they’re everywhere here too. :)

Before going on this trip, I had heard that the more South you get, the quieter and peaceful it becomes. Not to say that there aren’t quiet and peaceful places in Northern States but after traveling Southern area of India for over two weeks, I just felt that this Western image of India was completely fabricated on the basis of how particular Northern States are; like how crowded New Delhi is, or how it’s dangerous because of conflicts in Kashmir.

I had this conversation with these two handsome boys from Kerala on the bus. They told us that Kerala was a God’s state. I asked them why that was.

Then they told me about how there’s conflict everywhere around the world now, but here in Kerala people of all religions are welcome. It’s true, Hindus, Christians, Muslims all reside here, so peacefully, so calmly.

The moment you arrive to Alleppey, you feel a sense of timeless-ness and stillness. A 10 minute tuktuk ride from the bus station will take you to the beautiful backwaters of Alleppey.

In Alleppey, nature has the same authority as human beings, or actually, nature rules. Being in such a state made me realize how we’ve become so accustomed to live with all of these useful machineries that we’ve become somewhat liable to them.

Here, time moves on the measurement of how nature flows.

We stayed in a beautiful and affordable airbnb here.

The house was located in the middle of the backwaters and is only accessible via small boat. (We need to tip the driver so be sure to bring cash!)

Every morning, this lady next door we called Auntie would make us fresh Indian breakfast, and it was a heavenly experience.

In Japan where I am from, or any other first world country, we seem to live in an information society where the amount of information and how intricately you are able to utilize it seems to distinguish our level in society. However, this obsession resided by our need to control time and life seems to deteriorate our true essence as natural human beings.

Really it’s ok you don’t need to catch this one particular train. You don’t need to sacrifice the present to get that one promotion. You don’t need to prove a point to someone you love.

It’s okay, you can catch a breath, and you need lots of it.