When you're in Kerala, everyone says you have to go to the backwaters. What is the backwaters? It's bodies of waters, such as lakes and lagoons, along the coast of the state of Kerala, parallel to the Arabian Sea (see picture left, taken from wikipedia). They call this the backwaters, and they have many canals and rivers that lead out to the Arabian sea, natural and man-made. The water itself is not very salty, their saline content is more than fresh water, but less than sea water. They call this brack water.It's a tourist attraction here, and you go on a boat, driven by a guide. It's very vast, and they have many resorts and houseboats for accomodation. Apparently the houseboats are fully equipped, with A/C as well!! Amazing. They are very expensive to hire out, as you get a dedicated driver for the duration of the trip. Some houseboats even house at least 25 people. Companies hire out a 50-person houseboat, for conferences! That'd be very exotic.
Here are some pictures from the trip:
The entrance from one of the boating companies heading out to the backwaters (above) 
Looming clouds in the distance, monsoon season is just beginning here (above) and Kerala is also known for its plentiful coconuts (below).
Resort huts, surrounded by palm trees.
That's me!We also stopped by a Bird Sanctuary while on our boating expedition. The only way to get to the place is via boats. I couldn't really see any of them up close, but there were quite alot of them.
This is Ashwin, standing under the entrance sign (left). Roshan and Namratha walking behind us (right). Ashwin and Namratha are from Bangalore, Karnataka, and Roshan is a native of Kerala.
Birds (above) not flying anywhere. And Namratha, me, and Roshan (bottom).
Roshan is getting married at the end of this year to his girlfriend! Congratulations!
A very interesting conversation took place in the car on the way back, between Ashwin and Namratha, I was sitting in the back, being thoroughly entertained by their disagreements of what is the national language of India. Of course, each person roots for their own state language. Hindi, as most people are aware of, in the outside world, is probably seen as the "indian language" Largely, only the northern states of India speak it, but I think every state has the Hindi language in their schooling curriculum. Namratha was saying Hindi is or should be the national language, Ashwin was saying that it isn't, and based his proof on wikipedia. This seems to be a very sensitive topic, as both were becoming quite passionate in their arguments and then basically just agreed to disagree, but in the end, both agreed that India should have just ONE language as a whole, just wasn't sure which one. There were no violent tantrums or anything, silly retorts in the argument, just each trying to reason out the other, which was very smart and mature for a bunch of 23 year olds, they are clearly very good friends. :)
This is Ashwin, standing under the entrance sign (left). Roshan and Namratha walking behind us (right). Ashwin and Namratha are from Bangalore, Karnataka, and Roshan is a native of Kerala.
Birds (above) not flying anywhere. And Namratha, me, and Roshan (bottom).
Roshan is getting married at the end of this year to his girlfriend! Congratulations!
A very interesting conversation took place in the car on the way back, between Ashwin and Namratha, I was sitting in the back, being thoroughly entertained by their disagreements of what is the national language of India. Of course, each person roots for their own state language. Hindi, as most people are aware of, in the outside world, is probably seen as the "indian language" Largely, only the northern states of India speak it, but I think every state has the Hindi language in their schooling curriculum. Namratha was saying Hindi is or should be the national language, Ashwin was saying that it isn't, and based his proof on wikipedia. This seems to be a very sensitive topic, as both were becoming quite passionate in their arguments and then basically just agreed to disagree, but in the end, both agreed that India should have just ONE language as a whole, just wasn't sure which one. There were no violent tantrums or anything, silly retorts in the argument, just each trying to reason out the other, which was very smart and mature for a bunch of 23 year olds, they are clearly very good friends. :)
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