India – January 2026
It’s late in the evening when I finally reach Alappuzha, previously known as Alleppey. After a great couple of days couchsurfing in Munnar and some time in Kochi, I’m ready to relax a bit. So I gladly accept Jophu’s offer to pick me up at the central bus station. We met the previous week in Kochi, where he also visited the Kochi Muziris Biennale. His family runs different hotels in the area and he initially offered me a special price for a room in one of their backwaters properties. However, I finally acknowledge that I’d feel more comfortable in a hostel and settle on Dutch Square Hostel Alleppey. Jophu seconds this choice, saying that he actually knows the owner. To my surprise, the beautiful property is quite empty and I even get a room all to myself. Jophu stays for a quick smoke and we chat about Munnar with a couple of Italian travellers lounging in the spacious common room. Eventually, I feel too tired from the long journey and take some good rest.
The next morning I sleep in and join the hostel breakfast of idly and fava bean stew late. Petra from Prague and Sho from Japan are already sitting at the long table, talking about Petra’s accident in Varkala a couple of weeks earlier. Only hours after arriving in the southern beach town, Petra broke her foot and has been recovering in Alleppey ever since. Today she finally plans to give walking with her leg brace a new chance. Sho and I agree to join her on the short excursion to her favourite dosa place down the street. But first, all of us take some time to chill in different corners of the colonial-style building. Petra in the lush green garden, Sho on the day bed in the living room and me with my laptop at the large table in the wide corridor. My writing session only lasts for a short while though. My eyes keep darting between the teak wood furniture and selected decorative pieces, which give the rooms a distinct historic atmosphere without making it feel like a museum. I end up on the second day bed in the living room, reading and daydreaming for a while before we head out to lunch.
With Petra feeling much better after the dosa, we eventually continue walking all the way to Cafe Catamaran, where we spend the rest of the afternoon lounging at the beach. Around sunset, Jophu joins us and Sho asks him about the fair going on further down the beach. He calls it the circus and says he hasn’t ever visited before. Intrigued, the four of us decide to stop by after a delicious seafood dinner of garlic prawns and paratha. The rides are just as crazy as what I’ve seen in other parts of South Asia: high-speed Ferris wheels and a show of multiple cars and motorbikes driving in circles in a cage. The ad for the latter catches my attention, but I brush it off as exaggerated Bollywood stuff. However, Sho is hooked and convinces Jophu and me to have a look. Petra stays back, the steep stairs being too much for her injured leg. Hospitable as ever, the people running the food stall a few metres away quickly offer her a chair and a cup of juice. I follow the guys up the metal stairs, listening to the roaring motor on the inside.
Shortly after we make it up to the platform, the show begins with two men riding motorbikes up the steep walls and proceeding to drive in circles around the cage, needless to say, without helmets. A few minutes later, three people get into the cars at the bottom, which I thought were only decoration. Now I realise that they’re actually the same vehicles and artists shown in the images outside. And just like that, those images become reality, with two cars driving along the walls of the cage while a girl is casually sitting on the roof. We watch the spectacle until all vehicles are back on the ground and then head on to the next attraction. In a tent at the end of the circus, birds and exotic cats are exhibited, while another section is decorated in what I can only describe as a psychedelic Avatar world. The grand finale is the 360-degree cinema and souvenir shopping on the way out. Fully overstimulated, I’m glad when we’re back at the peaceful Dutch Square Hostel for another late-night chat in the cosy living room.
My second day in Alleppey starts with another breakfast at the hostel: rice and bean stew. I spend the morning a little more productively with a visit to the post office and by ordering contact lenses to Pondicherry. In the afternoon, I take a mandatory cruise on the backwaters with Jophu and Petra. Our host makes sure we girls have the full experience, including a tapioca snack and some toddy bought from a shop at the shore of a small canal. We slowly drift along between rice fields, coconut trees and small houses, watching village life unfold. People wash their clothes in the canals, cows doze in the shade, kids swim across to the neighbour’s house, while luxury houseboats and public ferries pass by. Just before sunset, we stop at a small chai shop before returning to town. Here, Jophu wants to show us one of his favourite restaurants. He doesn’t promise too much: the mini tomato appams are truly amazing. Once back at the hostel, the night is still unfolding and we somehow end up enjoying a Chinese tea ceremony led by a fellow traveller from Russia.
The next morning starts with another hostel breakfast, this time appam with aloo matar curry. Afterwards, Petra and I meet up for coconut chai with another guest from Rajasthan. He and I end up craving seafood and head to Zostel for lunch. Grilled tuna steak and egg-fried rice is just what I need. Our conversation takes us from travelling through India and communism to the differences between growing up in India and China. It’s one of those conversations that keeps taking unexpected turns, somehow ending with what it was like growing up Jain before eventually becoming an agnostic non-vegetarian. Of course, the parents don’t know. In the afternoon, I spend a few more hours at a beachfront café, reflecting on the past days while watching the sun slowly disappear over the sea. By now, Alleppey feels pleasantly familiar, and I’m in no hurry to leave. Eventually, though, it’s time to grab some dinner. A surprisingly good shawarma makes for one last meal before I head back to the hostel, pick up my things and make my way to the night bus taking me to Tamil Nadu.