Alleppey (So. Kerala), India - January 2rd, 2007

I decided to travel to Alleppey because is a famous destination for backwater canal trips. When I arrived here this morning, I found out that this city has had a strike for the last 3 days. No stores, no restaurants and no transportation available, and it was to be resumed by 6pm this evening.
The guy who greeted me at my arrival at the bus station, explained to me that the strike was because of Bush...just what I needed to hear! There is a big majority of muslim people here so the strike paralized business for 3 days. There are very few tourists as well.
At 6pm, when the strike was over, I went for a boat ride; the local people who live in the villages along the canals take this boad daily, so it must have been hard for them to be without this transportation mainly in the New Year's weekend!
It was a very enjoyable ride with lots of coconut and palm trees, and the sari ladies walking by their homes or squatting and washing things by the little 2-step dock infront of their homes.
Kerala is a little different state apart from the others in India. They had the first freely elected communist government in the world in 1957, and are holding power regularly. Vasco de Gama arrived in 1948 and the European colonialism started on. Portuguese, Dutch, and English fought each other to have control of the spice trade.