Kerala in a weekend...

I did not spend enough time in this state. Kerala is beautiful, and it's where my good friend Sandhya is from. Kate, Greg and I got on a plane Friday evening and met up in Kochin, Kerala's capital city.

We woke up early on Saturday and started our 2 hour drive to Alleppey. Alleppey is known for it's beautiful backwaters.

On our houseboat, we toured the backwaters all afternoon and then docked overnight. As we rode through the backwaters, kids would smile and wave at us from the shore. We thought they were yelling 'friends,' at one point, and we were flattered, but really, they were yelling 'pens!' This little girl came up to our boat as we were docked and asked for 'pens,' while making a writing motion with her hand. I dug through my purse and found one for her.

Sunday morning we woke up on the houseboat and we could hear singing from the Christian churches across the fields. It was so bazaar. We couldn't see the church, we just heard the chanting and it was really just so serene.

We toured Fort Kochi (not an actually fort, but the name of the city) on Sunday. From the first European church to Chinese fishing nets to Vasco de Gama's tomb, there was plenty for us to see.

Below is a video of a wedding that we got to sit in at, at Saint Cruz Basilica in Fort Kochi. I felt a little weird dropping in on their wedding, especially since I would have been mad if someone crashed mine! But here, it's almost like a compliment that we would want to sit in. Can you tell from the decor that this is a Catholic church???

Enjoy the rest of my pics!