Alleppey beach ---Venice of the East in Gods own country

                                                                  Though i am a mountain man (i meant i like mountains like munnar and wyanad not that i resemble a mountain gorilla :) )  beaches are beautiful in their own way . And alleppey beach is one of the beaches i love not only because its a  nice beach and easily accessible (just 200 metres from alleppey railway station ) but because it oozes history . There was  a famous port here and was very important in erstwhile foreign trade .

Ok as the merchant of East venice (alleppey was called like that ) you land at the railway station by early evening . You can take an auto or better still take a long walk to the nearby lighthouse one of the few lighthouses constructed by royal family of travancore . The place was a weapons arsenal and later converted to a lighthouse . You can have a beautiful view of the beach and the quaint town of alleppey from the top .  Entry fee is peanuts (Rs 10 )  ...Yes price of a packet of peanuts  . In very few places in the world you can get entry into a nice lighhouse at this cost . And in the same well maintained compound you get a museum where hundreds of year old equipments are kept as museum including telescopes , communication equipment and even the older lighthouse "coconut oil " powered light of more than a century back . Amazing . Again entry cost Rs 10

Stay on top of lighthouse for sometime enjoy the breeze do some beachwatching and people watching (Nice to see people getting excited when on top of a lighthouse coming from different lands)  .  Take some photographs especially of the old bridge over the sea .

Its time to climb down now and go to the beach proper . Dont ask me whether this is Rajasthan but there are 3 camels for camel rides . Unless you are a puritan who will only camel ride in a desert , hop onto a camel and do a camel ride seeing the nice beach . Take photographs of the pier , take photographs of the signal house and walk along the beach road and if u like parks there is a small park nearby .

You should not swim in this beach due to currents . Watch the sunset and then have some peanuts (that too costs around 10 Rs ) and go back with memories of visiting a historic beach in the spice route ...

Btw i forgot the story : was the merchant of venice the good or the bad guy :) doesnt matter ...