While it is airports / railway stations / bus stops for most of us, it is boat-stops for them.

Till the Public Works Department completed the long pending bridge across the river near
our home in Kerala, the road in front of our house used to be a sleepy one, which dead-ended
at the river. Only vehicles of the residents living in the neighborhood used to ply on the road
and for most of the day, the road would be empty.

Not anymore. After the bridge was finally completed some years ago, traffic has increased many-fold and now there are many buses (both private and government owned) plying on
the road. So, instead of depending on our car/bike, we now can just stand outside our home
and wave down a bus to take us to a variety of places.

Ofcourse the Limited Stop and Fast Passenger buses will stop only at the official bus stop,
which is again only like 100 metres from my home. Given the rising gasoline prices, it helps
to be connected by public transportation apart from being environment-friendly. And anyway
why would you want to fill the coffers of the Arabs ? :-)

I have mainly used airports, railway stations and bus-stops / bus-stands all my life. Am yet
to do a sea journey, though I don't really look forward to it - kinda afraid of the sea and also
do not look forward to sea-sickness. But it was while cruising through the backwaters of Alappuzha on the houseboat, that we were exposed to another form of transportation - ferry boats - which are the lifeline for people residing in and around the waterways of Alappuzha.

And like I would wait at a bus stop for the next bus, here people wait for the next boat at the
nearest boat-stop (I am not sure what the exact technical name for this is - a boat-jetty would
be more like the boat-station I guess). Some pics of the boat-stops.

1) A lone passenger waiting for the next boat to arrive.


2. A boat-stop near a church - catering exclusively to the religious ?


3) Another boat-stop. Ha, this seems to be a communist stronghold - can you see the red flag
of the communist party in the pic ? Can faintly make out the hammer and sickle on the flag.


4) A boat-stop with a billboard for a jewellery store.


5) A boat-stand in one of the small waterways, off the main road oops main waterbody.


6) People waiting impatiently for the next ferry. See another political flag here, but
can't really place it as to which party it belongs to.


And finally some pics of the ferry-boats themselves, that are public transportation for the
people of the neighborhood.


A boat docked at the stand for passengers to embark/disembark.


Another of the ferries in action in the backwaters.


BTW, if you did not already know, one of these boats plying in the Aleppey backwaters
has an ATM on board - the only one of its kind of floating ATM in the world. This initiative
by a Public Sector bank, keeps the people connected financially. So instead of them going
to the bank, the bank comes to them. Nice initiative there.