From the train station we rushed back to the hotel to get our cameras together and got picked up for the backwaters village tour we'd signed up for. There were only two others on the tour which was nice. We started with an unexciting forty-five minute drive to a nearby village. Once there we were shown the machine used for separating coconut husks for coir (a rope made out of coconut fiber). After the factory tour we got in a punted boat and went for a cruise. The ride through the village was interesting. I didn't feel like we wasted our time or money, but the tour wasn't nearly as good as I had hoped. We stopped to see / taste spices and fruits, but it was a pretty minor component of the trip. We saw villagers doing work - people bringing up sand from the river bottom, spinning coir, fishing, and lots of women doing laundry - not much different from the window of a bus. What was good was we saw lots of birds and flowers - but not from as close as I would have liked. The two and a half hour cruise passed quickly, but the ride back to the hotel was in traffic and seemed to take forever. We had a nice diner at a swanky restaurant up the street - again, a locals place, but definitely top end. The food was good, but not as good as I would have thought. We then went for a slightly scary walk back down to the bank. Slightly scary because it was dark and we felt a little exposed - especially after I had some success with the machine - we took a rickshaw back.