The local bus brought me down out of the hills to the coastal town of Alleppey, one of the highlights of Kerala, famous for its numerous waters/backwaters the stretch down the coast to Kollam.  I have to admit there were plenty of options for boat tours, including several thousand rupee houseboats complete with chef; bedrooms; aircon; tv and so on that travel all the way down the coast, no doubt it would be lovely but I chose a much more economical tour on a ferry with some indian families.
All around the waterways there are small villages where the locals live, so I got a glimpse of this as the boat wound through the rivers and across the lake.