Innumerable lagoons, lakes, canals, estuaries and the deltas of forty-four rivers that flow into the Arabian Sea take you inland, right into the heart of beautiful,green Kerala.Over 900 km of this intricate net work of backwaters is navigable. Acruise along these palm-shaded waterways, ina luxury houseboat, is the most popular holiday experience here today.
In this world of simple pleasures, your boat skims past ancient Chinese fishing nets, white lillies, lush paddy fields, coir villages, rustic homes, temples, and coconut groves. Sipping sweet tender coconut relishing freshwater delicacies and listening to the soft rustle of the wind, you can sail hundreds of miles along the emerald waterways.
The backwaters mainly cover four districts four districts of Kerala and extend into a few others from Thiruvananthapuram down south to Kasaragod in the north.The largest backwater body, the Vembanad Lake flows through Alappuzha and Kottayam districts and opens out into the sea at the Kochi Port. The Asbtamudi Lake, the second largest backwater stretch, offers the longest ride (eight hours) and is considered the gateway to the backwaters.
Your holiday home in this tranquil world is the comfortably furnished houseboat. Traditionally, the houseboat was called kettuvallam, which means a boat made by tying together pieces of wood. Unbelievable as it many sound, not a single nail is used in the making of a kettuvallam. Each jackwood plank is joined to the next with coir rope and then coated with a causic black resin made from boiled cashewnut shells. But with careful maintenance, they lasted for generations and formed an integral part of the ethos of this land.
Today, these giant 80 feet long goods carriers of apast era, have been adapted to make the most exciting tourism product in India, the luxuriously furnished houseboat. A kettuvallam useally has one or two bath attached bedrooms, an open lounge, deck, kitchenette and a crew comprising oarsmen, a cook and guide.
You can board your houseboat from select spots long the backwaters. Kollam, one of the oldest ports on the Malabar coast, was earlier the center of international trade. The Ashtamudi Lake covers a third of the district.Here, you will spot Chinese fishing nets and meet large dug-outs lugging coir, cashew, copra and local produce. The picturesque village of Alumkadavu, on the way to Alappuzha, is where you can watch kettuvallams in the making.
At the end of the eight hour enchanting cruise from Kollam, you reach Alappuzba, long eulogised as the venices of the east. This place offers plenty of activities and speciacular sights including the snake boat races and the endless paddy fields of Kuttanad. Popular as the rice bowl of Kerala, Kuttanad is perhaps the only region in the world where farming is done below sea level.
