We arrived in Kerala, a beautiful state in the very south of India. The first stop on our route were the backwaters of Kerala. The backwaters are a huge net of rivers, canals and lakes that are all connected and just waiting to be explored.
The main hub for backwater tours is a town called Alappuzha. From here you can either take a houseboat for an overnight tour or explore the backwaters by canoe. Some small tour boats offer one-day tours. We chose to take a houseboat and did not regret it. See the full post and the video of our adventure below.
According to Lonely Planet there are a total of over 1000 houseboats in this area. All boats are wooden, or have a wooden look, with slightly different sizes and designs. Our boat had a nice sun deck, which not all boats have, and only one bedroom. The more bedrooms, the lower the price. Non-alcoholic drinks and freshly cooked local food are usually provided on board and included in the rental cost.
Our tour started on Saturday at noon and lasted until 9:30 a.m. the next day. There were more houseboats than usual because it was the weekend. When leaving the docks there was even a traffic jam. They even honked at each other (like cars!). The houseboat density luckily decreased as we continued our journey.
The narrow villages and houses built on the banks in the middle of the backwaters especially caught our attention. The locals built their lives surrounded by water. When we embarked for the night, we had the chance to take a walk and to explore one of these “one house wide but many, many houses long”-villages. There were definitely many things to discover like cute baby goats, or cute baby ducks, a temple festival, water snakes, a sea eagle sitting less than one meter away from the little village path, and and and.
The “rainy” parts:
Unfortunately in the night we found some termites on board which probably eat houseboats for dinner. We also heard something big gnawing through the wood of the poor houseboat in the night. Maybe a rat under deck?! The crew did not seem to be bothered.
Lessons Learned
As mentiond before it was quiet busy on some canals. If you want to get further away from the other houseboats, I suppose a two nights tour would be necessary. Since most tourists are domestic it is wise to plan your trip for a week day. Try to avoid going on the weekend, as we did.
Costs for a backwater houseboat tour:
That is usually the rainy part for us. Not this time – because it was worth it. Without tips for the captain and the cook we paid 7500 INR (about 94 EUR). Going on the weekend and having a single bedroom boat increased the price. We did not book in advance but arranged the boat one day before departure with our accommodation in Allepuzah. As mentioned before, the boats come in all kinds of sizes and shapes. So, there are definitely better and more luxurious deals out there. Although the 7500 INR was far above our daily budget, the experience was worth the trip.
Our next stop is Munnar, the cooler hill station.
Here are some photos from the cruise:
