Caressed by the Arabian Sea in the West ( also known as the Malabar Coast) and a vast network of lakes, lagoons and rivers criss - crossing it, the backwater country of Alleppey in the Southern state of Kerela in India are a favorite tourist destination and home to some unique animal and bird life.
There are numerous things one could do here..go shikara riding (Indian Venetian gondola !), stay in resorts/home stays in the village lining the canal or I guess the most popular- stay in a houseboat. I have stayed in a houseboat in Kashmir but that was stationery. Here the houseboat moves, generating a change of scenery . Of course it docks around 5-530 PM to accommodate the fishermen. Its like an entire house moving encompassing a bed room, washroom, sit-out area, kitchen. I decided to do the houseboat experience and started doing my research. Which cruise company to go with ? We wanted a 2 bedroom houseboat. Decided to go with Rainbow Cruises.
Details about this can be procured from their website :
Rainbow Cruises
While booking keep in mind that most cruises over promise and under deliver. The rooms shown on the website of Rainbow nowhere matches the rooms we were provided. I had opted for mid segment 2 bedroom houseboat. Cost was around 15,500. This included welcome drink, lunch, tea and snacks and dinner, next morning breakfast. I was taken aback by the fact that we were rationed to 1 mineral water bottle per person ..when that finishes and you are midway on your cruise there is no drinking water available!!!! I cant even buy if I want to. This is an award wining cruise supposedly frequented by celebrities (as per the pictures on their website). Again would like to say that do your research, question, cross question before sealing the deal.
This blog would be more of a pictorial journey as these photographs speak louder than what I could possibly narrate. Overall I enjoyed myself.
We had started from Kochi/Cochin at about 930 AM and reached the Rainbow Jetty / Dockyard (their private) around 12 PM. Though they had asked for some advance amount I had not booked and paid the money on arrival here. Was told that an area of about 25 km round way would be traversed.
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| Alighted from the cab and heading toward the office |
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| 3 bedroom houseboat |
Let me take you on a tour of my houseboat
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| All aboard |
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| My bedroom- compare this to the room shown on the website |
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| balcony area |
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| Sit-out area |
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| sit out area |
The houseboat is manned by staff of 3- cook, engine driver and a bearer. Again, pictures are darker than what I would want them to be- using a circular polarizing filter which is reducing lights up to 2 stops. It helped me to cut the refection off the water thought.
The boat cruises at snails pace and passes shops, villagers houses, home stays ,Ayurveda treatment centers , hotels on the way. One gets to observe village life at close quarters. There would be a small house with a boat docked outside (villagers mode of transport ). I guess their main mode of livelihood would be fishing, coir making (from coconut).
First we were in a huge body of water called the Vembanad Lake which narrows and tapers down to a canal like passageway later. Vembanad Lake happens to be the longest lake in India and the largest lake in Kerela. The Nehru Trophy Boat Race is conducted in a part of this lake.
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| Vast expanse of Vembanad Lake |
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| A typical houseboat also called Kettuvallam |
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| Lake begins to arrow down in a canal |
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| You can see many resorts/hotels as you cruise along |
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| Our boat insignia |
What is fascinating is that your surroundings keep changing all the time.
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| Beautiful Kingfisher |
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| Ayurveda healing centre |
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| Am told the boat race starts here |
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| Lake Palace resort |
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| Jawaharlal Nehru Statue- culminating point of boat race |
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| Nehru (first PM of India) started the boat races in Alleppey |
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| an old church |
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| Many massage centres dot this area-Kerela being famous for this |
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| Sun about to go down- day almost coming to an end..alas.. |
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| Finally we dock for the night |
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| Our boat docked |
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| Stretching my legs after the boat docked |
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| All dark now.... |
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| Morning cuppa-cruise almost coming to an end |
We got back to where we had boarded the houseboat. Time was about 930 AM. 9 AM is the checkout time on these houseboats. Our good old cab driver was waiting for us and drove us to Kochi Airport from where we boarded the flight to Bangalore carrying with us many many memories.
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