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Relaxing in the Keralan backwaters

December 4th, 2009
posted by Ryan Rowe

I’ve travelled a bit and seen many inspiring things but those that I fancy the most are places of natural beauty - mountains, the jungle, countryside fields, waterfalls, and the beach, to name a few. After this trip, the mountains of Nepal and the backwaters of Kerala, India were the highlights. :) .

Anyway I’ve been travelling for 15 days now nd a few days ago Olivia rejoined me for a tour of Kerala, one of India’s southernmost states and one of the most beautiful part of India I’ve seen during my travels here (even nicer than Goa). Thanks honey for joining me for your first trip to this country. :)

One of our main objectives was an overnight trip on a houseboat through the tranquil and meandering backwater network of canals, rivers, and lakes. This is a very popular activity for travelers to Kerala (both Indian and foreigners) and a lot of our friends in Abu Dhabi have told us about how beautiful it is. And they weren’t wrong! But beware of the booking process. Houseboat operators will charge the price they think you can afford to pay, not what it is ‘worth’. :) We paid 5500 rupees (US$122) for a private room with air-conditioning and bathroom on a 5-BR houseboat, including three meals (lunch, dinner and breakfast the following morning, eating such things as fresh prawns, coconut rice and fresh pineapple and bananas). We brought our own supply of Kingfishers on board too. :) We also had the boat to ourselves - the group that had booked it cancelled at the last minute and so the owner was desperate to take any money in that he could.

Starting from the small town of Alleppey, which is one the main starting/ending points for backwater cruises, our houseboat travelled down a narrow canal, the sides of which were lined with other houseboats and the homes of local people. We would occasionally get a glimpse into their daily lives, as they bathed or washed their laundry in the calm waters at the doorstep of their homes. Palm trees fringe the shores of the many lakes and rivers, the sounds of worship or song from the various temples, mosques and churches waft over the water and birds alight on clumps of floating moss and lilies. Aside from tourism and fishing, farming seems to be the other major economic activity of the backwater community.

By way of background, the backwaters were formed when water from the Arabian Sea overflowed rivers flowing into the sea down from the Western Ghats mountain range. Various barrier island chains were formed. Manmade dykes were created to form an irrigation system for low-lying fields in order to allow the farming of rice, cassava and yam. It is on these dykes, only a few metres wide, that local farmers live. I find myself wondering for how long such an irrigation and transportation system has existed, and how much of it is man-made and when it was constructed.

Hanging out on a boat like this for 24 hours provides a perfect place to feel like you are getting away from the rat race and enjoying what the world has to offer. Be it taking in the beautiful scenery, intense conversation with another, reading a good book or immersing yourself in deep thought and contemplating the meaning of life, this is a good place to do it. The best way for me to wind down a trip through a though-provoking place such as India.

Tomorrow, the beach, at Varkala. :)

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 8:53 pmand is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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