Friday, March 25, 2011

Onboard GLORY - Backwaters of Kerala

I was bit sceptical about this in the beginning when S had this idea of spending couple of days in the back waters of Kerala @ Alleppey. Nevertheless, we made up our mind and decided to go ahead. It was really a memorable and a wonderful experience.

The House Boat

After getting the details from our family friend, who had been there last year we dialled to Mr Alex from Seasons Cruise. Nice gentleman he is... he took care of A-Z of our travel. As soon as we alighted from the train, a cab was waiting to pick us up and he dropped us to a homestay where in we could refresh ourselves. Houseboat -stand (If I may call so) was at the walking distance from homestay and we started our journey in the morning.

A Lone tree

As we moved away from Alleppey, nature started unfolding itself, from the coconut plantations, to picturesque paddyfields and the life near the banks of back waters. It's actually quite interesting to watch the surroudings as people get on with their daily lives. It was as if life is moving in slow motion relaxed manner. As Alleppey being the starting point, we had a lot of hosueboats making a beeline when we started, but as we chucked along, our driver made sure that we were lost in the serenity. Inside the Houseboat Steering Wheel and the Gear

As we camped for the night near a village, we had an opportunity to go around and see the life around. Local boat men offered us a small ride in along the "backwater gullies" of the village. As our chef prepared snacks for us, we bid farewell to sun for the day at far west muching crispy onion pakodas. As the night set in, cool wind started blowing along with mosquitos :-). Yes, during evenings, sitting around in lobby of the houseboat is quite trouble some as loads of mosquitos will attack you. You need to be well prepared for it or get used to :-)

A church and the station on the banks

Next day was great as we woke up with sun rays beaming across, we made our way back to Alleppey. We were dropped at the place where the famous Kerala Boating Race happens. This place looked like as if there was a sea of house boats and it was truly a "HouseBoat Stand". As we were alighting, we had to cross at least 3 house boats to reach the shore and Alex was there to make sure we reach our next destination.

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