One Night in Alleppay on a Houseboat

We left Fort Kochin very early in order to find a boat to cruise the backwaters. After about an hour and a half in a bumpy red bus we arrived in Allepay. Every time we arrive at a new town or city it always takes us a while to get oriented. First when you get off the bus there is a gang of people trying to get you to buy this or that and trying to pull us off in different directions. It is very intense especially if you don't know where you are going, but also if you do not want to trust random people to tell you where to go.When we finally got a little distance along the canal, near where a walking bridge crossed over, there we were able to sit down on a bench and collect ourselves. We called a man called mr. Sasi who had arranged for us to meet someone who knew someone else who had a boat. Yes I know it is very complicated! Anyway to make a long story short we ended up paying one or two people commissions even before we saw the boats.

When we finally arrived at the location where all the boats were kept we were overwhelmed, there must have been around 500 houseboats there, all with a little different style and look. Everything from one bedroom to five bedrooms was available, and the sizes and quality of them varied greatly. When you first get there you see a long line of boats as far as you can see on your left and right, but there are actually three rows of boats lined up behind one another in order for them all to be docket to the shore. The boat we were brought to was on the third row so we had to walk across other boats to reach ours. We met the boat owner, Benny, and the three crew members on the boat. One captain, one cook, and one other guy who did everything in between. From the second we met our cook we had a good feeling about the trip, he had the type of smile that is very kind and friendly, but we had to get the boat at the right price. So Anja and I turned on our terrible bargaining skills until we reached a reasonable price, if we had more patience maybe we could have got it lower. Then Benny had to make the final arrangement before we could finally set out into the famous backwaters of Kerala.

Our boat

The backwaters 

Our boat had a dining table right behind the captains seat in the bow of the boat, right behind there was a staircase to a little deck where there were lounge chairs and a place to lay down. Back downstairs there where two rooms and a passageway along the length of the boat. At the stern of the boat is where the kitchen was and where the cook worked his magic. Because it was just us two on the boat we had plenty of room to choose from and even were able to see which bedroom was better (we chose the one with the ceiling fan).

At around midday we finally head off.  We sat on the deck just slowly cruising, first into a big open lake, then into the canals. The whole network of canals is a very impressive system, they are used as roads for all the people living along their vast lengths. The canals in many places are actually higher that the land outside, so the many rice fields that lined the canals where maybe a whole meter below. I guess this makes for easy irrigation. It did not take long before we docked for a short while to eat lunch. The cook brought out fried fish and rice, along with three types of delicious veg dishes, and samba. We found out we had the best beat root salad, which was beats mixed with curd among other things. Not to mention apparams, pickled mango, and a mountain of rice that would take days to eat. Sorry Geir but this might have been the best fish I have eaten, although yours is second. After lunch we relaxed on the deck and simply tried to relax as much as possible while we were away from the hustle and bustle of everything else in India. We docked along the canal for the night at around 1800 and then were served dinner. This time we had fried chicken, chapatti, 3 veg dishes, salad, Kerala rice and more. The worst part is we did almost no exercising so we were still not very hungry from lunch. The food was great and that itself would have been worth the trip.

Finally on our way - life is good!

Lots of food!

View from our bedroom

     In the evening we played cards on the deck and tried to see the stars through the light clouds. Then I was going to try and sleep on a boat, which I have never done before, not to mention I get very easily boat sick. However the backwaters a very calm and it was no problem. Suddenly at about 2 in the morning we both woke up completely sweating and in a room that was so stuffed it was hard to breath. I jumped out of the mosquito net to open the window and let the night breeze cool us down. We later got up for an early breakfast and our little trip back to our starting point.

Our crew

Washing clothes in the river

Canoes - the local way around the backwaters

We were very happy with our time on the water and felt so nice and relaxed after a whole day of doing absolutely nothing but watch things go by and eat terrific food, not to mention a nice cold kingfisher beer on the deck. Cant complain about that!

Sorry for taking so long for this update, we have been traveling a lot!


Sebastien