[Samurai]

When we visited Kerala for the first time two years back, we slept up on the top of a tree in open air, about 100 feet from the ground. See that report here: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...-top-tree.html

Naturally, we wanted a different experience this time. Say, Land and Water.

We were planning for this long drive once our older son gets his summer holidays. But nothing was planned until the last week of March. Suddenly my wife says she is going to arrange for a Kerala trip, sets up the itinerary via a local travel agency. Basically 3 days 3 nights trip to Cochin and Kumarakom with one night stay in a house boat.

But with only two days to go, I developed a chronic pain in my left shoulder blade which made it difficult for me to twist my neck. All of a sudden the long drive started looking very doubtful. But we didn’t want to cancel the trip, so we booked a Kingfisher flight to Cochin and back. The pain eventually vanished by the time we started the trip, so it didn’t affect the trip itself. The tour package included an Indica taxi for all our local travel, so that was not an issue.

We reached Cochin on Saturday night, checked into Abad Plaza. Next day morning we left for Kumarakom for our first taste of the famous Kerala houseboat trip. We were to spend the next 22 hours on a boat.

Going forward, I’ll let the photos do the talking.

The journey starts.



It was a houseboat with two bedrooms (with attached bath/toilet), one was assigned to us, other used by the crew. Other than that it had a dining/drawing room and full-fledged kitchen.













Contrary to my original belief, this water body turned out to be a huge lake spanning 270sq.Kms, while connected to 5 rivers and even the Arabian sea. It is home to lots of bird life too.





The weather was warm, but not hot. It was really pleasant, very odd for March. As we traveled along we had a visual feast of all kind of resorts, water crafts, water occupations, and more.











For lunch we stopped bang in middle of nowhere, many miles away from bank on all sides. The food was excellent, but the number of items were too many, 5 side dishes? But it was to get better later.

This houseboat had 6 bedrooms and one huge conference room.



We got see a competition snake boat.



As the evening started to close-in we started noticing house-boats that had settled down along the bank for the night.



And the scene started looking really pretty. We suddenly started experiencing very cool breeze, our older son declared that the boat is now air-conditioned. The younger one was asleep on the sofa in the open, and we suddenly wished we had brought a sweater for him. It was indeed getting very cool.







And our houseboat slowly came to a halt at a very scenic spot.

To be continued.

[jkdas]

Most people miss the house boat ride/stay. Waiting for rest of story

[Nitin]

Wow! This something I hope to do during my next trip.I've been to Kochi a zillion times,but never had the chance to get on one of these house boats.
Samurai san, could you give me an estimate on how expensive these house boats get? I've that a typical 3 day stay costs anywhere from Rs 5-10K.

[akroy]

Awesome pics Samurai, unique experience, I hope to do it sometime.

Is Kumarakom the only place where you get houseboats? I mean do you have lakes other then Vembanad lake in kerala where house boats are used. How was the food (cooked on coconut oil or normal sunflower oil)?

But you would have missed the GV ride on NH17 from Udupi.

Abhi

[Torqy]

Nice pics. I guess its the E3 who's doing the talking here!
BTW, how much do they charge for a houseboat stay?

-- Torqy

[HappyWheels]

Good one Samurai.

Of my various trips to that part of Kerala, never got to do a boat-house ride.

Waiting for the second part.

[Nikhilb2008]

Very nice !! But when we had gone to Kerala and stayed in the houseboat in 2001, there were two bedrooms allocated to us. You didnt have any problem with mosquitoes ? We suffered a lot because of them. The mosquito coils had no effect. That one single thing turned as off from future houseboat trips.

Also, we didnt really like the scenery. The water isnt really clean. It a greenish muddy kind of water.

[rkbharat]

Superb, Kerala is beautiful. Sad that we missed another GV drive log

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by akroy

Is Kumarakom the only place where you get houseboats? I mean do you have lakes other then Vembanad lake in kerala where house boats are used.

You have houseboats and backwater stays in Asthamudi Kayal (off Kollam, on NH47) and in Paravur/Kadakavur Kayal (off Vaikom, between Kollam and Trivandrum). Another interesting stay option is Poovar, where you can stay on stilted huts inside a small bay.

[Samurai]

Our parking spot.





As the boat was dragged towards the bank, the wind pushed it back. So they pegged the boat to a coconut tree waiting for the wind to drop. But the weather gods had other plans in their country.

It started raining, muddying the entire scene, so I had to stop shooting photos.





When doing nothing else, this is how I spent time on the boat.



After the rain, the scene started looking very interesting.

The water side looked like this.



The land side looked like this. No, it is not a white balance disaster, I didn’t try to correct it because this is how it really looked like.



I started waiting for the deep twilight as I realised it would look really interesting with the kind of cloud formations there.







Meanwhile, they had set up colorful lights on the deck, which made for a very exotic feel.



The food was served in these lighting conditions, and no lights on the dining table. This was supposed to keep the flies out and it did. The dinner was fantastic, the items were limited this time and each one of them was great on it’s own. The chicken curry along with chapathi was mind-bogglingly tasty. Needless to say we hogged.

We were worried about the mosquitoes, especially with a toddler with us. So we closed the bedroom windows before it got dark and kept the bedroom room closed. We were provided with a mosquito repeller which worked fine, and I don’t think we saw or heard a single mosquito in the bedroom. We kept the A/C on whole night, so heat and fresh air were not a problem.

The price we got was part of the whole package, and we visited just before the peak season of summer vacation. So I am not sure about the real price. In addition, I only visited one place, I won’t be able to answer all the houseboat related questions. However, I am very sure our huge Keralite membership is more than capable of answering all these queries.

To be continued.

[HappyWheels]

God's own country, it is! :-)


Keep 'em flowing, Samurai.

[Rotorhead]

Had visitied kumarkom resort during a company outing couple of years ago. Must say, its one of the most amazing places to be seen. The food served in that resort was simply superb. This place is a must-see for all. The best part is this resort had the fast boats, and the driver became pally with us and took us to some place and treated us to kallu/toddy and fish fry and this was at 8 AM and let us drive the boats on our way back to the resort. an experience i'd never forget. The sunset cruise is simply amazing and we got to see divers diving for sea shells. The only crib was the loo was out in the open area enclosed by a 8ft wooden compound. So had to scan the coconut tree for peekers all the time..ha..ha

[theMAG]

Great eyecandy. How far do these houseboats travel in a day?

[The Matrix]

Beautiful pictures there Samurai.

[NetfreakBombay]

How much does it cost to rent such house boat for a couple of days?