Kerala Backwater Tour Packages

Kerala- in spite of its politicians- is a superb place to visit and unwind yourselves.
This verdant little strip of land, on the southernmost tip of India, stretches along the Arabian sea coast and is seperated from the rest of the sub-continent by the steep Western Ghats.

With the Arabian Sea sprawling in the west, the Western Ghats towering in the east, networked by more than forty rivers, Kerala enjoys unique geographical features that have made it one of the most sought after tourist destinations in Asia. Its assets as a tourist attraction can broadly be listed as

* A moderate climate * Long shoreline with serene beaches * Peaceful stretches of emerald backwaters * Lush hill stations and enchanting wildlife * Sprawling plantations and paddy fields * Colourful festivals * Exotic cuisine * Ayurvedic health care

It is really incredible how such a small strip of land can contain so many exotic ingredients. Maybe it was the allure of the spices or the sheer magnetism of the land that attracted the Phoenecians, Romans, Chinese, Arabs and the British to its shores.The footprints of these immigrants can still be felt in Kerala’s architectural scenario – the Portuguese Forts, Dutch Palaces, British Bungalows…it is a pretty long list.

However, while Kerala has always been willing to imbibe anything new, it has managed to maintain its customs and traditions to a surprising degree of perfection. Here, you can see living examples of religious rapport, with churches, masjids and temples standing shoulder to shoulder.

National Geographic has hailed Kerala as ‘one of the ten paradises of the world’.

Kerala also boasts of
* India’s most advanced society * A hundred percent literate people * World-class health care systems * India’s lowest infant mortality and highest life expectancy rates

Peaceful and pristine, Kerala is also India’s cleanest State.

While most of these econiums can be said to be well earned, it cannot be denied that this little state has a long way to go in many areas before it can justify the label ‘one of the best tourist destinations in the world’. These areas will be explored in detail later.
For the statistically minded tourist, some relevant facts about Kerala -

Area : 38,863 sq.km

Population : 3,18,38,619 (as per 2001 census)

Capital : Thiruvananthapuram (formerly Trivandrum)

Language : Malayalam; English also is widely spoken

Religion : Hinduism, Christianity, Islam

Time : GMT + 5:30

Currency : Indian Rupee

Climate: Tropical

Summer : February – May ( 24 – 33 deg c )

Monsoon : June – September (22 – 28 deg c )

Winter : October – January (22 – 32 deg c )

Literacy rate : 90.92 %

Transport – Three International airports- at Trivandrum, Kochi and Kozhikode. Apart from this, Kerala is well connected by rail and road. Kochi offers a major seaport, while there are minor ports at Beypore(Kozhikode), Alapuzha and Kollam.

Major Industries – Tourism, Information Technology, Fertilizers,Oil Refining and Power Generation, Ship Building, Machine Tools, Electronics and Rubber.

Major Exports are marine products, coir, handicrafts, spices and food products.

Farm /Cash crops cultivated are coconut, rubber, coffee, tea, spices, pepper, cashew, arecanut and rice.

Kerala’s houseboats, lakes and backwaters are once again posing to be the ultimate brand ambassadors of the state’s tourism industry by generating huge foreign exchange and employment.

The popularity of houseboats has returned as major tourist attractions in the state. Many find these beautiful flotels as an ideal means of exploring the beauty of the Kerala backwaters.

The number of houseboats in the Alleppey and Kottayam backwaters has increased drastically. In Alleppey alone it has increased from just 150 odd one to more than 350 in two to three years.

Houseboats or Kettu-vallams, which were once used in Kerala waterways for transporting goods from once place to another famous as rice boats, have now changed as the most wanted tourist attraction not only for domestic tourists but also for the foreigners who never miss a chance to take a 24-hour timeout in the backwaters of Kerala.

With these years tourist season remaining there from November till March, the houseboat operators and travel agents are well prepared and are looking forward for a good volume of tourists from various countries to book their houseboats and hope it will be much more than the last year.

Kerala tourism is aiming at a 20 percent increase in foreign tourist arrivals this season, while in the domestic tourists, an increase by five percent are expected this season.

Tourism that has emerged as a major sector in the State provides employment to over one million people in Kerala, which is the fastest growing tourist destination in the world. The World Travel and Tourism Council has predicted 11.6 pc growth rate for Kerala’s tourism sector by 2013.

The tourism sector here hopes to get Rs. 100000 million revenue while investments to the tune of Rs. 10000 million are also expected in this sector.

The Kerala Government recently put forward a multi-crore project to utilize the inland waterways for cargo and tourism purpose. The project to be completed in four years, which according to the officials, will ease the road traffic for a large extent and can reduce the level of pollution and also will be an economical mode of transportation for the state.

Officially, the inland waterways in Kerala stretch to a length of 1,687 km, corresponding to 11.6 percentage of a total of 14,544 km in the country. The major stretch is the West Coast Canal connecting Hosdurg in the north and Poovar, near Thrivananthapuram in the south, which has a length of 560 km.

Presently, this sector directly employs between 1.5 lakh and 2 lakh people in the operation and maintenance of boats, and for each person directly employed, at least two others are indirectly employed in allied activities such as boat building, servicing of boats, tourism and so on.

The operators of private boats, including houseboats, generated 17 lakh man-days in the last year, according to a recent study. Another 1.5 lakh man-days of employment were generated last year by boat manufacturers, with 311 man-days of employment per lakh of rupees invested.

However, despite these seemingly healthy figures, all is not well with the Inland waterways sector. The full potential for movement of people and goods has not been utilised.

The absence of navigational aids, and the lack of modern Inland craft terminals and cargo handling facilities are some of the infrastructural constraints.

Several blockages continue to exist, including the lack of depth, the absence of any maintenance of navigation system, poor protection for the banks, the use of outdated crafts and engines, which creates environment threats like water and air pollution.

Recently, to promote houseboat tourism, the local tourism department has come out with plans to implement single window clearance to the boat operators as earlier they had to wander three different government departments to get the canal, transportation and pollution clearance. It will also be taking stringent actions against the workers and operators who carry out any malpractices in this industry, said the Secretary S. Vinu Kumar of DTPC, Alleppey.

Proper dress to workers in the houseboats, number plates like road vehicles to identify them from far places to avoid accidents, proper licensing system and pollution control methods will be in action from this month, added the DTPC Secretary Kerala, with its 44 rivers, ranging in length from 15 kms to 245 kms, flow across this small stretch. With two monsoons, rainy water pours down every year, replenishing the rivers and watering the entire flora. These factors have created Kerala as the ‘God’s own garden country’ and one of the most sought after tourist destinations in the world.

Its unique experience to Travel in a Houseboat through the backwaters of Kerala. Houseboats are built with natural wood and fibre. It has fully furnished Bed rooms attached with bathrooms, living cum dining room kitchen etc.

They are magnificent floating palaces that give the best of hotels a run for their money. Just a day onboard would enchant you, regardless of weather you’re a 10 year old kid, a couple on a honeymoon or an elderly man done with life’s responsibilities and dedicated to smoking a pipe. What more do you need when your on a houseboat floating away all of life’s miseries? (Well…probably a bike or should we say a jet ski for that daily dose of adrenaline – but lets not go there now)
What I’m trying to say is, a houseboat is more that just expensive accommodation that would blow a hole in your back pocket, it’s an experience, it’s a journey in itself. It is expensive accommodation that would burn a hole in your pocket but it will also give you memories for life, its something you have to do before you kick the bucket or before your too old to be bothered about having a good time. Drifting in a boat gives you the sense of freedom to go anywhere and the feeling of serenity that you cant even get with 10 pounds if marijuana, a cozy house makes you forget life’s problems so you can sit around all day doing nothing, a classy bachelor pad with Kashmiri carvings and silken curtains screams to your neighbor saying “look sucker, I’m better than you” without you having to open your mouth. Combine the three and there you have it – a Houseboat, and unlike the Queen Mary 2, you have the whole vessel to yourself & unlike the Rolls Royce Phantom, you have a good 2000 square feet of sheer luxury for more or less the same price.

A while back on the first leg of the GIR we had the amazing opportunity to stay in a houseboat on Dal lake and boy it was great, until then I thought houseboats were floating piles of expensive firewood rented out to gullible tourists.
Kashmiri houseboats have been around for a while, but just like cricket and the Ambassador we Indians didn’t invent it.
When the Brits went to Kashmir the racist Maharaja at that time forbid them to buy land and build houses in his kingdom, and at that time holiday inn wasn’t happening. So instead of giving the finger to the king and going back home they started getting innovative. He forbid them to stay on land, but there was a catch, he didn’t say anything about water. So the Poms got themselves a big raft in Dal Lake and built a cottage on it, it was no big deal because for half the year the lake was frozen and that made it all the more like England.
Assuming that they had all the time in the world and nothing to do being stranded in the middle of a lake, they just made their houseboats bigger and better and that is house the Kashmiri houseboat started.
Now, these floating works of art range from 60 to 150 feet long and 15 – 30 feet wide. Every boat has all the modern comforts you can thing of like electricity, heating, plumbing, television and even internet connectivity in some cases. A typical houseboat has a sit-out in front, a large sitting & dining room, a kitchen and two or three bedrooms. And the amazing thing here is every house boat is made to specification by master craftsmen. Most of the décor along with the wood carvings is Victorian influenced and the tapestries, carpeting and curtains have an eastern blend of Turkish and Kashmiri. The amount of carvings on the cedar interiors is unbelievable and the attention to detail is incredible, it is another one of those things that you have to see to believe. I spoke to the owner and he told me that these houseboats cost around one crore, that’s 10 milion. 10 million rupees for a boat!!
If you think about it, these aren’t really boats, well they float – so does a log. The problem with the Kashmiri houseboats is they are made as big as possible and as fancy as possible and at the end of it all they forget about the very vital weight reduction factor. With a little over 100 tones there is no point trying to move this goliath, why even try? That’s what the engineers thought when they considered mounting an engine and hence it has no engine, it also has no rudder because who needs to turn it when it doesn’t move.
So there you have it, it’s a fancy house that floats but doesn’t move anywhere. So why not build a fancy house with one crore? If you ask me, 1 – land prices are skyhigh, the lake is quite possibly a lot cheaper & 2 – if you build a house on land it wont be a houseboat.

On the other side of India, the Kerala houseboats are very different. Traditionally they weren’t houseboats, they were just big boats called Kettuvallams, which means boat made by tying together pieces of wood. Senseless as it may seem, not a single nail is used in the whole damn wooden boat. The wooden planks are joined together with coconut coir rope and then coated with a resign made from boiled cashew nut shells. So while the Goans made fenny and got drunk the Malus made their boats waterproof.
I guess this boat was designed by Robinson Cruso or some guy like him when they were stranded on a tropical island because everything used, everything from wood to the ropes and the resign is grown in your backyard.
Traditionally the Kettuvallams were used for lugging around rice and coconuts all over Kerala, they had the load carrying capability of two or three trucks and they were powered by men using bamboo sticks instead of ores. Then when roads were built in kerala and bridges connected the thousands of different islands, people started using trucks to for transportation. I don’t blame them, would you rather send your stash in a 40 toner Volvo or in a boat made by a pile of wood tied together by rope and sealed with un-fermented fenny? With more and more people beginning to think like me, the Kettuvallams were probably being used as firewood or to transport illegal substances across borders and check-posts. So when the tourism boomed in Kerala people probably thought of converting these rotting old Kettuvallams into slick houseboats, every innovative idea always gets stolen so within a few years you’d see house boats all over the backwaters in Kerala.
Ovbously some redesigning had to be done to make the Kettu-V more suitable for living, not just living we are talking about high-end accommodation. The body was redesigned and remodeled to adapt for the new demands and functions. Certain elements had to be added and others removed to make it good enough for comfortable cruise. Height of roof was increased to get sufficient headroom and a plank was laid all through the length to reduce the disadvantages of curved shape of the hull. Some boats have a first floor deck and some really good boats also have pools and jacuzzi. With all this additional weight being thrown around the boat, some of them were given buoyancy by two air tanks underneath. The blokes did a pretty good job in converting a coconut carrier to a 5star houseboat and most comforts in life like aircon and running water are available. I think is the biggest design flaw is cooking done on the floor in a fully wooden boat, I don’t know if there is a traditional reason to this but if I’m on a wooden boat I wont even let someone smoke a cigarette. But thankfully health & safety doesn’t exist at this part of the world, so I guess if a fire starts you just jump overboard.

What I like most about the Kettu –V is, unlike the floating logs on the Dal lake these Kerala houseboats can move. They are proper functional boats, not the Noa’s ark that floats at the mercy of the waves. The Kettu –Vs are loaded with a 40 horsepower motor and that can keep the big boat to cruising speed all day and its cool to watch three or four of them sailing together on the Allepy backwaters. If you have to compare them to the Kashmiri houseboats, they suck when it comes to class and luxury. The Kashmiri boats are floating palaces while the Kettu-Vs are sailing caravans. To build, the Kashmiri boats are about twice as expensive and to hire for a day both of them are pretty much the same, the costs also depends on the season and how touristy or western you look.
Giving a final verdict is kinda hard because both the boats are very different and they both have their own pros and cons. But at the end of the day I think I should hand it to the Kerala houseboats or the Kettuvallams, simply because it is a proper boat. It may not be as grand and as fancy as the Kashmiri ones but it has an engine and it sail, just like a boat should.