Home
>
Outdoors
>
Kerala Backwaters - Gently Down the Stream

taxi from O'Hare Munster limo Chicago New Lenox Cadillac Escalade SUV rentals Melrose Park Cadillac Deville rentals Streamwood Barrington Hills town car ride to ohare .. Drug testing

Kerala Backwaters - Gently Down the Stream

The quaint little balcony was large enough to accommodate two cane chairs, a table and little else. To reach it we had to climb over the ledge of our bedroom window and since the projection had no protective railing we had to be careful not to trip or fall over into the water below. Yes, the compact little perch had been grafted onto the side of our houseboat which drifted down the Backwaters of Kerala, the vibrant, living, 1500 km network of canals, estuaries and lakes that serve as the highways, by-ways and lifeline of the people who live along its banks.

We got to be very attached to our precarious positioned balcony. Here we sat, sipping a on a cold tall beer (the camera within easy reach), sailing the Kerala Backwaters and watching the lazy rural world of Kerala, India, slip by. Women washing utensils, men paddling by in carved out canoes laden with a rich harvest of bananas and coconuts, the sapphire flash of a kingfisher, buffalos being ferried across the waters, rows of large spider-like Chinese fishing nets straining the waters, the faithful in their brightest Sunday best streaming out of a chapel along the banks, children with fishing rods waving gleefully out to us, the silhouette of a toddy tapper scaling up a palm tree...

Kerala's Backwaters are in a constant flux and like voyeurs we found ourselves peering in at the drama of everyday life in India, simple, uncomplicated and fascinating as it unraveled around us against the backdrop of lush vegetation, a virtual riot of green.

The sight of police petrol boats and white ambulance crafts cruising by and the thatched hut that houses the State Bank of India wedged between a school and a church along the banks of the waterway reminded us that the here and now meshed comfortably with unchanging tradition along Kerala's Backwaters.

We were distracted from our musings when the houseboat attendant knocked on the door and informed us that breakfast would be served in l0 minutes. So we climbed back into our bedroom to freshen up in the attached bathroom with running water and a flushing toilet. We then strolled down to the lounge at the front of boat and feasted leisurely on a freshly prepared meal of local Kerala dishes.

We were sampling more than just the flavours of the local food; we were one of the privileged few who got an opportunity to explore the Backwaters of Kerala in a romantic little houseboat. What made the boat unique was that it was virtually a hotel unit grafted onto the structure of traditional rice boats or cargo boats known as a kettuvalloms in Malayalam, the local language of Kerala.

'These boats are what their name suggest,' the young lad from Kerala who was our onboard guide informed us. Kettu is to tie and vallom means boat. The kettuvallom is a boat made of wooden planks stitched or tied together by rope.

At Alumkadavu village, a traditional boat building center, we stopped briefly to explore the dry docks where these boats were repaired. Here we watched a toothless old man with thick horn-rimmed glasses skillfully stitch fresh planks into the hull of a boat. He was one of the few craftsmen who still survived; a relic of a tradition, which once seemed doomed to be sucked into the whirlpool of antiquity. The revival of interest in the kettuvallom and the Kerala Backwaters as tourist attractions, however, revived and sustained this dying art of boat building.

Fittingly enough our discovery of the Backwaters started in one of these cruise boats, which we boarded, on the outskirts of Quilon, a bustling little town on the banks of the Backwaters in south Kerala.

The weather beaten 'captain' of our 'ship' welcomed us on board with a toothy grin. He understood the whims and vagaries of the Backwaters of Kerala like the proverbial back of his hand. He decided when to punt, sail or use the outboard engine. Our voyage with him was a journey into history. Before the coming of road and rail transport the Backwaters were the main arteries of Kerala on the southeast coast of India. The Kerala Backwaters provided a waterway that even the maharajas of ancient times used, their royal entourage of accompanying boats following in tow.

It was a time when cargo kettuvallom vessels laden with ivory, gold and silver, silk, rubber and spices sailed through the Kerala Backwaters for the port city of Cochin, from where they were shipped to the rest of the know world. In fact, it was Europe's search for an alternative sea route to this land of plenty that led to the discovery of the New World. 'They were looking for Cochin and they stumbled upon America,' a former mayor of Cochin informed us.

The west still seeks out the treasures of Kerala: the tranquility and peace of its Backwaters. In fact, the segment of the Kerala Backwaters between Alleppey and Kumarakom in central Kerala is most popular with tourists. The other popular and shorter option is to cruise around the bustling backwater settlements of Alleppey and Kottayam near Kumarakom. Today kettuvallom houseboats have added a new dimension to Kerala's Backawaters.

'We are the Venice of the East.' It is a refrain we heard repeatedly on our cruise into the heart of Kerala. However, we discovered that it was somewhat off the mark, for the Backwaters of Kerala are of much greater dimensions and the setting more rural than urban. The similarity, however, is that both romance the tourists.

Fact File

An overnight houseboat cruise, including all meals, is part of the Enchanting Kerala holiday package offered by Traveljini.com, India's leading travel online portal. The exotic six nights, seven days package of the southern state of India covers Cochin, the hill station of Munnar carpeted with tea plantations, the wildlife sanctuary of Periyar and Kumarakom.

Roozbegh Gazdar Content Writer http://www.traveljini.com seo@traveljini.com

limousine chicago service

In The News:

If you're not lucky enough to live in the path of the May 20 "ring of fire" solar eclipse, you can still watch the spectacular event online.

If you plan it right, you could rent out your home on the Internet -- and use the money to take a free vacation of your own. These three websites will help you roll out the welcome mat.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg updated his status to "married" on Saturday.

A new app launched this weekend that will scan the faces of patrons in 25 bars across the city to determine their ages and genders. Would-be customers can then check their smartphones for real-time updates on the crowd size, average age and male-to-female mix to decide whether the scene is to their liking.

An oil company exploration crew's chance discovery of a 200-year-old shipwreck in a little-charted stretch of the Gulf of Mexico is yielding a trove of new information to scientists who say it's one of the most well-preserved old wrecks ever found in the Gulf.

They say patience is a virtue, but like temperance and chastity, it’s not much fun. Unfortunately, if you want to reach a state of true techstasy, you may need to repress your desire to buy a new gadget today and wait for the next version to come out.

Taxes, dental exams, cellphone contracts — things you hate but can't avoid. Actually, you can skip the last one. With prices on smartphones dropping and plenty of used smartphones for sale, BYOD — bring your own device — is now an option.

A turtle the size of a small car once roamed what is now South America 60 million years ago, suggests its fossilized remains.

A new private supply ship for the International Space Station remained stuck on the ground Saturday after rocket engine trouble led to a last-second abort of the historic flight.

A private spacecraft stands ready to launch on a historic first visit to the International Space Station early Saturday morning.

A new generation of super rich, super young tech entrepreneurs is upon us. And while some are barely old enough to rent a car, most could -- if they really wanted to -- buy a small island nation instead.

The small town of Monmouth in Wales (population: 8,807, according to Wikipedia) will become the world’s first “Wikipedia town” on Saturday, May, 19, Monmouth county officials said on Thursday. Every person, place, and thing of interest in the town can now be scanned by a smartphone and looked up on Monmouthpedia.

The 16th Annual Webby Award winners have been released, honoring websites, interactive advertising, online film & video, as well as apps.

Summer's almost here and that means kids will have a lot of time on their hands to surf the Internet. So you may be concerned about what they'll be looking at online. Fortunately most web browsers like Safari, Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer have easy to use privacy settings.

Apple was sued in March by a New York man who alleges that Apple’s Siri commercials are misleading and deceptive. Apple’s recommendation to Fazio: buy a different phone.

A new NASA survey has pinned down the number of asteroids that could pose a collision threat to Earth in what scientists say is the best estimate yet of the potentially dangerous space rocks.

Tech geeks across the Facebook empire celebrated the company’s IPO and their newfound millions by slugging back energy drinks at all-night code-writing parties.

Just two weeks after the huge "supermoon" wowed skywatchers around the world, the heavens will offer up another observing treat — a solar eclipse on May 20 that should be visible from much of western North America.

NASA has given SpaceX $381 million to develop a private rocket to replace the space shuttle -- and that’s just the tip of the money iceberg. The space agency plans multiple future grants ranging up to half a billion in the next year and a half. Is the $4.9 billion program worth it?

More than 900 million people worldwide check their Facebook accounts at least once a month, but millions more are Facebook holdouts.

Kerala Backwaters - Gently Down the Stream

Outdoors Outdoors