KERALA BACKWATER HOUSEBOATS

Kerala backwater tour is one of the most preferred tour packages. Perhaps the most suitable way to explore the beauty of breathtaking backwaters is Kerala boat house which takes you to the totally different world where you will find serene and sheer ambiance for your holidays. At backwater destinations in Kerala, house boats are available on hire and its cost depends on facilities available on them. From traditional house boats to modern luxury packed houseboats are available on hire. Surely Kerala houseboats tour will be an experience of lifetime.

A Kerala Houseboats cruise along the palm-fringed waterways of Kerala in luxury houseboats is the most enchanting holiday experience in India today. In this world of simple pleasures, you will skim past ancient Chinese fishing nets, water lilies, lush paddy fields, coir villages, rustic homes, temples and coconut groves. A guided tour down the backwaters would provide you with a complete and most enchanting experience on the back waters of Kerala and will also reveal to you some interesting facts about the life of local village people.

Houseboats are country boats. They were used in the early days for the transport of goods. With the advent of roads, bridges and ferry services, they went off the scene. Now they are back again as a major tourist attraction. A house boat is about 70 to 100 feet in length and has a width of around 13 feet in the center. The materials that go into the making are Eco friendly bamboo poles, coconut fiber ropes, bamboo mats, coir carpets etc. The main wood used is “Anjili”. Each houseboat has a three member crew – a chef, driver & cabin assistants. The cuisine is traditional Kerala flavor. There are single bedroom houseboats for two people and two bedroom houseboats for four people.

Present day houseboats are huge, slow moving exotic barges used for leisure trips, and are in fact reworked version of kettuvallams of olden times. The original kettuvallams were used to carry tons of rice and spices. A standard kettuvallam can hold up to 30 tons from Kuttanad to the Kochi port.

The kettuvallam is held together with coir knots. Not even a single nail is used during the construction of the boat. The boat is made of planks of jack-wood joined together with coir. This is then coated with a caustic black resin made from boiled cashew kernels. With careful maintenance, a kettuvallam can last for generations.

A portion of the kettuvallam was covered with bamboo and coir to serve as a restroom and kitchen for the crew. Meals would be cooked onboard and supplemented with freshly cooked fish from the backwaters. When the modern trucks replaced this system of transport, a unique trend was introduced that would keep these boats, almost all of which were more than 100 years old, in the market. By constructing special rooms to accommodate travelers, these boats cruised forward from near-extinction to enjoy their present great popularity. Today, the houseboats have all the comforts of a good hotel including furnished bedrooms, modern toilets, cozy living rooms, a kitchen and even a balcony for angling. Parts of the curved roof of wood or plaited palm open out to provide shade and allow uninterrupted views. While most boats are poled by local oarsmen, some are powered by a 40 HP engine. Boat-trains – formed by joining two or more houseboats together are also used by large groups of sightseers.