Skip to navigation

Mark Moxon's Travel Writing

India: The Keralan Backwaters

The houseboat Thamanna moored in the village of Alumkadavu
Our home for four days...

I first travelled the Keralan backwaters back in 1998, when I took the tourist cruise from Kollam to Alappuzha, and I loved it. The serene waterways that lie just a stone's throw from the sea are relaxing, smothered in coconut palms and perfect for unwinding. Given my complete lack of ability to acclimatise to India's heat and noise without throwing a tantrum, the backwaters seemed like the perfect place to relax for a few days.

The Valiyavila Family Estate, not far outside Kollam
The Valiyavila Family Estate, not far outside Kollam

Great Expectations

A boat moored in the backwaters
A boat moored in the backwaters

Our boat, the Thamanna (or Expectation), was run by a three-man crew of smiling but relatively silent chaps, who ran the boat with the kind of relaxed efficiency that comes from working as a team for a long time. Anil, the chef, would prove to be a magician with food; Shaji, the engineer, charmed us with his smile; and Retheesh, who steered the boat, was quiet and slightly more aloof, perhaps because he was the new boy, having worked on the boat for just one year (the others were old hands, judging by the comments in the onboard visitors' books). They kept themselves to themselves, hovering around enough to make sure we were perfectly happy and to have little chats now and then, but without ever feeling clingy or invasive. Indeed, I wouldn't have minded if they had been more chatty, but perhaps on the backwaters, leaving the tourists to mind their own business is a sensible move.

Peta aboard the houseboat
Peta aboard the houseboat
A public ferry on the backwaters
A public ferry on the backwaters
A boatyard where houseboats are made
A boatyard where houseboats are made
The houseboat Thamanna moored in the village of Alumkadavu
The houseboat Thamanna moored in the village of Alumkadavu
A man punting a canoe along the backwaters
Local transport on the backwaters
A river taxi ferrying locals across the backwaters
An early morning river taxi
Men filling a canoe filled with sand
Sand is collected from the bottom of the backwaters and punted to the shore

To Alappuzha

Brightly coloured boats along the backwaters
There are lots of brightly coloured boats along the backwaters

Unfortunately, our first night on the houseboat proved to be rather less tranquil than we'd hoped it would be. The noise of a small engine (or possibly a large transformer) throbbed throughout the night just beyond our bedroom wall, and although we started the night lying in our cabin with the mosquito net coiled up above our heads, I woke up in the wee hours with itches that turned to scratches, and we had to spend the rest of the night huddled in the still air under the net. After finally dropping into a troubled sleep around three o'clock, we both woke to the shock of the muezzin's call at 5.30am, after which the local Hindu temple decided to play catch-up with a woofer-blasting rendition of its own that went on all the way to breakfast, accompanied by loud, sharp bangs that we would later discover were firecrackers. Apparently our first full day on the backwaters happened to be a Hindu festival, and nobody sleeps when there are colourful gods to be celebrated.

Lunch, consisting of masala prawns, beetroot yoghurt, spinach, ladyfinger, sambal, beans, rice, pappadams
Lunch, from front to back: masala prawns, beetroot yoghurt, spinach, okra, sambal, beans, rice and pappadams
A power station on the backwaters
A power station on the backwaters
Houseboats near Alappuzha
A glut of houseboats near Alappuzha
A paddling of ducks on the backwaters
A paddling of ducks on the backwaters
The Keralan backwaters
The backwaters are home to lots of boats, some on land, some on water
The Keralan backwaters
The Keralan backwaters

Romantic Cruising

Peta aboard the houseboat
Peta aboard the houseboat

Life on a houseboat soon becomes quite mantra-like. Breakfast starts the day, lunch punctuates it, and dinner rounds it off, and in the middle there are more drifting sights and chances to doze off as the sun climbs through the sky. The scenery around Alappuzha is almost entirely flat and made up of paddy fields, and as such is lacks some of the charm of the winding coconut forests of the south, but by this stage it doesn't really matter, as everything plods along in the manner to which it has become accustomed. People are just as friendly and are always happy to smile and wave, and although the evidence of labour is right there in front of you, rather than tucked away behind the palm trees, the atmosphere is still just as relaxed. The sun is hot, the breeze is welcome, and the pace of life is delightful. 'A perfect spot for a bit of romance,' you might think, as you flick through the visitors' book and read the comments of couple after couple after couple.

Chinese fishing nets on the way to Ashtamudi Lake
Chinese fishing nets on the way to Ashtamudi Lake
Kalloorkad St Mary's Forane Church, Champakulam
The surprisingly loud Kalloorkad St Mary's Forane Church in Champakulam