Hangin’ Out on a Houseboat

Apparently, going on a houseboat, or kettuvallam, cruise is the thing to do when you’re in Kerala. Really. Check out any Kerala/South India tourism website; they’ll be including a houseboat cruise in your itinerary. For my poor husband, this meant months of listening to me cajole him into going on a houseboat. He had already been on one and thought it was boring. And hot. And full of mosquitoes. I said, essentially, “Too bad, you’re still taking me.” So, in celebration of our first first anniversary, we arrived in Alleppey for a houseboat cruise.

Generally, the houseboats are long, narrow hulls that have almost all amenities. Ours was an air-conditioned one-bedroom boat with a fully modern bathroom. Adjoining the bedroom was the TV, dining and lounge area, and we also had an upper deck on our boat. We had requested the honeymoon package, so we had our bed decorated with flowers, a candlelight dinner, and a honeymoon cake.

For the first day of the cruise, check-in is at 11 am or noon. We had hired a driver to take us from Thiruvalla to Alleppey, and he took us to the wrong jetty first. Thankfully, that was all corrected before we lost any time. When we arrived at the right jetty, two members of our houseboat crew were there to haul our bags onto the boat.

Once we got settled and explored the boat, we got our welcome drinks, which was some delicious fresh juice concoction. They either serve juice or tender coconut, and, because I drink coconut water all the time now, juice was a nice change of pace. After finishing, Zac and I went to our upper deck to enjoy the view as our boat started the cruise from Alleppey to Kumarakom. The views were breathtaking.

I should have mentioned earlier that when you book a houseboat, it’s like booking your own personal mini-hotel. The boat has its own crew, including a captain and two cooks. After cruising for an hour or so, the captain stopped the boat so we could be served lunch, which was traditional Kerala-style lunch with rice, Karimeen fry, sambar curry, bhindi fry, cabbage thoran, and pappadum.  Unfortunately, ours wasn’t served on banana leaves. 😦

 

After eating, we started cruising the backwaters again, enjoying the sights and sounds of southern Kerala. We did see some fishermen, diving in and out of the water, trying to catch some fish. We also saw St. Mary’s Church, which is right along the backwaters.

At this point during the cruise, you have the option to stop and do things, such as touring a bird sanctuary or shopping in a village. We, however, stayed on the boat and relaxed because that’s what we are good at doing. And I felt the scenery was too beautiful to compromise by doing something that could easily be accomplished once finished with the cruise.

Next on the agenda was tea time. So I got to sip tea and relax and enjoy the scenery. What a life.

After tea time, the boat cruised for another hour and a half, and then anchored for the night. This was when it got boring, for me anyway. The houseboat stops at 5:30 pm, and then dinner isn’t served until 8 pm, so we had a couple hours to kill. When it was finally dinner time, we had our sweet, honeymoon candlelight dinner, complete with our cake. To top it all off, we watched a horror movie, and then finally retreated to our air-conditioned bedroom.

The next morning, we were served breakfast and then cruised back to the same jetty from where we left. On the way to the jetty, some locals caught up to us in their boats and held on to the sides for a quicker ride back to the mainland (check out the photo at the bottom). If we had to do it all over again (and who knows? We might do it once more before leaving Kerala), we wouldn’t spend the night on the boat. For Zac and I, it was uncomfortable because the boat kept rocking in the water all night. I feel it’s better to cruise all day and then get off the boat at evening and stay at a resort. Another thing, our cruise route was supposed to be Alleppey-Kumarakom-Alleppey, but we were pretty sure our captain took us halfway (if that) to Kumarakom and then turned the boat around. So, next time, we would do a one direction cruise, such as Alleppey-Kumarakom.

Another tip – be wary of the shops that the houseboat stops at. They have a tendency to overcharge unsuspecting tourists. Zac was furious when he figured out that the locals were charging double price or more for fresh fish and prawns.

So, yes, the Kerala houseboat. It was an overall good experience, and I’m super glad we went. The scenery was beautiful, and the cruise was relaxing. The food was very tasty, and our crew was very nice. There are just some things we feel we would do differently next time.