One of our first exposures to Kerala was an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations. The last stop of Tony’s trip included a cruise and overnight stay on a kettuvallam style houseboat on the famous Backwaters of Kerala. This style of thatched roof wooden boat was originally used to transport spices to the buyers in Kochi but were later converted for the tourist trade.
The Bourdain cruise seemed so romantic as he made slow progress down the water interrupted with stops at seafood vendors along the way to his evening mooring in time for a beautiful sunset and a seafood feast prepared by an onboard private chef.
When it came time to create our itinerary for a trip to Kerala, a backwater cruise was high on our list of things to do so we scheduled a night on a kettuvallam on the way from Trivandrum to Kochi.
After about a 3½ hour drive from Uday Suites we met our captain and boarded our boat in Alleppey (aka Alappuzha) to begin our cruise on Vembanad Lake. While during our time on the boat we didn’t cover all that much geography, it would have been possible to travel all the way to Kochi over a network of canals, lakes and estuaries that are known collectively as the Kerela Backwaters. The water is a brackish mix of seawater and freshwater that drains into the body from surrounding land.
Our houseboat was a small one-bedroom kettuvalum operated by White Rose Houseboats and while it didn’t have a staff the size of Bourdain’s, our captain and his young mate, who also did a surprisingly good job as our chef were great companions.
After a few hours on board we were served a very nice lunch and spent the rest of the day traveling at a slow pace touring the lake and canals. Along the way we made a stop at a little stand and bought a kilo of giant tiger prawns that was a part of our dinner that night.
As we made our way around the perimeter of the lake and through some narrower canals, the captain sat in what looked to be a kitchen chair on the open-air front deck piloting the boat. Behind that was a lounge area covered in a thatched roof but open on the sides. This is where we spent most of our time watching the scenery pass by. The back part of that area had a dining table where we had our meals and right behind that was the bedroom.
It was a dark, cool wood paneled room with a comfortable bed and a nice half bath ensuite. We slept very well the one night we were there.
Further back was the small galley. Our young chef had the advantage of some pre-prep work on things other than the fish that we bought and the food was surprisingly good.
The very back of the boat had another small viewing area but we tended to avoid that space as the smell of diesel was pretty strong back there (but not towards the front of the boat.)
At roughly 5:30 PM we tied up to a small dock for the night and got to watch village activities. It was the community where our boat captain lived so he guided us on a village walk where we met this interesting fellow.
Our captain was a very sweet guy. As we were enjoying the beauty of the sunset from the boat I asked if there was any beer and he said there is a store nearby and he would go get one for us. We thought he was going to run to the corner but instead, he jumped into a small boat and sped away to return about 20 minutes later with a large cold beer.
We loved the houseboat experience and were really happy we were on an old style one bedroom boat rather than the much larger party boats that now make up a large part of the increasing traffic on the Backwaters.
The next morning, we motored back to the dock in Alleppey to rejoin our driver for the ride to Kochi.