Backwaters Calling.
Navigating the waterways of God’s own country
A group of houseboats departing the ports for their morning tours in Alappuzha, Kerala. Houseboats once used for the transport of trade items like rice are now increasingly popular among the tourists as an accomodation and business groups as fancy conference halls.
A group of young men dressed up in traditional cloth (veshti) standing over a bridge across the river in Alappuzha, Kerala.
A farmer walking through the paddy field . Kuttanad, a small region within the Allapuzha district is often called the Rice bowl of Kerala. The area is known for its lush green vegetation stretching to the horizon.
Traditional wooden boats are transporting sacks of rice in the similar fashion to the past.
A group of young boys enjoying enjoying weightlifting at a riverside makeshift gym.
Passenger boats are a common mode of transport between the small pockets of land mass in the Allapuzha backwaters.
Running a houseboat is similar to running a mini-hotel, which includes a crew of skipper, chef, cleaners, etc depends on the size of the boat.
A villager enjoying a bottle of fresh toddy at a waterfront toddy shop.
Villagers having a friendly chat at the banks of a small canal.
A snake swimming across a canal.
A boy enjoying a bath in the canal. Families depend on the backwater for the many of their household needs including cooking, bathing, laundry, transport, fishing etc.
A family using their small wooden boat to navigate around the winding water canal.
A wooden boat traveling on the backwaters.
Synopsis
Kerala, often known as God’s own country, is a state in India with a vibrant heritage and a spectacular display of nature at its best. In recent few decades, it is fast becoming a premium tourist destination, and the district of Alappuzha is the most colorful feather in the hat.
This region, collectively considered the rice bowl of Kerala, is such a lush and beautiful area thanks to the countless water channels that divide the land mass into tiny islands. The mode of transport is mostly via boat, while some of the places are connected by bridges and roads. It’s a fascinating sight to see people go on their life casually riding the wooden boat, both adults and children alike.
What was just the mode of transport of people and products between the regions has now changed into a lucrative business with the introduction of much larger counterparts, houseboats. These massive boats, a modified version of earlier ‘Kettuvallams,’ which were initially used to transport rice, are now reworked into hotels for tourists.
An increasing number of houseboats and other vessels catering to tourists continue to change the landscape of backwaters. However, the rural life of the villages still appears to be continuing as usual, possibly linked to the massive size of these much larger boats preventing them from entering small waterways, thus effectively limiting a potentially enormous tourist influx into the smaller villages.