Kerala Houseboat

This month my good friend Tom was visiting India from Minnesota for a few weeks and one of our touring stops was in southwest India in an area known as Kerala, referred to as "God's Own Country"--a highly populated region of India running along the southern part of the Indian peninsula. This amazing region is well-known for being one of the most literate, healthiest, and gender-equitable regions in India and has once been occupied by the French, Dutch, Portuguese and British, who have all left their mark, making it extremely eclectic and rich in history. One of the highlights of visiting Kerala is to take a houseboat tour through the backwaters of Allepy and the areas of Old Cochin--an escape from the modern cities of India and a "float" down the rivers of India past. So, based on the recommendations of another expat, Jamie, we booked a weekend trip. Our entire weekend tour was organized by Nirmal at Oriana Travel Shop and was planned and executed seamlessly.

After a short one hour flight from Bangalore, Nirmal met us at the airport and gave us our vouchers and explained the whole travel package to us. We joined our driver, Kuriakose, and headed to the city of Kochi. We stayed overnight in a hotel by the water and were able to tour Old Cochin and visit the ancient Chinese fisherman's nets and fishing docks the next morning. We then drove down south to Alleppey in the late morning to board the houseboat by noon to spend the next two and half days cruising the backwaters of Kerala, observing the nature, animals, people, temples, churches, longboats, and amazing scenery.

The houseboat voyage was a wonderful experience and the crew was fantastic. All of our meals where cooked on-board the boat (including fresh lobster and fish from the waters of Kerala!) We occupied ourselves by relaxing, reading, playing cards, and watching the sites as we toured many different areas of the backwaters and rivers. At night they would shore-up the houseboat along a side of a riverbank and we would enjoy the peace and quiet of being out in nature. The stars were abundant and a gentle breeze provided relief from the heat of the day.

By Monday morning we returned to Alleppey, disembarked from the houseboat and spent time visiting other parts of Kochi including a Jewish synagogue and more of the old sections of the town. Later that afternoon before departing for Bangalore, we met with with Nirmal, who made certain we enjoyed our whole trip and presented us each with a souvenir houseboat replicas as thank you gifts. What a great guy!

The whole weekend was wonderfully relaxing and a culturally interesting experience. If you visit India I would definitely encourage you to look up Nirmal and book a houseboat trip to Kerala. The freedom of being on the open water, the beauty of the natural scenery, and the general sincerity of the people convinced me that Kerala does, indeed, live up to its name of being "God's Own Country".

Namaste.