Backwater Ripples & Floating Heaven !!

We set off from Alleppey to the Backwater Ripples resort at Kumarakom, where we were given a very warm traditional welcome by our new hosts.

The resort, (http://www.backwaterripples.com) , looked very appealing on the drive in. It is a lovely green complex with lots of palm trees and although it is quite big (10 acres) , it is very secluded and the trees give such shelter that you feel you could be alone. We have a lovely room near the swimming pool overlooking the Vembanad lake, the second largest in India, and the centre of the famed Backwaters, described as a 'tangle of lush tropical waterways and low-lying paddy fields'.

We set about exploring the resort and found a lovely restaurant serving local fish, an Ayurvedic centre and lots of wonderful walks through the grounds. There was a sunset cruise on the lake which we tried out, ahead of our overnight trip on the house boat.

After another very good Keralan fish dinner, we retired, to be ready for our house boat trip next morning.

We boarded our House boat about 12.30 next day and were greeted with traditional jasmine garlands and fresh coconuts, by the crew.

The boat is very well equipped. As well as the dining area with a good sized table and 4 chairs, there are 2 easy chairs on deck, to sit and watch the world float by. There's quite a big twin bedroom and bathroom with a shower. So it was extremely comfortable and we were well served by 3 crew members, who piloted, cooked and generally maintained the craft very well throughout.

The first port of call was the lake side for lunch. We dropped anchor (well, tied up to a tree actually !) and the crew prepared a wonderful freshly cooked lunch, featuring the local lake blackfish, which we thoroughly enjoyed.

After lunch we continued along our way on the waterways. It's extremely peaceful and although we occasionally met up with some neighbour house boats, it was very quite and peaceful and hardly a sound was heard all day .. wonderful.

In the afternoon, we stopped off at the fish market to get some prawns for dinner. We meet some people and some children along the banks of the lake. The children are always keen to talk to the foreigners and practise their excellent English. This bunch were very chatty ..

Dinner was another wonderful meal cooked by our host crew and served as the sun set, on the water. It was eerily quite in the dark. Occasionally a boat would pass by with absolutely no lights. You'd just hear the ripples in the water. the crew told us that the House Boats had to dock at 5.30 because after that it's time for fishing and the House Boats cannot run in case the interfere with the fishing.

After dinner and some fresh air walking along the bank, we retired to be rocked to sleep in our nice air conditioned cabin.

Next morning we awoke to the sound of the engine starting and preparing for moving off. Breakfast was served and we moved off about 8am. This is obviously rush hour on ther waterways and there was a lot of traffic on the route. We saw lots of other House Boats as well as some smaller boats, delivering various products. One we passed was carrying drinking water. The people who live along the banks were busy too. We saw many walking along to work or to school and a lot washing themselves or their clothes in the lake .. some cleaning the front of their houses .. a very busy stretch of water.

It was serious rush hour at the docking area in Alleppey. When we got there to dock, the craft were 2 or 3 deep and we could not get anywhere the bank. In fact we had to walk throuhg 2 other boats to get to the shore ! Here we were picke dup to drive to Cochin for the last leg of our Kerala adventure.

News from Cochin soon .....