South India · Backwater
Kettuvallam nights on Vembanad and paddy below sea level
Photo: Augustus Binu : flickr · CC BY-SA 3.0
Best: Nov–Mar
Alappuzha was laid out in the late eighteenth century by Raja Kesavadas, the Travancore diwan, as a canal port for pepper and coir, and the grid of waterways he cut still runs behind the town's old warehouses. Its hinterland, Kuttanad, is one of the few places on earth where farming happens below sea level: paddy fields lie up to two metres under the water outside, held by mud bunds and kept dry by pumps, with duck flocks driven between the bunds by boatmen. The houseboats are converted kettuvallam rice barges, hulls of jackwood planks stitched with coir rope and sealed with cashew resin, and a night on one is the classic Kerala experience.
Cast off at noon, drift out onto Vembanad, at ninety-six kilometres India's longest lake, watch the Chinese dip nets and the toddy tappers on their coconut ropes, eat karimeen grilled in a banana leaf, and moor in a paddy channel under the stars. Better still, take a small country canoe into the narrow canals the big boats cannot enter, past Champakulam, whose Syrian Christian church claims one of the oldest foundations in Kerala, and village shops selling only bananas and lottery tickets. On the second Saturday of August the Nehru Trophy Boat Race turns Punnamada Lake into a stadium, with hundred-foot chundan vallam snake boats and more than a hundred rowers to a hull.
Best Nov–Mar
November to March; the snake boat race falls on the second Saturday of August.
Give Alleppey (Alappuzha) 2 days and it repays the time; with fewer you are choosing between A night aboard a kettuvallam houseboat on Vembanad Lake and Country canoe through the narrow Kuttanad canals. We build the hours around the weather — early starts when it is hot, long afternoons when it is not.
On the ground
The days we would actually plan for you, in the order that suits the light.
At the table
VegetarianKerala
A vegetarian feast of twenty or more dishes served on a plantain leaf in a fixed order, from pickle and pappadam at the tip to rice with parippu, sambar, avial, olan and thoran, ending in payasam. You eat with the right hand and fold the leaf towards you when done. Thrissur does it best at Onam.
VegetarianKerala
Fermented rice and coconut batter swirled in a deep appachatti so it sets lacy at the rim and spongy at the centre, served with a pale stew of vegetables or chicken in coconut milk, cinnamon, curry leaf and whole pepper. It is the Syrian Christian breakfast of Fort Kochi and the Kuttanad backwaters.
Getting there
Cochin International (COK) is 85 km; Alappuzha station is 4 km from the boat jetty, with Kochi 55 km north and Kumarakom 30 km east.
Airport pickups, station transfers and the driver for the days here are all part of what we arrange — including the hour you should leave, which is usually earlier than you think.
Next door
Places that join Alleppey (Alappuzha) without a long drive — the way a real week is built.
BackwaterKerala
A heronry on Vembanad, and the village of Ayemenem next door
CityKerala
Chinese nets, a Dutch palace and five centuries of harbour trade
BeachKerala
Kerala's only sea cliff, with springs, ashes and yoga above it
WildlifeKerala
A drowned valley, spice country and guides who were once poachers
Hill stationKerala
Clipped tea hills, Nilgiri tahr and the highest peak down south
1 journey
8 days · 7 nightsEasy · Best Sep–Mar
Fort Kochi to a Vembanad houseboat, by way of the high tea country
Route: Kochi → Munnar → Thekkady & Periyar → Alleppey (Alappuzha) +1 more
From the journal
· Tips · 6 min
Everything we tell first-time travellers before they land: how many places to attempt, what a SIM card and a day of cash actually cost, how to eat street food safely, what to wear into a temple, and the four scams worth recognising.
· Guide · 6 min
India is not one climate but six, from a Himalayan cold desert at 3,500 metres to hills that take eleven metres of rain a year. Here is the whole calendar, month by month, with the regions, roads and parks that open and close with it.
· Guide · 6 min
How to book a kettuvallam without regret: which jetty to start from, what a night on board actually costs in rupees, the canals worth asking your crew for, what gets cooked on the stern, and the months when Vembanad looks its best.
Before you ask
Photograph of Alleppey (Alappuzha): Augustus Binu : flickr · CC BY-SA 3.0
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