Alleppey BackWater
One of the problems with working in India is that I'm not on vacation, and I really only have the weekends to explore. That may seem like a restriction that would have me watching the 3rd grade parade down main street or stuck watching the high school play for entertainment, but the state of Kerala has a lot to offer the weekend tourist. There is great pride here around the amount of diversity and splendor that exists within the borders of Kerala.
To find out what was available, I contacted G.O.C. Holiday Maker (P) Ltd. here in Kochi. You can e-mail them at gocholidaymaker@hotmail.com . G.O.C. stands for Gods Own Country by the way. The first trip they helped me with was the Back Water trip to Alleppey. It was really amazing...but don't take my word for it - look at the pics and judge for yourself.
After arriving at Alleppey, I was dropped off on to a boat that would take me to the resort I would be staying in. I was staying in Lake Palace Resort which is only accessible by boat. The boat ride started through a canal out to an open water area called the Vembanad Lake, and then we turned right to dock at the resort. It was about a 15 minute trip, and it was a good introduction to the backwater.
Boat to resort pics - click here to see all the pics to the resort. You can also click on the pics below to see a more detailed image.
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The Lake Palace Resort is a 4 star resort. So, lets see what make it 4 stars instead of 3 stars. First, here are pics of lobby area.
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As you can see, this is a very nice place. Granite and marble floors and very nice wood work through out along with intricate stain glass work. The craftsmanship is definitely at a medium high end level which was a bit of a surprise given the resort is in the middle of a lake. The restaurant is up the stairs, and they serve a buffet for breakfast and dinner. This gave me an opportunity to try a lot of different things I have never eaten. Since I have been here for over 2 months now, about a third of the dishes I have never tried. The food in general ranged from Indian, Chinese and English. For example, they had potato salad and cantaloupe which I never expected to see here.
While I'm talking about food, here is there menu. You will find that prices are more expensive here than the RiverDale Resort Menu. Click on the picture to see all the pictures of the menu. You can download the pics, and zoom in if you have a hard time reading them.
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With a full stomach, a little heart burn and a bathroom break, we can walk around the grounds of the resort to get some needed exercise. Here is a panoramic view from the second floor of the lobby. Click on the picture for a more detailed image.
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There is a small lake in the middle of the grounds, and in the middle of that lake is the swimming pool. So, the swimming pool is inside a small man made lake, which is in the middle of Lake Palace Resort, which is in the middle of a Vembanad Lake, which is part of the entire Back Water eco-system...and yes, I'm in the middle of the swimming pool.
There are some great flora and fauna within the grounds, and parts of the roof architecture can only be found in the state of Kerala.
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Walking around has probably made everyone a little thirsty and hot. So, let's go to the room and relax. My room was facing Vembanad Lake, and there was a nice breeze off the lake that day. There is A/C in the room if it gets too warm, but sitting on the porch and watching the boats go by was very relaxing.
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With a bit of rest and relaxation and a lack of any stress levels, it's time for the finale to our symphony - a sunset tour of the back water which will take over 2 hours. As I've stated before, I'm in India during monsoon season which means almost no tourists. This really worked very much to my advantage as I was the only person to join on the nights sunset tour of the back water. Normally, the hotel puts people on a large boat, and they cruise the different lakes. But since there were only a few joining on this night (one to be exact), I was placed in the small boat. The significance of the small boat is that it can travel through the small canals where people live their daily lives in and around the water ways. It's like traveling back in time as women are beating their clothes to wash them, men are rowing canoes with merchandise to sell to a local supplier, and kids are bathing and washing themselves.
Before we start the journey through the back waters, I should mention that all the water you will see is all fresh water . There is over 80 kilometers of fresh water ways and lakes which exist within the eco-system. The backwaters is a creation of nature and man. The rainfall from the high lands rushes toward the sea only to be stopped by the myriad of lakes. Over time, people have extended and redirected waterways to isolate pockets of land where rice is grown. At the end of the blog post, I have links to help you learn more about the back water eco-system that claims its home in Kerala India.
The boat you are about to travel in has a small prop engine to get you around, and it looks like this:
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We started off across the lake, and followed a house boat down a large canal to the next lake. These large house boats are for rent, and you can stay on them as long as you like. After that we went through small canals to get to the next lake - note the small bridge over the canal.
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Here is a nice pic in one of the canals. One thing to remember is that the bigger boats can't go into these canals.
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There were restaurants and small shops along the route. The isolated rice fields were vast in size. They seemed to stretch as far as the eye could see.
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Locals were shuttling produce to local markets via canoe. Hopefully they didn't have far to go because it would be easy to get lost in the maze of canals. Major water way areas have signs to help people navigate the area. In this case, it's 17 kilometers to Takazhi.
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Toward the end of the trip, we stopped off at someone's house, and they gave me a tender coconut to drink and eat. These are young coconuts which are beginning to mature. The water in them has a sweet flavor, and the meat is very tender. Along the way back, I saw a floating crane that was clearing the bottom of a canal. Like I mentioned before, the Back Water is a creation of natural and man made events.
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Here are all the back water pics
This concludes the Alleppey Back Water trip. I hope you enjoyed the experience...if you happen to stop by this way, make sure it's on your adventure to do list. Here are some other links if you want to know more about the area. If you have other links you would like to share, feel free add them to the comments section.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alleppey
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alappuzha
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala_Backwaters
If there are specific pictures that inspire you to the degree of wanting the original, let me know, and I will send it to you - support1@therhogue.com .
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