An incredible voyage!

Today, we travelled back down to sea level, for our stay on a houseboat on Vembanad Lake.

We spent the afternoon cruising around the lake, down canals, past paddy fields and literally watching life go by! We had another huge lunch (the only size available!) while ooo-ing and aah-ing at the stunning scenery… all while being looked after superbly by the three crew members. There’s a big ‘snake boat’ race in a couple of days and we saw one of the rowing crews (100+ in the one long canoe!) having a practice. Kerala’s ruling Communist Party (who knew?!?) were also having some sort of festival and there was much music and singing coming from lots of boats festooned in red and yellow, with balloons and red hammer and sickle flags. In the evening, we watched the sunset over dinner and played chess while fishermen reeled in their day’s catch.

You can see the same style of houseboat in my picture, taken as we were mooring up for the night. It doesn’t look much from the outside but the side panels open up to give not only amazing views but a lovely breeze. Modelled on a traditional fishing boat, these houseboats have obviously been created for tourism, as they are very luxurious with not only bathrooms to hotel standard but even air conditioning!

There are hundreds of similar boats here, including ‘real’ ones that local people still live on. Not sure how authentic our experience has been compared to that but we’ve certainly enjoyed it!