Backwaters

Kerala is famous for its Backwaters which, although only metres from the sea, are fresh water and a whole network of village life exists on these lakes and canals.

We have moved on from our lovely relaxing 4 days at the Ayurvedic health village above Chowarra beach to an even more relaxing day and night on a Rice boat - Kettuvalam - originally barges used to transport rice from the huge paddy fields around these backwaters to the sea ports. They are now a major tourist attraction but as it was low season it wasn't too busy.

This is our rice boat - just the two of us with two men to crew it and a cook. This shows our 'living and dining' area and in addition we had a bedroom with ensuite shower. We had moored for the night ( we also moored at lunch time) and had an excellent meal of typical Keralan food plus some fresh water lobsters that we had purchased at a lakeside fish stall earlier in the afternoon.
It was magnificent and as we were opposite a church (Kerala is a predominantly Christian area) it was also accompanied by the sound of a sung mass!

Highly recommended!