Houseboat trip, Kumarakom, Kottayam.

This was a trip I did with two of my Polish friends in December 2014 and I thought of writing about it as it would at least give some info for some who really wanted to know about the backwaters of Kumarakom in Kottayam district, Kerala and see some photos. As they say that Kerala is God’s own country, while approaching to land at Thiruvananthapuram, my friends excited to see the greenery below and exclaimed, “wow, so green!”. It was a kind of pleasant change from the very noisy Delhi to slightly less noisy Thiruvananthapuram. According to them, honking was virtually zero compared to that of Delhi.

We got down at the Kottayam railway station and took a taxi to Kumarakom. The houseboat was alongside a small canal that quietly flows into Vembanad lake and was ready to take us. There were plenty of houseboats along the canal.

Houseboats

This was our humble abode for the day

There were houseboats on both sides of the canal

We board and settled down, weather was still hot and humid. The house boat was quite big, with 2 rooms. We were quite hungry and the lunch was ready soon. Food was really amazing. There were 2 crew members, quite friendly guys, explaining everything clearly.

Houseboats started to move towards the lake

Slowly we started to move towards the mighty Vembanad lake. It was such large body of water, the width at the widest part is almost 7km. At the mouth of the canal, distance to the opposite bank is about 4km.

This guy was wandering around the lake on a simple wooden boat

we took a right turn and sail towards the Thanneermukkom bund, amazing to see it from the lake.

Thanneermukkom bund

A family enjoying ice-cream on a hot afternoon at the thanneermukkom bund

The lake was full of houseboats, of various sizes and shapes. There were much bigger ones, some with an additional balcony above.

various types of houseboats

Slowly sailed back towards Pathiramanal island and after sunset moved towards the starting point. Houseboats are not allowed on the lake after sunset, as it belongs to the fishermen after that. It is a nice place to watch sunset, especially the reddish colour display on the sky. Such a peaceful and serene environment, start to get windy. Amazing to watch the sunset, sipping tea along with tasty banana fries.

Fishermen start to move in

Sunset in the Lake

There were resorts all around the lake, at many places. The one close to the mouth to the canal was really amazing, a typical Kerala house converted to a resort.