The good book says that for close to RS 3000 per day you should be able to get a houseboat for 24 hours (including 3 meals and overnight accommodation). Through our friendly tout and houseboat pimp we arranged a fare of RS 2500. We were happy until we learned that the pimp takes RS 250 from the boat crew.
Keep that in mind fellow travelers! Do not follow the touts. Do not wander into travel agency offices. Just wander down the street, cross over the footbridge and start bargaining directly with the houseboat owners and operators.
It was quite possibly the best two days that we've spent in Kerala. I felt really guilty about the quality and quantity of food that we enjoyed. There is really nothing to do on the boat except eat, drink and stare at kilometers and kilometers of beautiful lakes, canals and tributaries lines with coconut trees, rice paddies and villages.
The boat that we had moved at a leisurely pace... if you didn't hear the put-put of the outboard yamaha, you would think that you were drifting. It had a big veranda above the driver's seat and an open-air lounge area. Sorry! There's no shuffle board or skeet shooting.
It was like being pushed through a neighborhood in a stretch limosine, except that the limo has no doors, sides or top. I occasionally can enjoy a pimped out ride, but I don't to flaunt the luxury. Unfortunately on the houseboat, you live large on the backwater and rub it in folk's faces. There is no low-key cruising, as the canals are too tight and the houses and villages are 20 feet away. Eventually numbed by the comforts and bored by the beautiful scenery, I burrowed into my book and hardly looked up - Despite M's attempts to engage me.
So if you are thinking of checking out Kerala's backwaters, please look these guys up when you get to Allepy:
Harilal, Sunillal and Ani
Ph: 0477-2724849
Mob: 9447174849
Boat: Bhagya Leksmi / Sriaukuttan
Daily Rates: RS 5000 (in season) to RS 2250 (off season)
Hari and Sunil are brothers and have named the boat after their children. Next time, Sunil will charge us extra for Keralan cooking classes.
