adventure of a different kind in kerala, southern india with #keralablogexpress – day 6

Friday March 6th

After the sunrise, we enjoyed on board of our houseboats  a local breakfast: a sort of an omelette and pancakes filled with coconut, banana and cinnamon filling – they were simply delicious! Meanwhile, the journey continued towards the end station peacefully and we were watching the fishermen standing on their narrow boats and setting their nets in the water.

Once we reached the end point of the houseboat tour we were picked up by a smaller, hand-punted boats so we could enter smaller canals to visit the award-winning eco initiative of backwater village touring: There you’re shown how the traditional crafts such as weaving thread from coconut, making bags, panels and other weaves, collecting fresh liquor from a coconut tree and more. It’s great that these traditional skills are still actively maintained and shared with the outside world.

Touring alone these inland waterways, which actually are part of a National Waterway route no 3 (altogether168 km long) gives a good idea what the daily life is like for people, and how important role the water plays in it: most waterfront houses have just tiny bit of land behind them before rice fields start stretching out to the horizon. Besides watering the crops and feeding the animals, the water is being used by people for bathing, laundry, washing dishes, transportation – pretty much for everything!

Our programme continued with kayaking and cycling in the afternoon – and kayaking in these plant-filled canals is not easy at all! I also finally got a taste for the Ayurvedic therapy with a massage using hot oils and heated grain bags. It was as good as I had expected, and with the soft sitar music on the background I was soon drifting away to a relaxed sleep.

Although the houseboats were a great experience, I was more than happy to have a bit of resort life with healing treatments, and then finish the day off in the private pool of my waterside villa in the Zuri Kumarakom Resort and Spa. Now I’m recharged and ready to head towards the northern parts and more mountainous areas!

 

Disclosure: This trip was sponsored and part of the Kerala Tourism #KeralaBlogExpress 2 -initiative. All opinion expressed here are my own and are based on my personal experiences in Kerala.