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Close your eyes a minute, and imagine. It is a clear evening on the Vembanad Lake,
the stars already burning bright in the brief tropical twilight.
The lake's
waters are an identical shade with the sky, creating a seamless blue world edged
with the bursting green of shoreside forests, thick with coconut, cardamom, cinnamon
and teak.
Wait long enough and you'll see a cluster of lights looming up.
Dancing fireflies that grow larger and resolve into a string of hurricane lamps.
The plump lines of a 'kettuvallom' take shape, its cane-and-rope awnings flying
rakishly, its silent hull gliding past as if on wings of air. You catch a brief
glimpse of yellow light and warm interiors. And then the vision is gone, melting
back into the evening.
The 'kettuvallom' is the queen of the Kerala backwaters.
(See
map)
And on a Spice Coast
Cruise, it becomes your floating home, providing the best means of experiencing
them that can possibly be imagined, combining holidaying, pleasure-boating and
ecological living in an exhilarating way.
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The
backwaters have been marveled at by visitors from Vasco da Gama onwards. Thick
as a patchwork quilt around the port towns of Allepey and Quilon, thinning out
into liquid spears north towards Calicut, and with the vast freshwater sea of
the Vembanad as their centerpiece, the backwaters are an ecology like no other
on earth.
Some are no wider than an armspan, navigable only by canoe. Others
are dual carriageways, deep and rippling, sometimes broadening out into vast misty
lakes, sometimes curling into twisting wormturns, hemmed by paddy fields and fed
by a thousand fat streams from the high ranges of the Spice Mountains to the east.
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The
culture and lifestyle of the backwaters is as unique as the ecology. Habitation
is everywhere, but in such harmony that it it seems inseparable from nature.
Wood
and slapdash plaster huts are scattered on both sides, with an ever-present complement
of pigs, chickens and buffaloes. Rice fields stretch like improbably large lawns,
laid out amidst clusters thick with coconut, cashew , guava and mango. Fishing
boats with home-made patchwork sails ply thecanals. A little hut turns out to
be a coir factory, with women spinning and knotting busily. A man stands still
as a yogi, neck-deep in the canal, waiting to catch a prize fish with his bare
hands.
And there, sitting in a Planter's armchair, a coconut cocktail conveniently
to hand, are you. Gliding gently along through it all, witness to this mystical
passing show. | | |
Spice
Coast Cruising takes place on solid little two-bedroom craft. The fore area is
an open lounge canopied with cane and rattan. All the comforts of home abound,
with queen-sized beds, tiled bathrooms and modern plumbing. Even bookshelves,
china tea services and an armchair or two. Fans and lights are powered by solar
panels on the roof..
So all you need to do is relax, open your senses and submit
to the famed backwater magic.
Anatomy
of a Kettuvallom Slide
show: the boat and the accommdations
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Your
crew of three are experts who know the backwaters inside out. Not surprisingly,
since they were born here. | |  |
Ever
had a meal prepared by a boatman? he is no chef, but he is the carrier of an ancient
tradition of hospitality. | | | | |
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For
millennia now, the ecology of the backwaters has been a fine balance between man
and nature, the old ways of life serving to sustain and preserve the environment.
But today, this way of life is under threat. As the backwaters grow in popularity,
so does the impact of indiscriminate tourism and uncontrolled consumption of resources
like water, timber and arable land. We urge you to visit with sensitivity, to
make simple living a part of every experience. We promise, your journey will be
that much more enriching. | |
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