Prelude

The main attraction of Alleppey is houseboat and we started searching for houseboat from the day we decided we were going to Kerala. We couldn’t finalize any from the ones we found online and finally our uncle who had been to Kerala a few months ago gave us the contact details of guy on whose houseboat they had stayed. After some lengthy discussions and a bit of haggling we finalized on Deluxe Houseboat Plan which would cost us ₹7000. In the deluxe plan the AC would work only during the night time and include lunch, evening snacks, dinner and breakfast. The check-in timing would be 12PM and checkout at 9AM.

Now, Munnar to Alleppey is about 180km and takes almost 6 hours to reach there accounting for a couple of halts in between. We were planning to stay only for one night in Alleppey and that too on the houseboat. So to make it on time for the house boat check-in at 12PM we would have to leave latest by 6 AM and would leave us too tired to enjoy the houseboat. So we decided that we will stay one night in Alleppey then next day go to the houseboat.

Day 1

As planned we post checkout we headed to Munnar Tea Museum and left from there for Alleppy by 12 o’clock. We took one halt for lunch on the way and reached Alleppey by 4 o’clock.

Our booking for Alleppey too were done via Oyo rooms and the hotel was A.J Park. The hotel’s interior were good and the rooms were also good, clean but cramped. Despite being Oyo Premium the room didn’t even have mini refrigerator and toilet paper was missing.

In the evening we headed towards Alleppey beach which was 1.8 km from the hotel, so we went there walking. We spent the evening on the beach, saw the beautiful sunset and then came back to hotel restaurant for dinner.

Day 2

We were super exited to go on the houseboat and were all packed and ready to go right after the breakfast. Since, the houseboat check-in was at 12 PM, we tried killing time by watching TV. But, we ended up checking out as soon as our driver arrived at 10:30 and headed straight to the houseboat. Since we reached there well before scheduled time, they were doing all the cleaning and prep work for the ride. We were then introduced with the captain of the houseboat and the houseboat caretaker cum chef. We were given our welcome drinks, while we were wrapping up the formalities and were all set for the ride. As we had reached early they also started the ride 15 minutes prior to schedule. Generally, they start the boat at 12 PM.

Around 1 o’clock the houseboat halted at Meenappally Kayal for lunch. We had katla fish fry and it was awesome. Post lunch, the houseboat started again.

We were just moving all around the Alleppey backwater. By 4 – 4:30, the sunlight looked like little stars on the water. It was so beautiful.

At last @ 5 o’clock they docked the houseboat near a village. The houseboat had a TV but no cable connection and were told that we would get cable TV once we docked in the evening. Turned out that the locals rent out the set top boxes for ₹50/night and since post sunset we wouldn’t have anything to do, we took it.

So we got down from the houseboat and this was the time we could actually take some photos of it. We took a leisurely stroll of the village and came back after sunset. With nothing else to do, we started watching TV. The TV was not in the room, but in the open area. Soon all the insects started coming. Thank god we had carried odomos and it helped in keeping the mosquitoes and insects away for sometime.

Soon it was dinner time and with too many insects outside, the dinner was served inside our room, which was bug free. The AC was turned on and we had our dinner in peace. Post dinner, we started watching TV show on our laptop. After watching 2 episodes we slept and decided to get up early in the morning to see the Sunrise from the houseboat.

Day 3

We got up early and got to see the a really beautiful sunrise from the backwaters. We had a nice morning stroll of the village and headed back to the boat by 7 AM.

We then quickly got ready and packed everything up as we had to checkout at 9 o’clock and then head straight to Kovalam which is 4 hrs from Alleppey. Soon the houseboat started moving again and were served dosa for breakfast. Soon we arrived back at the jetty from where we had started and this marked the end of our houseboat ride.

Here’s the houseboat route and a parting shot with the crew.

Duration	2 Days
Hotel	A.J.Park, Blue Greens Houseboat
Places visited	Alleppey Beach Backwater ride on the Houseboat