Royal Night at the Boathouse in Alappuzha - Kerala Episode 2
Kerala legend
The next day we get out of Thekkady quite early in the morning though the circumference of our walk on this day is quite small. While in the country, we booked a houseboat in Aleppo. Today our destination is there. Visitors to Kerala usually set aside a certain amount of time to visit the tea gardens and factories here and do so while staying in Munnar. We didn't get a chance to do that during our trip to Munnar, so Ismail Bhai (driver) offered to take us to the tea garden after hearing about our plans for today. None of us objected to receiving such a bonus on the trip as the houseboat would be checked in at 11.30 am. On the way from Thekkady to Alappuzha he took us to a place where tea leaves are made, sold and at the same time the whole process of making tea is shown to the visitors.
Seeing all the activities of processing tea leaves for 100 rupees, one is forced to change one's previous idea about tea. After seeing the whole process of tea-leaf process we went to their outlet. Various types of tea leaves are sold there ranging in price from Rs 400 to Rs 12,000. They also describe the characteristics of each species to the visitors. After shopping for tea leaves for home, we got in the car again and went straight to Aleppo. At the entrance to the city of Aleppo, the eye goes to the surrounding canal. There are row upon row of boathouses and hunting grounds. The first thing to do in Alappuzha is to visit the Boathouse office we booked. After paying the money and other formalities, they took us to the wharf where our desired boathouse was.Before describing our boathouse, it is good to say that this boathouse is one of the most unique attractions in Kerala.
Elsewhere, the boathouse is usually in the same place, but here it is a floating house on the waterway and usually has a very private royal type arrangement for couples to spend their time romantically (we had no idea before leaving).However, two other guests from the boathouse appeared before us, and it started its journey as soon as we got up. Tourist and staff living room, kitchen, washroom on the ground floor of the boathouse. Leaving the bag in the designated room, we went upstairs.The second floor is basically a veranda, a common dining room refreshment room. Shortly after the boathouse's journey began, we crossed the canal and headed for the open river. It was nice to sit on the verandah and see the distant locality floating on the water in the gentle breeze. Soon we will have many more floating house companions like our boathouse. But the most interesting thing is the floating hawker here. They are selling their goods by boat from one houseboat to another. After some time it started to rain. The imperfection of Thekkadir was eliminated this time.Brishtibilas sat on the verandah of the floating house with a cup of smoked tea in his hand. Meals were served by noon. Although floating in the water all day, the boathouses are anchored in certain villages from evening onwards. Shortly after the meal, we arrived at our designated village where the boathouse would be anchored overnight. After stopping at the boathouse, we walked around the area until evening. After the evening, he returned to the boathouse and went fishing in the river with a spear. After an hour of unsuccessful attempts to tie a nylon rope to a tree branch with a hand-made fishing rod in the dark, we broke the war.After the failure of the Barshi war, we went to the two-story TV room. The movie "Everest" was played there. Dinner arrived just as the movie was about to enter its climax. After dinner we had to come down to our own room because the dining room is the sleeping area of the staff. When we got back to our air-conditioned room, it was just the beginning of the night (only 9 o'clock), the surroundings were dark, and there was nothing to do.So the next day's plan was to make another move and move to the land of sleep with the promise of getting up early the next day. (Continued .........)
Backwater Resort ALleppey
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