Why a private backwater tour is worth the money

Kerala Tourism provided these three pictures with a kind request to add them to this post. I have no problem with that, since the pictures give a bird’s eye view that I can never provide myself. And I really find Kerala and it’s backwaters very worthwhile to visit. Mind you, that this was, and still is, NOT a sponsored post!!!!

There are so many options though:

1. from where to where, e.g. Allepey is famous for backwater tours.
2. how long? Tours are offered from for a couple of hours till lasting a whole week.
3. in what type of boat? In a canoe, a houseboat or a motorized boat?
4. with a group or privately organized?

Ofcourse different choices also come with totally different prices.

So what you decide will depend on:

1. your budget
2. your available time
3. the rest of your itinerary
4. wether you travel alone, as a couple or in a group

Budget was not an issue for us. We were traveling as a couple. And we had limited time and were staying in Cochin.

We considered taking a tourist group backwater tour of a half to a whole day. It was cheap and would cover about what we wanted to do and see.
But after reading the latest reviews on Tripadvisor we changed our mind. The reviews spoke of too big groups on cramped boats, of hours of picking up and dropping of other passengers at different hotels in town and of poor food on board.
We decided that that would spoil the experience for us, so we chose for a private half day backwater tour, organized by our hotel: The Vivanta by Taj, Malabar.

While a group tour would have costed us about 2 x 10 euro, this private tour costed us about 75 euro, if I recall correctly.

For that money we travelled straight from our hotel to the canoe in an AC taxi with driver and guide. (And were brought back the same way, of course)

The guide was very knowledgeable and spoke good english. There was a boatsman waiting for us, we used a bigger canoe, a smaller canoe, we did tea making at a private home, made rope with the locals, watched toddy tapping and drank it and saw coconut picking from high up the tree.

During the whole trip is was just us and all was so peaceful, quiet and beautiful.

Let me take you on a boat ride on the backwaters:

Frits, our guide and our boatsman. Taking the bigger canoe first.

Frits’ work never stops, unless he sleeps.

How romantic and enchanting is this scenery?

The backwaters are very wide and calm here.

All activity goes over the water.

Catch of the day!

Old houseboat stuffed with tourists; glad we were able to take a private tour instead!

Nice too, but this boat cannot go onto the smaller waters. A boat like this is nice to hire for a couple of days and nights and just to let time pass….

Our guide knew a lot about the flora and fauna. Here he compared a bottle of river water (left) versus a bottle of mineral water. It sure looks as clean and clear.

Cashew

A Cormoran is drying it’s wings.

A white Egret.

A white headed sea eagle.

Medium width waters.

Taking a smaller canoe for the narrow waters.

Our guide explained about the brownish weeds that we see here on the surface of the backwaters. It’s a whole ecological process, that provides oxygen to the waters and so on.

This man climbs the coconut palms to chop down coconuts

Throws them down….

Comes down himself;-)

His mate throws them in their boat.

The coconut trees are used 100% around here. Not only the coconuts, but also the fibers, the stem, the leafs, etc.

Little girl

“Hey, I was poodling here! Why do you have to land your boat right here?”

“Ok, ok, I will get out. Let me stretch my hind legs for a sec here. All that poodling made me lazy and stiff.”

My next two posts will cover the toddy making and the tea and rope making.

Seeing the above pictures brings back the serene feeling that that day gave us; wow!