SE India - The Backwater

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Backwater Tour

Behind the towns in the south west of India, is a river, lake and canal system that they call the Kerala backwater. The Bakwater river and canal systems go for hundreds of kilometres, using both natural and man made canals.

Some of these canals run high above the surrounding rice fields, and the swamps of Kerala.

We were fortunate enough to go on a 4 hour cruise on a backwater houseboat. The houseboats range from 1 bedroom 30 feet models, up to the 100 feet 4 bedroom models. Like the narrow boats of England, these houseboats are available for charter. We had a 1 bedroom houseboat for 4 hours, and with a captain and cook, the cruise cost about $A150.00, which is very reasonable, as it includes a delicious lunch, and afternoon tea. The Boats left from a town that was about 1 hour north of our central town of Thiruvella.


We took a taxi to the start point, and it was a wonder that the taxi could find the boat with the narrow lane system leading to the canals. The canals were filled with green weed, that would disable a normal boats propulsion and steering systems, however these boats seemed to be able to handle the conditions. It was amazing to see the different designs and sizes of boats available. The area is also full of home stay houses that would be so relaxing to hire for a period of time. I had never heard of them before, but would be prepared, now to go back to this area and stay longer. If you didn’t want the whole huge houseboat experience, other people were also being carried in small luxury gondolas. This would also be a relaxing way to spend the day.


The lake systems of the backwater are alive with fish and prawns, and within the backwaters, are also shops and water borne market sellers of these items. There is also a floating supermarket, that changes its location a couple of times a day, to sell daily necessities to the people of the backwater.

If you have a few days to spare, I would have to recommend this experience. We did it for four hours, and that too was fun.

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