Travel> Kumarakom: The Houseboat Haven

Image1: Boatman

Image2: Perched Cormorant

Image3: Fellow tourists

Image4: Kerala Houseboat

Image5: Toddy, Karimeen Curry & Tapioca
Image copyright: Tanya Munshi

Text by: Tanya Munshi
On a trip to Kerala, it doesn't take too much planning to visit Kumarakom. A few hours' drive from Kochi, Kumarakom is a fun place to visit. Famous for its enviable location on Vembanad Lake at the mouth of the backwaters and its beautiful houseboats, Kumarakom is a place like you have never been to before.

En route to Kumarakom, a stopover at the Indian Coffee House at Vaikom is a must to enjoy dosas, bread omelette and traditional South Indian coffee. We started our journey from Kochi at around nine in the morning and reached Kumarakom by 11 am.

We stopped over at the Kerala Tourism Department Corporation owned Motel Aram, which has clean toilets, ample parking space, decent rooms and clean restaurants. From there, we hired a private six-seater motorboat for Rs 600 for a two-hour backwater tour, which we considered a steal, especially for a group like ours. In fact, the KTDC also rents out boats for Rs 550 per hour.
It's better to stop over at this KTDC motel to rent boats as it is more organised and less expensive compared to other places, where you may have to bargain and the reliability may be in question.

Floating hotels
A day or two on a houseboat is an experience of a lifetime and is perfect for a break or an anniversary surprise. The room charge per night for an air-conditioned and a non-air-conditioned houseboat is Rs 20,000 and Rs 10,000 respectively, during peak season, which runs from mid-October till March.

This includes breakfast, lunch and dinner, while sailing down the peaceful backwaters. Meals include the fresh catch of the day fetched by the boat's cook. Each boat has a bedroom, living room and a dining area. The check-out time is usually 12 noon. For bookings, one can get in touch with KTDC or private tour operators to get the best deal. The off-season rates are a steal. Just Rs 5,000.

Tuck into this spread
One of us expressed the desire to taste the authentic toddy, tapioca and karimeen curry. So, Sukumaran took us to a restaurant on the shore. We ordered toddy, a popular local drink in Kerala that is fermented coconut wine, extracted from the coconut palm.

I guess one has to develop a taste for toddy, as the sour flavour and aroma kind of masked the coconut wine. My husband relished the toddy, as it blended perfectly with the tapioca and karimeen curry, My favourite dish though was the karimeen curry -- a red tangy spicy curry, prepared with the pearl spotted fish, or the karimeen.

The curry is prepared using a small dried up fruit known as cocumstar, which offers a unique tangy flavour to the curry. The cocumstar is removed after cooking and is not a part of the main dish. The tapioca or kappa, a light snack, which tasted somewhat like yam. Our total bill came to Rs 170.

Attend a 'boat warming' party
On our way back, we chanced upon a 'boat warming party'; the locals were innaugurating a new house boat. We finished our backwater trip in about four hours and we paid Sukumaran for the extended hours, which he took quite reluctantly. We picked up souvenirs -- miniature versions of beautiful houseboats -- that ranged from Rs 200 to Rs 750 from the KTDC souvenir store.
On the way back, we had lunch at the famous K R Bakes, which serves a wide range of small eats. It is especially famous for its chicken and fish dishes.

How to get there
By road
Kumarakom is 60 km from Kochi and 16 km from Kottayam.

By air
There are daily flights from Mumbai and Chennai and connecting flights from New Delhi and other places in India to Kochi, Kozhikode and Trivandrum.

Kumarakom is 175 km from Trivandrum International Airport and 85 km from Cochin International Airport.

By rail
Kochi is well-connected by rail with Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and with other smaller metros.

Web sites: www.ktdc.com/WaterScapes.htm
www.kumarakom.com/howto.htm

Published in Rediff.com, on November 15, 2006
Link: http://in.rediff.com/getahead/2006/nov/15slide.htm