Lazing on a Houseboat in Kerala

Enjoying the Sunset, Kochi [Enlarge & More]

The Humidity in Kerala has been much higher than anywhere else we have been at about 95%. Luckily, it’s cooler so is bearable and during the night in Kochi we had found a delightful renovated old Dutch homestay called Walton’s to stay in, which was cool and airy. On the recommendation of the owner we booked ourselves onto a ‘Deluxe’ houseboat after leaving Kochi. We picked it up from Allepuzah (Allepey) after a taxi ride from Kochi. The taxi ride down was entertaining just for the fact that the driver talked to himself the whole way down, shouted at us so that we would understand his adequate English and constantly have his hand on the horn for no reason at all.

On the Houseboat[Enlarge & More]

The Houseboat turned out to be a real gem, it was beautiful and definitely ‘Deluxe’ and as soon as we had boarded it we set off down the backwaters. It was a glorious day and it was stunning with such vibrant colours and so much going on on the water. Not something I would want to do but the waters edge is used as a bathroom, people wash themselves, their clothes and what gave me a shiver, brush their teeth. The river didn’t look the cleanest.

We were looked after really well on the Houseboat and as sunset arrived we moored up for the night. The noise level by the river was amazing, particularly a frog that only calls out during the rainy season which I guessed correctly and Jono decided was a bat!! The most alarming sight was the size of the mosquitoes, up until now they had been what I would call normal size, but on the river they were huge. One good thing about them being so big was you would see them coming.

River Taxi [Enlarge & More]

Even though the small bedroom had a ceiling fan, the humidity on the river was incredible at night. I did wake up a few times drenched in my own sweat, I’m sure by the morning you could have wrung out the pillow. The best thing would have been to open the windows but neither of us fancied that as we did not trust the nets on them to hold back the giant mossies.