| About
House Boat in Kerala
The houseboats in Kerala,
south India, are huge, slow-moving, exotic barges used
for leisure trips. They are a reworked model of Kettuvallams
(in the Malayalam language, Kettu means "tied with
ropes", and vallam means "boat"), which,
in earlier times, were used to carry rice and spices
from Kuttanad to the Kochi port. Kerala houseboats were
considered a convenient means of transportation
The popularity of Kettuvalloms has returned in the function
as major tourist attractions. Many find the Kettuvallom
an ideal means of exploring the beauty of the Kerala
backwaters.
Such a houseboat is about
60 to 70 feet (about 18 to 21 meters) long and about
15 feet (about 5 meters) wide at the middle. The hull
is made of wooden planks that are held together by ropes
of coconut fiber; the usual wood is 'Anjili'. The roof
is made of bamboo poles and palm leaves. The exterior
of the boat is painted with protective coats of cashew
nut oil.
House boating
House boating can be the
most relaxing experience for any age, size or type of
people. The following are a few suggestions and ideas
are the result of many years of experience, and with
an intension to help make your trip more fun. What works
for one person does not necessarily work for another,
so you may find only bits and pieces of this useful
to you. Feel free to use your imagination to expand
your experience on a lazy houseboat trip in any way
you can think of. The idea is to have fun, and there
are lots of ways to do it.
Kettuvallam
Kettuvallam is a kind of
houseboat in Kerala, India. Kettuvallam literally means
"bundle" or "package" boat (Kettu
means tied with ropes and vallam means boat - Malayalam
language). A houseboat is about 60 to 70 feet in length
and has a width of around 15 feet in the middle. The
boat is made of wooden planks joined and stitched together
using coconut fiber ropes. Usually the wood used will
be 'Anjili', the roof covering is made of bamboo poles
and palm leaves. The outside of the boat is painted
using cashew nut oil, which acts as a protective coating.
History
During the time when road
and rail transportation was expensive or unavailable,
traders used this as a form of main transportation in
the inland waterways.
The boats had enough facilities
for cooking and sleeping for the boatmen. Sometimes
boatmen's families also accompanied them. These boatmen
were also famous for the folk songs they sang while
rowing the boat and for their style of cooking which
they developed for the conditions inside the boat.
The first houseboats
to appear on Vembanad Lake were former rice-barges
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