Day 17. Backwaters
Overnight – Kumarakom Lake Resort
Enjoy breakfast from the large selection of delicious choices that are available to you, both as a buffet and on the made to order menu – just like at the Brunton Boatyard, trying out the amazingly flavorful local fruits is highly recommended.
Most descriptions and photographs of the backwaters illustrate the lushness and beauty of the vegetation around the fresh water canals, rivulets and lakes, with the charming water bodies and the abundance of coconut trees and other exotic plants creating a subtropical environment not found elsewhere on this planet. To many of our guests the most charming part of their cruise is the opportunity to be part of a unique way of life that hasn’t changed much for a few centuries, because you are literally seeing life as the locals have lived for a long time in this area.
Although now there are small dirt and paved roads leading to most homes and other structures, the residents of this area have always depended on the waterways for most of their movement from one place to another, and this practice continues today. What are streams to you are their streets and alleys, and much of the time you are cruising through their backyards. You will witness men, women and adolescents rowing themselves to their destination, children in crisp uniforms being rowed back from school, women doing their laundry and dishes by hand in the fresh water streams, fishermen and produce sellers rowing up to the backdoors of the small homes to sell their wares to housewives, farmers in their water-soaked fields, pier-stations with passengers waiting for the commuter longboats that ply these waters, children swimming and playing in the shallower streams, and a whole lot more. As you take in the amazing cornucopia of visual delights, the cook and other staff make sure that all your needs are taken care of, while serving you with freshly made local cuisine for lunch.
At sunset, when all houseboats on the backwaters anchor on the shores of the lake, you will disembark from your houseboat directly at the jetty of your magical lakefront resort. Dinner is on your own this evening and we suspect that you will not be very hungry.
Enjoy breakfast from the large selection of delicious choices that are available to you, both as a buffet and on the made to order menu – just like at the Brunton Boatyard, trying out the amazingly flavorful local fruits is highly recommended.
Most descriptions and photographs of the backwaters illustrate the lushness and beauty of the vegetation around the fresh water canals, rivulets and lakes, with the charming water bodies and the abundance of coconut trees and other exotic plants creating a subtropical environment not found elsewhere on this planet. To many of our guests the most charming part of their cruise is the opportunity to be part of a unique way of life that hasn’t changed much for a few centuries, because you are literally seeing life as the locals have lived for a long time in this area.
Although now there are small dirt and paved roads leading to most homes and other structures, the residents of this area have always depended on the waterways for most of their movement from one place to another, and this practice continues today. What are streams to you are their streets and alleys, and much of the time you are cruising through their backyards. You will witness men, women and adolescents rowing themselves to their destination, children in crisp uniforms being rowed back from school, women doing their laundry and dishes by hand in the fresh water streams, fishermen and produce sellers rowing up to the backdoors of the small homes to sell their wares to housewives, farmers in their water-soaked fields, pier-stations with passengers waiting for the commuter longboats that ply these waters, children swimming and playing in the shallower streams, and a whole lot more. As you take in the amazing cornucopia of visual delights, the cook and other staff make sure that all your needs are taken care of, while serving you with freshly made local cuisine for lunch.
At sunset, when all houseboats on the backwaters anchor on the shores of the lake, you will disembark from your houseboat directly at the jetty of your magical lakefront resort. Dinner is on your own this evening and we suspect that you will not be very hungry.