Kerala’s backwaters – pictures « Breaking Towards Serenity

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Kerala’s backwaters – pictures

January 27, 2009 by Julia Freimund

The backwaters of Kerala on India’s southwest coast appears on almost all of the country’s “tourist must sees” list. Palm tree encrusted narrow and wide canals which wend their way around and through remote villages and blue net shrouded prawn farms and pass by locals going about their daily business whether that be watching livestock, poling their boats around, making rope, or just hanging out in the tropical heat. As he slowly poled our 8-member tour group through canals during our three hour tour, the leisurely pace, the heat, and the blazing sun slowly ate away at our group’s burning enthusiasm and awe at this almost unearthly, luxuriant foliage but then he would point out something new and we would pep up.

Our rather taciturn but friendly guide (with a very long and unpronounceable name) did a great job of pointing out some of the interesting plants in the backwater which I dutifully tried to take pictures of because I think some of you might also not know that pineapples (which come in red and green varieties) grow on bushes and peppercorns grow on trees and there really are tapioca trees. I was not very dutiful in taking pictures of a clove, betel nut, or a nutmeg tree and just a plain inadequate photographer of a cashew tree.

We hope to take another backwater tour further up by the coast but it would be impossible for most tourists to see even a fraction of the 900 kilometer network of waterways which start near the Arabian Sea and go rather far inland. Many of these waterways were dug out centuries ago and are maintained by annual dredgings and cleansed by the bi-annual monsoons as they still serve as the only “road” to some more remote parts.

For this blog entry, I will rely on my photos to try to capture the serene, eternal beauty of the landscape rather than words as they just seem inadequate to the task. I apologize in advance for the overexposure on some of the photos – it was a blazing mid-day sun which I didn’t know how to compensate for in my camera. I do want to explain a couple of photos though although I still haven’t learned how to place the photo exactly by the explanation.

The photo with the blue netting is a prawn farm. My heart went out to the small, very overheated german shepard left to watch the farm as his chain was so short he couldn’t lay down.

The man in the water is picking up the coconuts that have been knocked down by another guy who had scaled a palm tree.

I just had to take a picture of the charming guy in the boat anyway although he had just stopped doing the universal action of bailing out his boat which was the original intent of the photo. As always it seems in India, for every industrious person, there are at least two men sitting around and watching. What they are wearing is pretty common in Kerala.

Logistical notes: We took the Kerala’s District Tourism Promotion Council (DTPC) efficient and reliable half day canoe tour which was highly recommend in Lonely Planet and the Rough Guide and by people we had met in Varkala. There are many trains between Varkala and Quilon and it takes 30 minutes to one hour.

The canoe tours leave from the Quilon Boat Jetty at 9 am and at 2 pm. After a scenic 45 minute comfortable mini-bus drive out to the backwaters, we walked about five minutes with our guide to the 10 person canoe which he moved through the water with poles of varying length and width for the next three hours. The mini-bus was waiting for our return and he dropped us off at the train station on the way back to the boat jetty. The price is 300 rupees per person and tickets can be purchased at the small building which is located to the left of the bus station. No advance purchase is required. No meal or drink is provided so be sure to bring water. The 18 rupee masala dosa at the Mysore Cafe at the Quilon Boat Jetty was excellent and very quick for breakfast.