If you’re ever near Alleppey, I’d urge you to do this excursion. Just sit back, relax and enjoy the ride. Don’t book it through Tour companies, book it locally for between 1/4 and 1/10th of the price for the same experience. You’ll most likely end up in a smaller group and get a more personalised tour.
The tour starts using the Government ferries to get to the channel areas. I still can’t believe a ferry ride like this is just 20 Rupee, (40c). These rivers are fully navigable highways with everything from local school kids to merchantable goods
The trip itself starts when you dock on one of the islands. You’reimmediately greeted by the reason this place exists, and thrives,……………………….. Rice fields. Not only does India grow enough rice to feed it’s 1.8 billion pop., it exports nearly 40% of the world’s requirements. Pakistan would starve if they cut them off, but that contradicts their “Do No Harm” beleifs against the Pakistani general population.
The people living here are extremely self sufficient, growing nearly all their food and take great pride in their gardens. Magnificent flowering trees and bushes
Soon, we climb onto our boat to enjoy a truly relaxing Human powered cruise. Our captain was masterful at navigating these waterways, right down to balancing the boat as we touched the underside of overhead walkways
If you’d like to see more of the Backwaters tour, here are some videos. Immensely relaxing! The first is our ride as we’re about to board.