The Kochuveli express from Bangalore chugged into the drenched platform of Alappuzha aka Alleppey. The pictures that google threw were dreamy and expectations were soaring high. We ruled out resorts as we are budget travelers and we even ruled out house boat for we did not went to spend our day only on the boat (costly too!). We booked a humble homestay which read, “open your doors to the backwaters”. Our tuk tuk went through narrow streets and stopped at the backyard of somebody’s house and the guy in mundu looked up from his morning newspaper. While we were wondering is this it, a canoe was summoned. And that is when I turned to see the calm greenish backwaters. The canoe looked smaller than me and am super scared of water. While I was sweating, clutching hard to the sides of canoe wondering when it will sink, my friend asked me to stop fretting and take a moment to look around. There! Early morning mist was settling in, the huge house boats were floating around, coconut trees leaning in, our little canoe in the middle vast stretch of water and just the sound of oars going in and out of water, may be this is what is called Heaven! Welcome to Alleppey, Venice of East India.

Alleppey, famous for its canals and backwaters stay trued to all the dreamy pictures that I had seen. It was a small home stay with 5 rooms let out and the gates of the house opened right into the canal. All the houses for that matter is like that. They live on the canal, steps lead to the canal, boats and canoes stop by and people hop in, the sellers row through the canals with their products; totally a different way of living. After stuffing ourselves with yummy puttu kadalai curry, we hired a small boat to cruise through the canals (can I call it gondola?). And then the life of Alleppey was unfolding beautifully before me..
Public transportation, like how buses ply often, here these boats do,








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[…] Ces conseils ont Ă©tĂ© Ă©crits par Chittra M, du blog Masala Box. […]
Beautifully written, Chittra! Your blogpost made me so nostalgic about my time in Aleppey. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for dropping by Chandini. Glad you enjoyed it
[…] Also read – Life at the Backwaters – Alleppey […]
Lovely reading your blog post and the pictures are beautifully weaved. I would love to share more about Alappuzha. Check out best Places to visit in Alappuzha
Thanks Ashok. Loved your blog, covers all the places. I enjoyed the Ambalapuzha paal payasam after the darshan at the temple.
Wow! That reminded me of my own Alleppey visit 6 years back. Still can feel the freshness of that vacation. This is truly one destination that would be different than most others..I also want to go there again some day
This was one destination in spite of all its popularity was so down to earth.. I would love to go there again too.. Hanging by the backwater side and watching all the huge house boats pass by..