My father steered his first wooden kettuvallam using a giant bamboo pole. In those days, there were no engines. The boats carried rice husks, coir fiber, and dried pepper from rural farms to the port of Kochi. They moved with the wind and the muscle of two men.
Today, the backwaters are filled with diesel engines and large double-deck tourist boats playing loud music. But if you know the currents, you can still find the quiet waters.
"The river doesn't care about itineraries. If you try to rush a houseboat, you lose the balance. The beauty is in the drift, in the slow turn where the palms meet the sky."
I navigate my boat into the narrow, shallow channels of Kuttanad, where the big tour boats cannot enter. Here, the water is clear enough to see river plants. We glide past women washing pots on granite steps and children swimming with floats made of dried coconuts.
We moor the boat at dusk, not in commercial dockyards, but beside the plantations of hosts who have been our friends for generations. As the wind drops and the water turns to glass, we light the oil lamps. That is when the backwaters fall completely silent, and you remember why we call this home.
Thomas K.
Houseboat Pilot & Host
Thomas is a senior host at Keralaway. Having spent his childhood on the waters of Alleppey, he leads our boat logistics and lagoon operations.