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The kettuvallom houseboat story. Every country around the world have some unique attractions of its own which attracts visitors from far and wide. In Kerala the unique charm is its backwaters, a network of lakes canals and rivers from one end of the state to the other. The most romantic aspect of Kerala is its origin from the sea by a sage named ParasuRama who threw his battle axe and asked the sea to recede. The land emerged naturally had many lakes,canals and rivers,lagoons and estuaries..The network of canals were formed naturally with the never ending tidal variations,constant wave action and the magic of Monsoons from the very beginning of the land itself. Legend myth and reality The geological and geographical evidences supports the theory of land emerging from the sea due to volcanic and sesmological actions legend of Parasurama adds charm to the legend, myth and reality. In the course million years due to natural calamities many islands were created near the estuaries by the deposits of silts .Due to the need of continuity of these networks at many places manmade artificial canals were made to effect the movement of men and materials.Thus the backwaters add infinite beauty to the already charming landscape of Kerala. The hisory of kettuvallom The hisory of kettuvallom dates back to the ancient trading days of the fabled Malabar coast.The trdaers from all over the world had frequented the coast of Malabarfrom time immemmorial.The Arabian, Chineese,and the European ships loaded with Gold,precious stones and other articles neede to be transported to the traders and rulers of the country and our much needed spices, silk and ivory had to be transported back to the huge ships. Small and big cargo boatscalled kettuvallom were used for the effective movement of cargo. Kettu in local language malayalam means to tie up and Vallom means Boat. These ancient flat bottomed vessels were made of wood literally tied together with coconut ropes.These magnificient boats played a major role in the economy of Kerala from the very ancient timesin moving cargo and men from every nook and corner of otherwise unreachable area. The golden age of Kettuvallom During the golden ages of kettuvallom the ruling Maharajas ,high priestsof temples and churches , feudal lords ,spice merchants ,traders and other commutters used these graceful boats for their every day activities .In the course of time more navigable canals were made for easy transportation of primary needs of people essentially food . Rice and paddy and other grains were transported in large quantities hence name Rice boats became popular during the time of the British . A journey through the scenic backwaters will excite even the dullest mind .A section of Malayalam literature known as Vanchipattu meaning songs for the boat has emerged to give rhythm to the cruise in these boats , which is even now popular among the coast line and reaches its cresendo during the famous snake boat races during July August. the kinship between the land ,lagoon and the people living around the area are immortalised by numerous poets,novelists theatres and other art forms . Thousand s of short stories drams and movies were taken in the background of the se backwaters and kettuvalloms. The modern Electronic media and literature has done tremendous effort to bring out the life around the backwaters . The god of small things by Arundhadi Roy ,the Booker Prize winner in 1998 is a classic example . The lost glory Once up on a time these canals were the centre of commercial activity of moving cash crops, spice and coir products, rice and paddy. These shimmering blue waters bordered with green palms were the nerve centre of socio economic infra structure of agriculture , coir and fishing industry.later other industries like tile factories and brick kilns gained importance on the shore lines.Alleppey known as the venice of the East was a busy trading town in central Kerala with a number of canals and bridges with inumerous trading vessels of all shapes and sizes carrying all kinds of cargo . Alleppey was the central hubof the backwaters opening into Ashtamudi lake in the south and Vembanad lake in the north. The golden Era of these backwaters started to disappear with the advent of faster means of transport by better roads Rail and air traffic. The roads criss- crossing the backwater canals, paddy fields and the bridgese connecting the roads were the last death bells to the glory of these water ways . The kettuvallom with their majastic sails could not cross these lakes as frequently as before the advent of these bridges and electric lines. With the development of rural areas surrounding the backwaters people wanted their cargoes to be moved faster by railways and by roads in lorries and other vehicles than these slow moving cargo boats the cost of repair and maintenace of these cargo boats became quite expensive and prohibitive with lack of work . Every year the number of kettuvallom became lesser and lesser many brocken down for firewood. From 12000 kettuvallom about 300 hundred years ago came down to 200 when tourindia came into the picture . RE birth of kettuvallom as houseboats Tourindia a tour operator in Trivandrum kerala started in 1971 by three educated unemployed post graduates trying to give a new dimension to tourism not only as a means of survival but a challenging business in creating new tourism products into the hospitality industry Of Kerala always gave priority towards the needs of the visitors .The concept of kettuvallom houseboats were developed with our constant interactions with the vistors.Our experiments with these boats came during the i980's while cruising in the backwaters in the only existing ferry boats of the Kerala Water Transport corporation between Kollam and alleppey the visitors often enquired about the possibilty of cruising in one of the beautiful kettuvallom gracefully moving with their sails .At those times these boats were only used to transport bricks sand cement and often cow dung which the lorries refuse to carry .It was often very diffcult for us to clean the same and arrange comfortable seatings as the cargo boats were without ventillation and visibility. As the demand increased we looked into the possibility of converting one for comfortable cruise. The houseboats of Kashmir which were popular among the visitors were not available due to the terroristactivities also prompted us into the idea. Thus the adventure of creating a houseboat began it took us almost 3 years to come out with a prototype. As there were not great demands for the boats we purchased an old kettuvallom in with USD 2000 received from National Geographic Magazine as the guide fees for 30 days work for the kerala story in 1988.There were many design problems of converting a cargo boat to comfortable cruiseboat.The major problems were the acute shortage of skilled craftsmenas there were only few kettuvalloms and most among the craftsmen were very elderly people above 60 years .the idea converting these into cruise boat were first of all rejected by these oldmen as an absurd idea ,there were no young men with whom we could communicate and make him venture into experiment and innovate . The fear of failure of the project were preventing these craftsmen in undertaking the experiments . It was a never ending saga of infinite patience ,innumerous hours of hard work, time, energy and resources from ourside were spend in creating the first houseboat .The favorite answer to our queries from the elderly craftsmen were" not possible "and you were from the city and we were in the field for last many years . Innovation is the last thing the want to try . With our infinite determination and persuasive mentallity we could slowly convince them about their plight for not changing with times.these traditional cargo boats has no relevance as cargo boats in the presant world of faster lifestyle and speed and lack of time . These boats and boat men were a different role to play other than punting cargo from one place to another. Their technical skills and knowledge were to be used in a better way to suit tourism the emerging new business area . The height of the boat were causing us quite a lot of difficulties as the master craftsmen were not allowing us to increase the same for the fear that the wind may blow away the boat. Ventillation was another problem we have faced with, sacks of cargo infact needs no ventillation and for saftey and security it is better to be airtight . But for visitors need visibility ,basic comforts and ventillation. Thus with constant supervision and occassionals fights , often friendly persuation we have succeded in bringing out our first kettuvallom cruiseboat boat in 1991. The materials used were nature friendly with wood, arecant, bamboo mattings ,coir rope, cane,bamboply etc.The first boat was designed as a cruiseboatnamed sumangali with comfortable seats later from the demand from the visitors we have created sundari the first house boat in Kerala . In the course of time we have marketted it all over the world and made it a must do thing in Kerala . WE have never patented the concept and made many people follow our path . WE are now happy to know that there are more than 900 houseboat in Kerala giving emplyments to thousands of people in addition to a beautiful way to experience and enjoy Kerala . http://www.tourindiakerala.com
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Kerala holidays, kettuvallom houseboats, Backwaters of Kerala, cruisein Kerala, Keralacusine,
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