Located 62 kms South of Kochi, Allepey offers you a splendid view of the Kerala backwaters, along with an equally beautiful beach. The biggest highlight of Allepey is the annual boat race.
We did not have the privilege to experience the boat race, but we happened to visit during a beautiful pre-monsoon time where we were greeted with an amazing weather, quiet surroundings and the freedom to explore the entire backwaters in a boat, which won't be possible if you happen to visit during the boat racing days.
The drive from Kochi to Allepey was beautiful but the condition of the roads was a damper. It was quite a bouncy ride. As you reach closer to Allepey you will suddenly see lots of home-shops selling coir products. Yes, Allepey has lots of coir factories in the outskirts. The best part is they have lots of carpets at display as well. And you will definitely find them cheaper than your city prices. This definitely excited me as I have been on a lookout for a good carpet for a long long time. And yes, I did pick a simple coir carpet on my way back and some door mats too. All thanks to husbands charming skills we got entry into one of the factories itself and my 8x6 carpet was a steal at INR 480/-. I came back smiling all the way. :)
Enough of my shopping spree, let's get back to Allepey. Well we reached and since we were in no way planning to stay overnight we decided against a private house boat. We chose to take the Govt. ferry instead from first stop to last and back. Giving us a ride of 4 hours into the lovely backwaters and that too at a meager 40 bucks. The moment we boarded we were guided to the top floor of the boat and amazingly enough it was just the two of us and a couple of tourists who were too mesmerized during the entire ride to speak a word, and we had a lovely quiet 4 hr session to ourselves.
The beautiful villages, the simple villagers, the tiny boats, the bigger houseboats, the flora, the fauna, the occasional drizzle and the lovely breeze. Simply beautiful. No other words. Instead of putting it into words I would just let you enjoy the pictures.
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| Broken bridge at Allepey Beach |
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| A closer look. Isn't that rusty yet classy! |
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| Lovely sky above our heads! |
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| The expanse of the beach |
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| Cute little bright lighthouse... |
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| Boat ride begins |
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| Statue of Nehru, starting point for the boat race know as Jawahar Lal Nehru Boat race Competition |
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| A houseboat passing by... |
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| Water water everywhere... |
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| And it rains... Can you see the raindrops on water? |
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| Villager commuting from one place to another... |
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| More villagers and villages in the backdrop... |
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And the usual life goes on...
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Kerala Tourism has done a splendid job of promoting these amazing backwaters. For details about their exclusive project on the backwaters you can check out
http://greatbackwaters.com/ and know a lot more about these unique water stretches. You can see some of the campaign images here.
I am sure these will inspire you to visit the backwaters for sure. So here's wishing you happy traveling. :)
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