India: Cruising Kerala’s backwaters
BY LORI RACKL March 30, 2011 6:00PM
Park Hotels' Apsara cruiser has eight cabins, a restaurant and a small spa on board. | Lori Rackl~Sun-Times
IF YOU GO
GETTING THERE: Fly to Cochin, India. The Park on Vembanad Lake and Apsara are a 90-minute drive from the airport. Transfers are included in Apsara sailing packages and can be purchased for guests at the Park.
APSARA: Two- and three-night sailings on Apsara start at about $725 a night for a cabin. (An online sale has those cabins priced at roughly $555 a night through May 31.) Round-trip airport transfers, all meals, excursions and taxes are included; theparkhotels.com/kerala/the-park-mv-apsara.html.
PARK ON VEMBANAD LAKE: Lake view rooms at the Park typically cost around $333 a night but are on sale for approximately $165, including breakfast, through April 30; theparkhotels.com.
WHEN TO GO: Apsara doesn’t sail between June 1 and Aug. 31.
PLANNING HELP: Chicago-based Greaves Tours specializes in planning trips throughout India based on customers’ interests and price ranges. Call (800) 318-7801 or go to greavesindia.com.
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Updated: May 1, 2011 12:23AM
VEMBANAD LAKE, India — Sitting peacefully on the top deck of a small river cruiser, I was enjoying some solitude along with a cold Kingfisher beer and handful of jackfruit chips.
Then a crew member popped up like a prairie dog.
“M’am, please!” he implored. “Down, down!”
I ducked just in time to win a game of limbo with a telephone wire stretched across the canal.
Surprises are everywhere on the backwaters of Kerala, a tiny state on the southwest tip of India.
Sandwiched between the Arabian Sea and the mountains of the Western Ghats, Kerala is a tropical, watery oasis known as “God’s Own Country.” It’s a long way down from the Golden Triangle and other northern India spots on most tourists’ itineraries. But those who make the trek south to Kerala’s backwaters are rewarded with something that’s not always easy to come by in the second most populous nation in the world: tranquility and relaxation.
A labyrinth of lagoons, lakes and canals make Kerala’s backwaters feel a bit like Venice — with palm trees and paddy fields. And just like Venice, the best way to appreciate the landscape is from the water.
You can do this a few ways. Hop aboard a renovated kettuvallam, a narrow, thatch-roofed houseboat historically used to transport the region’s rice and spices. Or turn up the luxury level a notch and book a berth in a cruiser, such as Oberoi’s Vrinda or, in my case, Park Hotel’s new Apsara.
Guests aboard the eight-cabin Apsara explore Kerala’s waterways during the day and spend the night docked at the Park on Vembanad Lake, a 10-room resort that has a tented spa specializing in ayurveda, the ancient Indian method of healing that most Westerners associate with ultra-oily massages. Nighttime is as low key as the day, with evenings spent watching live entertainment on the resort’s outdoor stage.
One night, agile men twirled fire and demonstrated Kerala’s ancient martial art form kalaripayattu. The next evening, actors with elaborately painted faces performed the traditional dance-drama kathakali with drums beating in the background. I couldn’t follow the story line to save my life, but I was thoroughly entertained watching the actors sit onstage and apply thick layers of colorful make-up — a process that can take hours.
Both the resort and Apsara opened last year. They’re among the newest members of Park Hotels’ expanding portfolio, a collection of contemporary properties with an Ian Schrager-in-India vibe.
Apsara’s guest rooms are sleek and modern, but the only time I was in mine was to sleep. The main cabin where we ate breakfast, however, smelled of gasoline and had stained carpet. (I’m told by Park officials that those issues are being addressed.) For that reason and others, I preferred to settle into the boat’s comfy outdoor deck chairs and watch rural life unfold as we sliced through the thick, soupy air.
Water is the only way to reach some of these remote backwater villages, where tin-roofed shacks selling groceries and high-octane coconut drinks dot the shores.
I felt like I’d stepped back in time as we cruised past women with waist-length black hair who stood knee-deep in the water, pounding their wet laundry against rocks.
Each scene seemed more surreal than the next. Cows and goats grazed near political candidates’ placards — all labeled with a hammer-and-sickle insignia. Kerala is one of the few Indian states ruled by communists.
I watched fishermen balance in their canoes as they cast their nets for clams. A gaggle of uniformed children made their way home from school, walking along narrow mud paths that flank these quiet canals. Another boat passed close by, carrying young Muslim girls in hijabs. They gave a shy smile and waved.
I liked the backwaters’ element of surprise. I never knew what I’d see next. I just knew it would look very different than Chicago.
The pace of everything — from the slow speed of our cruiser to the lazy rhythm of rural life — had the effect of a trance. Minus my fleeting brush with decapitation by telephone wire, I felt relaxed, tranquil and lucky to have had a peek at the quieter side of India.
Information for this article was gathered on a research trip sponsored by Park Hotels and Greaves Tours.
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