KERALA BACKWATERS | HOUSEBOAT EXPERIENCE | VAYALAR

 Recently visited Kerala to experience 2 properties of Sarovar Resorts Hotels – Vasundhara Sarovar Premiere in Vayalar and Poetree Sarovar Portico in Thekkady. Both were beautiful hotels in stunning locations and in this post I will be sharing the experience we had with Vasundhara Sarovar Premiere in their in-house houseboat on the quiet and mesmerizing backwaters of Vayalar.

During our stay at the hotel, we decided to spend one night in the house-boat, floating over the famed backwaters of Kerala. It was our first time, not only on the Kerala backwaters, but also in a house-boat. Yay!
Now VSP (Vasundhara Sarovar Premiere) has 1 top-notch houseboat suitable for upto 4 persons. But if 2 make a booking, the entire boat is reserved for them, unless it’s 2 couples who know each other.
2 bedrooms, both airconditioned, 1 common living area (also air-conditioned), one upper deck that has a jaccuzzi and another separate upper-most deck with a sitting area and the best view in the house. This house-boat was a dream! It was too hot for us to try and sit outside so we decided to enjoy a bit of the ride from our room (these things move extremely slowly on the water, that’s the whole point – to slow down in life and soak in the beautiful surroundings). We got a bit of an afternoon nap, after which we asked the captain to stop at a local ‘toddy’ shop. Toddy, pronounced ‘taudi’ is a local coconut based alcohol that the locals make and sell in tiny stalls. The toddy stall we stopped at was actually along the water-channel, not accessible by roads – I think it was meant for only the fishermen passing by wanting to get in a better mood before heading home. It was super tiny and dingy inside. I went inside for a look too. Lots of glass bottles with the alcohol and gigantic pans of different dishes kept covered. You can visit, buy a ‘mug’ of the alcohol and whatever dish you prefer as a bit of a snack. The food was obviously all cold. We picked up some beef and pork dishes from here to nibble on but I couldn’t get myself to eat more than a bite of each – the place just seemed way too unhygienic for my taste! But I did taste everything because what’s the point otherwise!

Anyway, after our little toddy tasting (it’s a tangy whitish liquid that’s just slightly stronger than strong beer) we chilled out in the jacuzzi with some actual beers to watch the sunset and spent the whole time upstairs with amazing views of the backwaters. After sundown I could even spot fireflies in the distance from our bathroom (the highlight of my stay! Because I remember my last firefly sightings were almost a decade back in India!)

Hope you guys enjoy the pictures! I have, for now, decided to stay put in Delhi for some time – to concentrate on work a bit better, get back to my fitness routine more diligently and spend more energy on the blog (I’ve been ignoring it and I’m not excited about that one bit)

Soaking in the views from our bed

Inside the toddy shop. Look at all those bottles!

I carried with me this very versatile dress by Sejal Jain. Why, you ask versatile? Because the thing is REVERSIBLE! Yup it’s a reversible maxi dress. It’s love is what it is!

Another highlight at the houseboat was our thali lunch – a melody of local south Indian dishes served together. IT WAS DELICIOUS!!

This is what the common living area on the houseboat looked like.