Picture Taken : Kerala,India

Kerala is the Southern State of India. It has an area of 15,005 square miles (38,863 square kilometres), only about 1 percent of the total area of the country.

Houseboat (Kettuvallam) is a kind of house boat in Kerala, India. Kettuvallam literally means “bundle” or “package” boat ( Kettu means tied with ropes, and vallam means boat – Malayalam language). A house boat is about 60 to 70 feet in length and has a width of around 15 feet in the middle. The boat is made of wooden planks joined and stiched together using coconut fiber ropes.Usually the wood used will be ‘Anjili’, The roof covering is made of bamboo poles and palm leaves. The outside of the boat is painted using cashew nut oil, which acts asa protective coating. During the time when road and rail transportation was expensive or unavailable, traders used Kettuvallam as a form of main transportation in the inland waterways. The boats had enough facilities for cooking and sleeping for the boatmen. Sometimes boatmen’s families also accompanied them.

Houseboats are renovated forms of original Kettuvallams. The modern type House Boat like these  have all the creative comforts like a Hotel ie well-furnished bedrooms, modern hygienic toilets, cozy living rooms, dining area, beautiful kitchen and in some cases even a balcony for angling. Most of the Houseboats are powered by remarkably unobtrusive inboard diesel engines and use solar energy for power requirements.

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