Kuttanad - The rice bowl of Kerala is best to be enjoyed from the backwaters, the reason being most of the places is better connected by water than by roads. But a drive through the mesmerising landscape covered by greenery and wetlands is nothing short of awesome. If one wants to know what greenery means then just take a visit to Kuttanad, one of the two places in the whole earth which lies below the sea level.
The primary aim of the trip was to attend a marriage function. But as usual a small detour was all that was needed to capture the beauty of the green paradise.
The route taken was, take the East side road from Alappuzha, which leads to Changanacherry. This road takes you through the heart of Kuttanad. (This route is now notorious because of the gangster murder of a heir of one of the business tycoons of Kerala).
The moment we are in this route, we can feel the difference. Dead straight roads, prestinely maintained, with greenery all around.
The first bridge in this route is the Pallathuruthy bridge, under which is the boarding station for those house boat journeys. If one wants to have a cheap deal, just come here, negotiate with the house boat drivers directly and get dead cheap deals, rather than booking through a hotel.
After travelling eastward for some distance, found out a small road which pointed towards Kainagiri(northward direction). The road was narrow, but only if we take a tour of such village roads will we be able to get a real feel of things here.
The green terrain on both sides ensured that the drive was real slow enjoying the soothness of the eye provided by lush greenery.
Soon it was time for the first photo stop.
Don't know whether any picture can capture the real beauty of this place.
Wonder why the state of Kerala has to import rice when we seem to have this in plenty here.
If it is lush greenery on one side of the road, the other side was a wetland
Stepped down to one of the paddy fields, just to get a close feel.
The wave like formations of the paddy field, when wind blows across makes one feel like he is in the midst of a green sea.
The cranes enjoying their breakfast presented a beautiful picture and I did waste time in shooting them down using my camera.
Time to move on and explore further, eventhough we did not know any of the routes/places here, it is fun to just roam around. Dried paddy heaps could be found on road sides.
We were again back in the main route, travelling eastward, speeding ahead in the straight roads, but one has to watch out for small bridges which are slightly in a raised position, approaching which we will not be able to see the oncoming traffic for a while.
This beautiful road continued to provide us a good visual treat
Earlier we took a northward turn, so now it was time to take a southward turn, a route which will lead to Chambakkulam famous for the long snake boat. This route also did not disappoint as we soon found a point where we spent almost an hour enjoying just roaming around and shooting down the lush greenery, and some flora !!
The typical kuttanad shot with coconut trees lined up on the sides of a paddy field presented a beautiful picture.
This guy was resting peacefully on a small wooden trunk.
The sound of click was enough to scare it away.
Another attraction was a beautiful lotus flower. Spend some good time enjoying the colors of its petals, the way water droplets lies on its leaves. Oh I am not able to express its beauty in words. Let the picture of this beautiful flower do the talking.
There were lot of coconut trees around, some were small, some were big, some were fatty and some were slim. In one look it may feel like all of them are similar, but the more time you spend with them, you can find that each one of them is having its own uniqueness. One of my friends want to fullfill his long cherished dream of climbing on one.
No, he was not an expert in climbing, but photography do can misguide others too, just a little bit of imagination in directing the shot is enough.
Again we returned to main stretch and we decided to proceed further eastward for another 15 minutes and then return since we had to attend a time bound function.
Travelling further up, we found these sets of beautiful flowers on the road side itself.
Felt like we are in the midst of a garden. These were a particular kind of weeds. I didn't knew that weeds bear such kind of beautiful flowers.
The flower was having a beautiful, multicolored feather like pattern on one of its petals
This guy was wondering why I was shooting these weeds which are aplenty here.
Same about this fellow tooo
This lotus bud gave a chance to shot my favourite pic of the day
Now time to go back, but we couldn't resist stopping at Pallathuruthi for some quality time near the backwaters.
That is a boat stop.
State government owned boat service ferry between Kollam and alappuzha through this stretch. This travel is something which one should not miss, if he/she wants to enjoy the backwaters paying almost nothing (Rs.20 (less than half a dollar) for a travel of 3 hours through the beautiful backwaters. The boat is not a luxurious one though. Seen here is one such boat
A house boat soon was floating past elegantly and royally.
If a more luxurious travel is needed, house boat is an option.
We made a walk through the small road on the lake side shooting down the beautiful ambience.
Being in such august company means we lost account of our time and we had to rush our journey for attending the function which was our aim for the day. But as is the usual case a little bit of detour provided us with an oppurtunity to understand our own God's own country better. "Kuttanad" is sure going to be visited again by this travelling soul hell bound at Rediscovering Kerala !!
If you love backwaters take a look at this post too.
Click here to watch Alappuzha's backwater scenery
If you love backwaters take a look at this post too.
Click here to watch Alappuzha's backwater scenery
