Boating in Alappuzha & Cochin

Nele Lenze

The hike through the sanctuary was very nice, took two hours to complete. There were some viewpoints in between where you can see the houseboats cruising through the lake, and there were two watch towers from where you will be able to look at the canopy. Unfortunately we did not spot any birds during our visit, may be since we were there afternoon.

What we saw was some monitor lizards and a small snake, and the water channels looks very beautiful with different watermosses floating on top of them&nbsp;

Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary

Took a boat from &quot;Kavanattinkara&quot; boat jetty to the island. It is about one hour to reach the island, the boat goes through a canal filled with houseboats first and then through the waters of Vembanad Lake.

This is a deserted island and is a mini forest now. Fully green, and filled with birds and lizards. You can hike through it for few hours if you want to spend time, we spent around 30 minutes walking around and seeing the dense greenery and then we were off to see canals filled with birds and flowers.

Pathiramanal Island

We took a boating tour of the lake and it was amazing. The best leisure boating I ever took in my life.

There are many boat jettys around Vembanad lake from where you can do the tour, we took the tour from &quot;Kavanattinkara&quot; boat jetty. It was a small boat and takes you through the lake and then most importantly through the canals.

The canals offer much better views, they are filled with watermosses and lotuses that were on their blooming period while we were visiting. There were many different species of birds, some with neon colors, there were schools of ducks floating around and then you can also see the locals going on with their daily lives.

Throughout the tour you will be able to see hundreds of hoiseboats, some small and some very very large floating around carrying the visitors. You can also book one of them and stay in them for one or two days while it takes you to many different places around the lake to have great experiences. For us, we were very content with the small boat tour that finished in three and half hours.

Vembanad Lake

So here is the thing with this place- if you are an animal lover, you will be devastated to see the elephants in chains and deers in the cages, if you are not you probably won&#39;t be bothered much.

The place houses around 7 elephants that were rescued or legally asked to be moved. It acts as a small sanctuary and stories of each of these elephants are written on one of the boards. They stand in their designated places (in chains) feeding themselves. I guess most part of their day is spent like this except for the daily baths they take in the river nearby.

In addition to the elephants, there were three deer enclosures as well housing two different kinds of deers.

You can walk around all the deer and elephant enclosures and can take a look at the bathing place for the elephants as well. There is a small red sandalwood plantation and many other small gardens around,&nbsp; housing medicinal plants and fruit plants. All in all we spend around an hour and then headed off.&nbsp;

And btw, this was the second time we were trying to visit the place. First time we went on a Monday and the place was closed on Mondays.

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Travalour

Boating in Alappuzha & Cochin

Trip details

Created by

Nithin Mathew

Explored with

Route map of the trip

Attractions visited in the trip

29 Dec 2018

Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary

30 Dec 2018

Pathiramanal Island

Vembanad Lake

01 Jan 2019

Abhayaranyam

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