Kettuvellam
In Malayalam, the word "Vellam" or "Vallam" refers to water and so even a boat indirectly. "Kettu" refers to tying and therefore to the rope indirectly. The word Kettuvellam (or Kettu Vallam) jointly means this houseboat that is made of rope made out of Coconut bark.
The word Kerala comes from Kera Alam which means the big forest grove of Coconut trees. It is also called as Kairali in Malayalam. And so naturally we do see a lot of Coconut Grove in Kerala.
These houseboats were originally created to ferry the paddy produce to the land. In Allepey and nearby area, the local farmers use the backwater as a main source for irrigation. These paddy fields are kept filled with water for quite a lot of months before being irrigated and worked on. Slowly these boats have been used to transport people and mostly travelers on a overnight journey.
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Comments and faves
Alfesto (55 months ago | reply)
Wonderful houseboat! Nice scene
Alfesto added this photo to her favorites. (55 months ago)
bratboy76 (55 months ago | reply)
Thanks Alfesto for the comments and adding as a fav
Rick.Tommi (55 months ago | reply)
They have the air-conditioning! Great picture, and perfect caption as well!
bratboy76 (55 months ago | reply)
Yes Rick. They have Air conditioning but since the entire boat works on diesel, they use AC only for the nights. We got to pay extra if we need it to run any earlier.
There are many different sizes of houseboats right from what you see here plus the one that has one floor and with 2 bedrooms to bigger sizes that has upto 8 bedrooms. Kind of luxurious stuff but worth every time.
Capt.Balakrishnan [deleted] (55 months ago | reply)
Lovely pic
bratboy76 (55 months ago | reply)
Thanks Bala sir.
JimReeves (55 months ago | reply)
Thats perfect.
The picture and the write up.
Kettuvallam, once used for ferrying Rice from the paddy fields is now merely a tourist attraction.
It would be inspiring to have your image in “INDIA SONG 's
multicultural portait gallery”, a current discussion in :
India Song Group
Your image is definitively a perfect fusion of Indo-Western ideas and style.
bratboy76 (55 months ago | reply)
Much thanks Jim.
And you are right that kettuvellam was used for ferrying Rice.
Kerala truly holds a lot of interesting things to learn.
RIP_SKI (54 months ago | reply)
Ranked 1st place! in the
Landscape Chris (54 months ago | reply)
Ranked 2nd place! in the
bratboy76 (54 months ago | reply)
Genneromeli (54 months ago | reply)
Ranked 5 place! in the
allthecolor (54 months ago | reply)
let the sun shines in 2008 over the flickr-family.
Ranked 1. place! in the
simon wootton (54 months ago | reply)
Ranked 2 place! in the
Nice shot with great colors and an interesting subject
m-arx (54 months ago | reply)
Ranked 3 place! in the
andy_57 (54 months ago | reply)
YOU deserved ANOTHER AWARD
As seen in
AWARD WINNER group
Revelstoke13 (54 months ago | reply)
YOU deserved ANOTHER AWARD
As seen in
AWARD WINNER group
bratboy76 (54 months ago | reply)
Thanks everyone... Keep visiting !!
vmacs added this photo to their favorites. (54 months ago)
Lita V (54 months ago | reply)
YOU deserved ANOTHER AWARD
As seen in
AWARD WINNER group
Jose Kevo (54 months ago | reply)
Aside from the wonderful picture, I also appreciate your taking the time to write a detailed caption that informs the viewer.
Congratulations, I think this photo is truly a PERSONAL BEST!
I saw this fab photo in the PERSONAL BEST group.
bratboy76 (54 months ago | reply)
srinivasa krishna (52 months ago | reply)
Great Photo !
Thank you very much for posting this great photo into the group:
"I LOVE INDIA TRADITIONAL".
www.flickr.com/groups/600534@N21/pool/
bratboy76 (52 months ago | reply)