Backwaters of Alleppey : Places in Kerala

Alappuzha (Alleppey in English) is a coastal town in Kerala. Alleppey is a popular tourist location in India, famous for the backwaters especially. One can find calm and peace amidst the palm fringed canals, shores bustling with people doing their normal day to day activities in the country side, mirrored lagoons, picturesque lakeside and long sandy beach...

People living on the banks using boats as means of transportation, vegetable vendors selling veggies in their boats, children going to their schools in boats these are common sights in Allapuzha.
The whole setting of the place is so beautiful that Lord Curzon called it the "Venice of the East".

For tourism, House boats are available for rent and people can hire the house boats for hours and even for days and go around the backwaters area. A typical house boat will have one/two bedrooms with attached bathrooms in them. There will be chefs cooking freshly caught fish for you in traditional coastal Kerala style and you can just enjoy the whole day cruising around. This makes Alleppey a popular honeymoon destination for the newly weds :)

Here, I present you couple of pictures of the beautiful backwaters of Alappuzha.....

Picture Source: Thanks to Neeraj for providing these beautiful pictures of Alleppey.

Pooram Pictures - 7 : Bhagavati Devi carried during Thiruvilwamala Thalappoli pooram....

During the Pooram festivals, as seen in my previous posts, the procession of caparisoned elephants and kuda mattam are very important happenings during a pooram. But, if you had noticed, the elephant in the center will be carrying a deity.

Here, I've captured a close up of the deity Bhagavati Devi which is carried in the Thiruvilwamala Thalappoli pooram festival.

Pooram Pictures - 6 : Nettipattom for Elephants...

One sight that amazes anyone watching Pooram festivals in Kerala for the first time is the beautifully caparisoned elephants carrying the deity Bhagavati Devi's idol above them.

Today, I'll present two pictures of "Nettipattom" i.e., gold plated caparisons used to decorate the elephants. Generally, all the ornaments thats used to decorate the elephants are kept on public display the previous night of pooram. These images are taken during my visit to one such display.