Alleppey

Boats that once carried rice were converted with cabins and a kitchen for an overnight stay. When the sun goes the boat ties up at the bank and stays there.

A canoe goes into the narrow channels where a houseboat cannot. The front yards meet the water, so daily life is seen close up.

A wooden boat 40 metres long carries over a hundred rowers. Villages race each other in August and September and the banks fill with people.

Thick paint covers the face and the story is told with eyes and hands alone. The hour of putting the paint on is shown before the performance.

Warmed herbal oil is poured over the body and worked in. A course runs a set number of days, so many people stay for a stretch.

A fishing village sits behind the palms and the nets are hauled in together at dawn. Little was built for visitors, so parasols are few.

Rice grows in fields two metres below the sea behind banks with the water pumped out. Walking the top of a bank puts the paddy underfoot.

Coconut husk soaks a long time before the fibre is drawn out and spun into rope. A hand turned wheel does the twisting in workshops down the lanes.

A net hangs from long timber arms and is raised by counterweight. Four people pull together and only a few fish come up at a time.

Built in 1862, a spiral stair takes visitors up inside. From there the backwaters and the sea part to either side.

On the town's western shore, the iron pilings of a pier laid in 1862 still march out into the sea. This is where cargo came off ships when Alappuzha was a working port. At sunset families sit on the sand buying peanuts and corn.

A small wooded island in the middle of Vembanad Lake whose name means sands of midnight. Reachable only by boat, it has a looping footpath where cormorants and egrets roost. Houseboat itineraries often drop passengers for a short walk.

Woodland on Vembanad Lake's eastern shore where herons and cormorants nest. A trail along the water lets you look up at nests in the trees. Birds are busiest soon after dawn, the best time to be there.

An 18th-century Travancore palace in Kerala timber style, with low roofs and nested courtyards. Inside is a vast mural of Vishnu rescuing an elephant, rated the largest in Kerala. From Alleppey, head south toward Kayamkulam for roughly sixty minutes.

A 17th-century Krishna temple famed for palpayasam, the milk rice pudding offered to the god. The legend of a king who lost a chess game to Krishna and paid in doubling rice grains belongs here. The offered pudding runs out early, so visit in the morning.

A Syro-Malabar church in a riverside village, counted among the oldest in Kerala. The wall and ceiling behind the altar are covered in vivid paintings. It sits at a channel's end too narrow for houseboats, so go by small boat or bus.

Portuguese missionaries founded this church north of Alleppey on the coast in the 16th century. Each January the feast of St Sebastian draws hundreds of thousands of pilgrims, processions reaching the beach. Otherwise, fishermen mend nets on the sand outside.

A black granite Buddha sits alone in a small shelter beside the paddy dykes. One arm has broken away, and it is dated to the era when Buddhism reached this region. Being close to the Ambalappuzha temple, it fits on the same trip.

A goddess temple in the market streets at the centre of Alleppey. During its December festival the street outside fills with lamps and stalls and stays busy into the night. Gold shops and clothing stores crowd the surrounding lanes.