Boat Race Begins: Visit Kerala

By Author: Sanjay Gopinath
Total Articles: 11
Comment this article

If you want to enjoy an all-in-one tour meaning bodily rejuvenation, spiritual enrichment, pleasure of sports, and educational sojourn, this is the time to visit Kerala, the southern most tip of India. A series of snake boat racing are to begin soon in the State. The snake boat racing here is something of a cult, just as bull fighting is in Spain.

This time monsoon begins to taper off but lingers on, and the magnificent festivals of boat races begin in the unfolding sheets of backwaters of this land. Made world famous by the participation of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1952, boat races or snake boat races are a treat to the eye that no visitor to Kerala wants to miss.

Beginning with august 15, some a dozen or more boat races are to take place in the backwaters of southern Kerala. Though the most famous is the Nehru Trophy boat race, locally known as Vallamkali, other boat races have earned a name with their novelty and excellence. This splendour is also a photo-op for the lens-lovers.

Each boat is a 100 or more ft-long and accommodates a 100 or so men, wsho are ...
... trained for this sport. Both ends of the boats are raised from water level. The rear end has a height of about twenty feet from the surface of water. Nearly eighty six persons are rowers, ten to fifteen are to give the rhythm, four are to steer the vessel. Their rowing in unison in the background of music and limericks is something that would surely enthrall you.

It takes several months of rigorous regimen and practice to participate in the festival. Today the competition is so tough that the boats go like arrows to outbid the rivals. Since it is a team sport, not individual, each participant has to sync in with the others. If one misplaced note can mar the symphony, one out-of-turn paddle can spoil the chance of a boat.

SLS Tourists has a tourpackagekerala that would serve you pretty well. This time of the year is also good for Ayurveda treatment or rejuvenation therapy as the state has a temperate weather following months of rainfall.

Check with SLS Tourists and pick your choice. It is not a bad idea to go on your on in a backwater cruise in one of the houseboats or canoe at night and watch the sports during day.

Those go for sheer pleasure or to indulge your love or savour a bit of culture the trip would prove extremely beneficial. Money well spent, is how a blogger from Germany wrote about the season.

Kerala is rich in water and it is not surprising water sports have taken roots in the State. After monsoon most of the 40 rivers and hundreds of kilometers of backwater lakes would be brimming, giving a fitting time for water sport.