A houseboat in Alleppey is not a cruise in the ocean-liner sense; it is a slow drift through village life, at the speed of a canoe. The boats are reed-and-coir conversions of old rice barges, now fitted with bedrooms, a lounge and a kitchen where your meals are cooked as you sail.

Boarding is at noon and disembarking at nine the next morning. The open lake is beautiful at sunset, but the magic is in the narrow canals, where you glide past duck farms, toddy-tapping palms and children waving from canoe-school boats.

Pack light: a change of clothes, mosquito repellent, and a light shawl for the breeze after dark. Leave the laptop behind — signal comes and goes, and that is rather the point.

Book a boat with a licensed crew and a proper kitchen, and ask for the Punnamada–Kainakari route if it is your first time. It threads the best mix of lake, canal and village stops without backtracking.