All House Boats

About All House Boats

Today barges - huge and slow exotic boats used for leisure trips - are the reworked kettuvalloms ancient times. Traditional kettuvalloms were used to carry tonnes of rice and spices - an average kettuvallom carrying up to 30 tonnes - from Kuttanad to the Kochi port.

The kettuvallam (Houseboat) or 'boat with knots' - is so called because the entire boat is made up of nodes that coir - without using a single nail for construction. The boat is made of planks of wood joined with coir. The assembly is then coated with black resin made from cashew nut shells boiled. Regular maintenance keeps a kettuvallom for generations.