Aaarrrrppppooo…..Aaiyo. The full-throated cry of boatmen will boom on the waters off Marine Drive tomorrow as the fifth leg of the Champions Boat League gets underway.
Before Kerala Tourism brought the famed snake boat (chundan vallom) races of Kerala under a League competition (CBL), in 2018 there were four major snake boat races held in and around Alappuzha.
The history of boat races can be traced to warring kings of the region who used architecturally superior war baots to abttle each other. the wooden boats were handmade without any technical blueporint and the tradtion continues till datye. As a boat, most often, belonges to a village and oarsmen come from there, entire villages are part of the races.
