Zostel
The Alleppey cover: Golden hour on the backwaters
Houseboat on Lagoon — the Alleppey tile
Language

Alleppey

Houseboat · Kerala · India

Make its poster The kit
The Alleppey cover: Golden hour on the backwaters
Houseboat on Lagoon — the Alleppey tile

Why this icon Kettuvallam houseboats carry travellers through Alappuzha's backwaters. Source: keralatourism.org

Zostel

Drift the backwaters on a houseboat. Let the day slow down.

DRIFT · EAT · REST

The story

Golden hour on the backwaters: a kettuvallam houseboat glides along a palm-lined canal, a traveller standing on its bow pointing out a darter drying its wings on a post ahead, while a line of ducks paddles by.

Why this picture

Alappuzha's backwaters are canals and lakes between earth bunds lined with coconut palms, with Kuttanad's paddy fields lying below the water behind them. The kettuvallam, a long, low hull of jack-wood planks tied with coir under a barrel roof of bamboo and plaited palm leaf, once carried rice and spices and now carries travellers; crews pole them through the shallows. Darters dry their wings on posts and Kuttanad's ducks paddle in flocks.

The sky wears a faint Alleppey coir, from Kerala.

The motion

The canal's rows run past the hull, each its own way, as the houseboat glides; a line of ducks paddles right across the canal; birds cross the sky and clouds drift; the palms sway; the darter lifts its wings; the sun's rays turn. A 16-second loop.

Colour

Sky #9CDCF9
Lagoon #34C2D7
Ocean #0072BC

Alleppey takes Lagoon #34C2D7, one of the three Waters colours — with its icon in Steel Grey on it.

Another moment in Alleppey

A second scene: another true moment at Alleppey, drawn in the graphic vocabulary with the animals and city symbols that belong there. Wide for screens, tall for a phone held upright.

The second Alleppey scene: Race day on Punnamada Lake

The story

Race day on Punnamada Lake: a snake boat races past with its stern raised high and its crew's oars pulling together, a rival boat racing on the far lane, while two travellers cheer from the palm-lined bank under a beaded umbrella and a kingfisher watches from its stake.

Why this moment

The Nehru Trophy Boat Race is rowed every year on the second Saturday of August on Punnamada Lake at Alappuzha, in a break of the monsoon. A chundan vallam is 100 to 138 ft of dark oiled wood with its stern rising about 20 ft, rowed by 64 to 128 paddlers to the boat song while crowds line the banks; beaded umbrellas are part of the pageantry. White-throated kingfishers perch over Kuttanad's water.

The motion

The lake's rows stream back past the boats, the near rows fastest; every crew's oars pull together on the beat as the rowers lean into the stroke; the travellers hop as they cheer and the umbrella's beads swing; the palms sway; birds cross the sky and clouds drift. A 16-second loop.

Alleppey in symbols

Beside its icon, the things that are Alleppey, drawn in the Brand Manual's city language: a monument in the city grey with its openings cut, the things of the place in flat landscape colours. Each comes in colour and in the city grey. Every place's symbols

  • The snake boat (master)Of the place

    The chundan vallam, Kerala's snake boat — the master exactly (manual p37): 100 ft and more, its stern raised like a hood, rowed by dozens in time at the Nehru Trophy on Punnamada Lake, Alappuzha.

    SVGGrey SVGPNG
  • KarimeenOf the place

    Karimeen, the pearl spot (green chromide), Kerala's state fish since 2010: an oval, short-snouted cichlid of the brackish backwaters, grey-green with dark bars, pearly spots and a dark spot at the pectoral fin — fried in a banana leaf as karimeen pollichathu.

    SVGGrey SVGPNG
  • Kuttanad ducksOf the place

    Kuttanad's ducks: the native Chara and Chemballi, reared in flocks of thousands that are herded by boat along the canals and over the harvested paddy below sea level — 4–5 lakh birds a season.

    SVGGrey SVGPNG

Also drawn for Alleppey 5

Detailed icons from the library that name Alleppey among their places: one drawing, on the page of every place it belongs to. Those drawn for Alleppey alone come first. Every detailed icon

Say hello to Alleppey's Zobus

Zobu in Alleppey's own dress, on the palette. Hover or tap one and it waves. Each comes still and alive — idle, hello and hop — for stickers, stories and the app.

Every destination's Zobus →

The kit

Everything Alleppey needs: its profile, its cover, wide and tall, its icon, tile, display picture and lockup, its loop and the symbol becoming it, its second scene, its city map, its city symbols and its Zobus — every file ready to download.

50 files in one zip, the cover, its second scene, its symbols, its Zobus and its city map included
The Alleppey profile: its cover, its tile and its words
Profile

Alleppey’s page as a story, 1080 × 1920: its cover, its tile, its name, its line and its verbs — for stories, status and a phone’s lock screen.

SVGOther formats
The Alleppey cover, wide
Cover, wide

1600 × 900, for screens: a page’s top, a slide, a share card. The still is the loop’s first frame. The animated SVG loops in 16 s; where it shouldn’t move, use the still.

SVGAnimated SVGPNG
The Alleppey cover, tall
Cover, tall

900 × 1600, composed for a phone held upright: stories, reels, a lock screen. The animated SVG loops in 16 s; where it shouldn’t move, use the still.

SVGAnimated SVGPNG
Houseboat — the Alleppey tile
Tile

The icon in one colour on Alleppey’s own — for a grid, a story, a sticker.

SVGPNG
Houseboat — the Alleppey icon
Icon

An object: flat landscape colours. Transparent; the mono takes any one colour.

SVGPNGMono SVG
Houseboat, Alleppey — the icon, alive
Loop

The water flows, and whatever floats rides it. 7.2 s, seamless.

Animated SVGLottie JSON
Motion

The symbol becomes Alleppey and turns back — a Lottie loop for stories, the app and the web.

Lottie JSON
The Alleppey display picture, as a circleThe Alleppey display picture, square
Display picture

Circle-safe: the colour, the icon and the name — for chats, socials and the app.

SVGPNG
Zostel Alleppey lockup
Lockup

The horizontal lockup, with Alleppey under the wordmark — for signage, email and merch.

SVG
The snake boat (master)KarimeenKuttanad ducks
City symbols

Alleppey’s symbols, each in colour and in the city grey, as SVG and PNG — in the zip’s symbols folder.

See them with their files
Alleppey Zobu, femaleAlleppey Zobu, male
Zobus

Alleppey’s Zobu pair, still and alive (idle, hello, hop), waving still and as a face (a profile picture) — in the zip’s zobus folder.

Female SVGMale SVG

Also made for Alleppey 5

The rest of what the library holds for Alleppey: the pattern of its region, the card its links share, each opening its own file or gallery.

The map we made for Alleppey

Seven things to do around Zostel Alleppey, each in its true direction with its distance and time from the door — a map made for your phone.

  1. Watch snake boats race in AugustNehru Trophy · 4.4 km · 7 min drive
  2. Float the backwaters on a houseboatPunnamada · 4.4 km · 7 min drive
  3. Ride the public ferry with localsBoat jetty · 3.6 km · 14 min by cycle
  4. Watch duck flocks on the paddyKuttanad · 12.6 km · 19 min drive
  5. Climb the candy-striped lighthouseAlappuzha Lighthouse · 1.3 km · 17 min walk
  6. Eat fish curry by the seaAlappuzha Beach · 1.1 km · 14 min walk
  7. Find a fishing beach under palmsMarari Beach · 13.1 km · 20 min drive
Download the phone map (PNG)Download the phone map (SVG)

1080 × 1350, for a phone or a story. Distances and times from Zostel Alleppey, measured on OpenStreetMap routing. Map for representation purposes only.

On the map

Alleppey is in Kerala, India — one of the 84 places where Zostel is live.

Region
Kerala
Country
India
Where
9.49° N, 76.33° E
Landscape
Waters
Make its poster Every place
Alleppey · Kerala · India