Most hotels, resorts and even houseboats are sold out for Christmas, and only divine intervention can get you a place in 'god's own country'. As a result of the holiday rush, tariffs have touched stratospheric levels. Plush resorts in the backwater havens of Alappuzha and Kumarakom are charging upwards of 75,000 a night for the New Year eve.

Likewise, travel agents too are running from pillar to post to get reservations for their clients at premier destinations like Kovalam, Kumarakom, Alappuzha, Thekkady and Munnar. A houseboat owner said that anyone who manages to book a houseboat now should consider himself extremely lucky. "We are finding it hard to accommodate people who have not made a booking. The peak season would begin from Dec 20 and continue till the first week of January. We are fully booked and now people are calling us daily to see if there have been any cancellations," he told sources.

Alappuzha, popularly known as the Venice of the East, has the largest concentration of houseboats, numbering more than 400. Tariff for the peak season has gone up by 25 percent. A two bedroom houseboat would cost you about 20,000 a day.

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