Difference between Shikaras and normal

house boats
Kashmiri House boat (Shikaras)
The shikara is a type of wooden boat found on Dal Lake and other water bodies
of Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir, India. Shikaras are of varied sizes and are used for
multiple purposes, including transportation of people.

A usual shikara seats half-a-dozen people, with the driver paddling at the rear.

Some shikaras are still used for fishing, harvesting aquatic vegetation (usually for
fodder), and transport, while most are covered with tarpaulins and are used by
tourists.
Some are used as floating homes by poor people.
Unlike their counterparts in Kerala, the houseboats in Srinagar, Jammu &
Kashmir are usually stationary.
They are usually moored at the edges of the Dal Lake and Nageen lakes.
Some of the houseboats there were built in the early 1900s, and are still being
rented out to tourists.
These houseboats are made of wood, and usually have intricately carved wood
paneling.
The houseboats are of different sizes, some having up to three bedrooms apart from
a living room and kitchen.
Many tourists are attracted to Srinagar by the charm of staying on a houseboat,
which provides the unique experience of living on the water in a cedar-paneled
elegant bedroom, with all the conveniences of a luxury hotel.

Srinagar's thousand or so houseboats are moored along sections of the Dal and
Nagin Lakes and the Jhelum River, each decorated fancifully and named romantically
and even whimsically.

Every standard houseboat provides a balcony in the front, a lounge, dining room,
pantry and three or more bedrooms with attached bathrooms.

The Kashmiri houseboats (Shikaras) are made out of deodar and other sweetsmelling wood.

The size of shikara is 80 feet by 120 feet in length, priced at Rs 15 lakh (luxury ones
cost as high as Rs 50 lakh), has individual double bedrooms (often five in number)
with attached bathrooms, in addition to a drawing room, a dining room and alcoves

Kerala houseboats (Kettuvallam)

Houseboats in Kerala, south India, are huge, slow-moving barges used for leisure
trips.
They are a reworked model of Kettuvallams (in the Malayalam
language, Kettu means "tied with ropes", and vallam means "boat"), which, in earlier
times, were used to carry rice and spices from Kuttanad to the Kochi port.
Kerala houseboats were considered a convenient means of transportation.
The popularity of Kettuvallams has returned in the function as major tourist
attractions.

The Kerala houseboat is almost half the size of its northern counterpart (seldom
exceeds 80 feet in length and costs about Rs 6 lakh) with provision for only two
couples with attached baths and rarely a third pair of guests.

Such a houseboat is about 60 to 70 feet (18 to 21 m) long and about 15 feet (4.6 m)
wide at the middle.
The hull is made of wooden planks that are held together by ropes of coconut fiber;
the usual wood is 'Anjili'.
The roof is made of bamboo poles and palm leaves.

 The exterior of the boat is painted with protective coats of cashew nut oil.