India Guide
Kerala
A sliver of dense greenery between the Arabian Sea and the forested Western Ghats, the state of KERALA stretches for 550km along India's southwest coast, though just 120km wide at its broadest point. Its lush tropical landscape, fed by two annual monsoons, has intoxicated visitors since the ancient Sumerians and Greeks sailed in search of spices to the shore known as the Malabar Coast. Equally, Kerala's arcane rituals and spectacular festivals – many little changed since the earliest era of Brahmanical Hinduism – have dazzled outsiders for thousands of years.
Travellers weary of India's daunting metropolises will find Kerala's cities smaller and more relaxed. The most popular is undoubtedly the great port of Kochi (Cochin). In Kerala's far south, the capital, Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), is gateway to the nearby palm-fringed beaches of Kovalam, and provides visitors with varied opportunities to sample Kerala's rich cultural and artistic life.
One of the nicest aspects of exploring Kerala, though, is the actual travelling – especially by boat, in the spellbinding Kuttanad region, around historic Kollam (Quilon) and Alappuzha (Alleppey). Cruisers and beautiful wooden barges known as kettu vallam ("tied boats") ply the backwaters, offering tourists a rare glimpse of village life in India's most densely populated state. Furthermore, it's easy to escape the heat of the lowlands by heading for the hills, which rise to 2695m. Roads pass through landscapes dotted with churches and temples, tea, coffee, spice and rubber plantations, and natural forests, en route to wildlife reserves such as Periyar, where herds of mud-caked elephants roam freely.
Kerala is short on the historic monuments prevalent elsewhere in India, and the few ancient temples that remain in use are usually closed to non-Hindus (though you can of course take a look at the exteriors and soak up the surrounding atmosphere). Few of Kerala's buildings, whether houses or temples, are higher than the surrounding trees, and from high ground in urban areas this often creates the illusion that you're surrounded by forest.
Highlights
1 Varkala Chill out in a cliff-top café, sunbathe on the beach or soak up the atmosphere around the town's busy temple tank.
2 Fort Cochin Dutch, Portuguese, British and traditional Keralan townhouses line the backstreets of Malabar's old peninsula port. See the grandest of them from the inside by staying in a heritage hotel.