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Highlights: Backwater tours at Kollam; Periyar wildlife sanctuary; the tea plantations and cool hill stations around Munnar.
Travelogue: click here for a list of dispatch, photographs, audio, and video from this area. A little background: Spices, sandalwood, and ivory attracted ancient mariners, therefore Malayalis (natives of Kerala) have long had contact with outsiders, including the Phoenicians, Portugese, Romans, Arabs, and Chinese. (Chinese fishing nets are commonly used on many Malayalis fishing boats even today.) Kerala is thus one of the most culturally diverse of the Indian states. They are about 60% Hindu, 20% Muslim, and 20% Christian. They also have one of the most progressive political systems. The Malayalis people voted in one of the first communist governments in the world. Land and wealth are therefore rather equitably distributed to this day, and although communist government is not the rule, the spirit is still apparent, and whatever they've done it's worked, for this state has got the lowest mortality rate and the highest rate of literacy (90%) of any of the Indian states. Kerala is extremely verdant, with palm trees lining its famous coasts and forests greening the hills and the Western Ghats. The waterways are alive with villages where people and supplies are still ferried back and forth using boats. Kollam is the starting point for one of Kerala's famous backwaters tours. In the Western Ghats lies one of India's most popular wildlife parks, Periyar, which spills over into Tamil Nadu. Tigers still roam there though a tourist is hardly likely to spot one. More likely seen are elephants, bison, wild boar, antelopes, monkeys, and a lot of birds. Also in the Ghats are tea plantations and hill stations where the air is cool and clean, and cold at times even in this tropical climate. BACK TO DESTINATIONS |
Dates:
January 2000