This week’s travel dream: India’s beguiling backwaters
The southern coastal state of Kerala is known for its "massive network of meandering, palm-tree-fretted canals."
My family and I had seen about enough of northern India, said Glenn Kessler in The Washington Post. In two thrilling but exhausting weeks of travel, “we had been to the Taj Mahal” and checked the old stomping grounds of the Rajput kings. We’d wound our way through high, circuitous Himalayan roads and “gorged on rich north Indian food.” But then, on the recommendation of a colleague, we determined to head to the country’s south for the final week. Life is more laid-back there, he told us—and he was right. When we stepped off the plane in Kerala, a four-hour flight from Delhi, “we immediately felt we had traveled to a different country.”
Could this really be India? “The pace was more leisurely, the food was completely different, and the people were friendlier.” Where Mumbai and other cities have been roiled by terrorism, the southern coastal state of Kerala, where we were, seems comparatively “peaceful” and undisturbed. “Kerala is famous for its backwaters, a massive network of meandering, palm-tree-fretted canals that intersect rice fields and farms.” Many tourists come for ayurvedic massage treatments at the area’s “swank resorts.” We had something more adventurous in mind: a night spent in a “converted rice barge” on the backwaters themselves, drifting beneath “a brilliant, star-studded sky.” As it turns out, however, our boat was disappointingly dirty and uncomfortable. We soon concluded that we preferred watching boats to sleeping aboard them.
In the town of Alappuzha, host site for the annual Nehru Trophy Boat Race, we had the chance to watch teams of 100 or more men race across a lake in “massive wooden ‘snake boats’ that are at least 150 feet long.” I couldn’t tell you what the rules are, exactly, but “none of that matters, because the ambience is so wonderful.” A similar spirit of festivity suffused our final stop, Kochi, where we watched performances of kathakali, the region’s distinctive form of dance drama. This strong dose of Hindu culture mixed beguilingly with Kochi’s “overlapping” legacies of Dutch, Portuguese, and even Jewish settlement. Best of all, you can explore Kochi’s historic district entirely on foot—“a welcome change from most sprawling Indian cities, where a walk around town is a virtual impossibility.” We were lucky to have found our way to India’s serene south—and loath to leave.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
'A direct, protracted war with Israel is not something Iran is equipped to fight'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Today's political cartoons - April 17, 2024
Cartoons Wednesday's cartoons - political anxiety, jury sorting hat, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Arid Gulf states hit with year's worth of rain
Speed Read The historic flooding in Dubai is tied to climate change
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published