Kerala is the land of rivers, backwaters and hills, to say nothing of its long sea coast dotted with many charming beach resorts. Kerala, popularly known as God's own country, is one of the prime tourist destinations of India. The scenic beauty of green Kerala is sure to captivate the visitor. Located on the south west tip of the Indian subcontinent, sandwiched between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea, Kerala is blessed with abundant natural diversity and offers unmatched opportunities for the visitor to become one with nature. The tall and stately coconut palm dominates the landscape, testifying to its name ‘Keralam’, the land of ‘Kera’ or the coconut. No wonder, many have called Kerala a symphony in green.

As one leaves the dust and noise of the towns and cities, a rich green carpet of paddy fields, canals and backwaters unfolds as far as the eye can reach. Over the centuries Kerala has evolved and fine-tuned its unique culture and traditions inspired by this rich backdrop. Highly evolved art forms like the Kathakali, Koodiyattom, Mohiniyattom etc are distillates of Kerala’s cultural excellence. The annual snakeboat races replays for the tourist pale images of its hoary past, when the tall and stately war craft carried hundreds of seasoned and battle-ready soldiers.

There is no place like Thrissur in Kerala, especially on ‘Pooram’ day when 101 caparisoned elephants line up in their festive finery. March-April is the season of temple festivals when virtually the entire Kerala is resplendent in festive colours. Onam, the secular state festival, falls in September when King Mahabali, the fabled ancient mythical ruler of Kerala, as legend goes, revisits his subjects. This is also the tourist season when one can have a sort of an ‘instant’ introduction to all that is unique to the land.

If one is keen on taking home memories and /or photographs, the thing to do is to take a meandering cruise down the web of canals and backwaters that once served as the lifelines of this beautiful land, perhaps as a guest in a houseboat, the modern ‘avatar’ of the traditional ‘kettu vallom’, the freight carrying canoe.