The undulant hills and their valleys to the west of these mountains are covered with thick tropical forests, teaming with wild elephants and tigers, leopards and deer and flora and fauna of every kind and color- some of them very rare.

And as if these were not beauty enough, the sea creeps inland through a thousand inlets, forming a thousand and more islets of waving palms and swaying paddy fields. This sea invasion inland also gives rise to the beautiful, blue lagoons or backwaters, which are a unique characteristic of Kerala. A moonlit night in a houseboat on the lagoon - that is the stuff dreams are made of.

There are few places on earth that can match Kerala in its natural beauty. And there are even fewer places to match it in history, cuisine and Culture. Kerala had trading relations with the Phoenicians and other seafaring cultures from time immemorial. Ma He the famous Chinese eunuch Admiral who led a flotilla in 1404 which dwarfed Columbus's expedition a century later, was all praises for Kerala. Other travelers and explorers of yore like Ibn Battuta and Marco Polo also visited Kerala and stayed on for many an year. They were all praises for the thriving culture and trade of India.

Columbus himself had the rich spice-trade with Kerala in mind when he set sail west from Spain. However, instead of rounding the Cape of Storms, he sailed West into the Atlantic. He reasoned that since the earth is round he would reach the East and Kerala even if he sailed west. After endless days despair and near Mutiny he found land, which he thought, was India. Consequently he called the natives he found there ‘Indians’ and the land (West) Indies. So in a way Kerala was the inspiration that led to the discovery of the Americas.

Six years later Vasco Da Gamma another intrepid explorer, set sail from Portugal, rounded the Cape of Good Hope/Storms and finally landed at Kappad in Calicut, Kerala. At the time Vasco Da Gamma was more of celebrity for landing in Kerala than Columbus was for discovering America.

This was the beginning of the European colonization of India and the other regions of the East. The Portuguese, The Spaniards, The Dutch, The French and finally The British - the most successful of them- set trading posts all over the Orient and paved the way for the prosperity and advancement of the Western society.

As for the cultural milieu of Kerala, it is the home of cultural forms like Kathakali, Koodiyattom, Ottamthullal and so on, which are of ancient vintage and unmatched anywhere else. Kalarippayattu is a martial art form, which is unique to Kerala. Some historians opine that Buddhist missionaries carried this martial art technique to the Far East where it evolved into modern Judo, Kung Fu and other martial art disciplines.

Bill McKibben of the National Geographic Traveler sums it all up when he waxes eloquent, " Statistically Kerala stands out as the Mount Everest of social development; there’s truly no place like it."

Kerala and the Tourist: Kerala is a long and narrow strip of land sandwiched between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea. From the tourist point of view Kerala has three topographies – the beaches, the backwaters and the mountains/valleys. Subsequently, Kerala Tourism can be classified into beach tourism, backwater tourism and mountain/valley tourism.

Kerala Beach Tourism: Kerala lies on the Arabian sea and has a shoreline of about 700 Km in length. This provides for a number of beach destinations in Kerala. The beach destinations in Kerala are from north to South, Bekkel Fort, Kannur Fort, Kappad beach in Calicut, Cherai Beach, Varkala, Kovalam and Kanyakumari. The most important of them is Kovalam, which is evolving into a favorite destination in India. Most beaches provide for sunbathing and other beach tourism activities.

Kerala Backwater Tourism: Over the millennia the Arabian Sea has been incessantly depositing sand and silt on to its beaches wave after rolling waves. Some of these deposits consist of valuable ores of Titanium, Uranium, Thorium and other heavy metals – Kerala has the second highest deposits of Thorium in the world and this is being replenished constantly by the Arabian Sea. However, from the tourist point of view the Arabian sea has been building up islands after islands for a hundred thousand years and more. The result is that the West Kerala is dotted and hyphened with hundreds of thousands of islands, some as small as a few feet across while others like Vypeen stretch for a dozen kilometers and more.

The seas that intrude into the land between these islands are called backwaters and the backwaters of Kerala are a unique experience as far as Indian tourism is involved. At some places the backwaters form canals hardly negotiable in canoes while in some other places the backwaters widens out into placid lakes, which are often a 1-2 kilometers wide. These Kerala backwaters also make for an inland water transport system that can take you from the north to the South of Kerala though now it is now limited to about 150 km from Allepey to Trivandrum.

This exotic and unique feature of Kerala is one of the reasons that induced the National Geographic Traveler to describe Kerala as ‘Paradise Found’ and to recommend it for the tour of a lifetime – the other reason is Munnar and its surroundings. Alleppey and Kumarakam are the most important destinations of Kerala under the backwater category of tourism. An overnight stay in one of the so-called houseboats is a unique experience of Kerala tourism.

Houseboats are a recent development of Kerala Tourism. The labyrinth of backwater canals were the main infrastructure for transport in Kerala until fifty years ago – they are still the main line of transport in Kumarakam and Kuttanad. Bulk transport and long distance travel were effected in what are called ‘vallams’ which are refined canoes some 20-30 feet long and 4-6 feet wide in the middle. Awnings 6-8 feet long and 3-5 feet high made of bamboo thatched over with coconut leaves provided shelter from the weather on long the distance travels. A decade or so ago someone thought of extending the scope of these awnings to 10-12 feet high and 30-40 feet in length and about 12 feet wide in the middle. Living facilities like rooms, toilets and kitchens were incorporated under these awnings to make the famous houseboats of Kerala. Over the decades the number of such houseboats have burgeoned into a few thousands. In the beginning houseboats were single storied, single room affairs that accommodated a couple or two. Now they have evolved into multistoried, multi-roomed affairs and some of these houseboats of Kerala even sport conference/convention facilities which can accommodate over a hundred participants.

The popularity of these houseboats vis-à-vis Kerala tourism led to environmental problems from toilet and fuel effluents on the backwaters of Kerala – the houseboats are powered by diesel-guzzling outboard motors. Agitations from environmentalists  and the local populations forced the government to implement strict regimen of pollution controls. Consequently all the houseboats of Kerala are equipped with the state of the art effluent treatment systems and provide for an environmental friendly eco-tourism.

Kerala Mountain/Valley Tourism: The Western Ghats or the Nilgiris (Blue Mountains) guard the eastern boarders of Kerala. These undulating mountains and their valleys are carpeted with dense tropical forests and vegetations as well as with endless stretches of tea and spice plantations. This landscape provide for a veritable and breathtaking feast for the eyes.

Munnar is the most important mountain destination in Kerala. Situated on the confluence of three rivers – Munnar literally means three streams- Munnar has stretches of tea and cardamom plantations that stretch to the horizons. As you wind up or down the hairpin bends of the Munnar roads, view after breathtaking view of nature’s munificence unfolds before you. Apart from the backwaters of Kumarakam and Alleppey, this breathtaking beauty of Munnar and its surroundings is what induced the National Geographic to rate Kerala as one of ten ‘paradises found’ on earth.

Thekkady, hardly 2-3 hours drive from Munnar, is one of the biggest tiger preserves in India. The drive from Munnar to Thekkady through the mountains and valleys of plantations and forests is an unforgettable and unparalleled tourist experience to cherish for a lifetime.

Wayanad in the north of Kerala also provides for spectacular experiences of forests, plantations and rare species of wildlife like the lion-tailed macaque. Elephants, tigers, bison and many varieties of deer and monkeys inhabit the Nilgiri forests.