Kerala’s fringed waterfront is probably the most beautiful in the world
Kerala’s fringed waterfront is probably the most beautiful in the world. The backwaters, rivers canals are about 1920 km which is more than one-fifth pf India’s inland waterways. It may not be known to many that Kerala was the gateway of India in ancient times, doing trade with Greece, Rome, Arabia and China.
Out of the monsoon winds, a distant age ago, the wily Arabs came bearing frankincense and myrrh and took back ivory, apes and peaks from Kerala; Pax Romana and Raman men where disturbed and Cicero railed in the forum, because of the see-through Muslims of Kerala; the son of Caesar and Cleopatra sought refuge against the wrath of Octavian in Kerala and the Portuguese found Brazil because they lost their way searching for Kerala.
Kerala is being rediscovered by the people of the world because it is the India they have always longed for: exploding palms and trumpeting elephants; temple dances that thunder into the night and mysterious green backwaters slithering sinuously through the land; and colorful festivals, serene churches, excellent highways, enchanting byways and, most important, a large network of economically tourist bungalows where you can live like a king because kings built them and lived in them before the days of kingship set.