What makes Kerala unique?
I must confess that I didn’t know much about Kerala before this trip, it was until a friend of mine went and I started to see some of her photos and understood that it’s quite different from the rest of India, that’s basically why I wanted to write and share this article about 10 things that make Kerala unique.
1. TEA ESTATES
Let’s begin this list with the beautiful and fresh zone up the hill in Munnar where most of the landscape is covered with abundant tea plantations that looks like a huge green maze surrounded by 3 rivers, the bushes are kept with this high so it can be easier to collect the leaves. This area is not that hot and is great for hiking and biking.
2. Beaches
There are a lot of beautiful beaches along the Malabar Coast surrounded by a lot of coconut trees that makes these scenarios so great and unique, a perfect place to enjoy the Arabian Sea.
3. Food
4. Dances
Kerala has a huge number of artistic expressions and perhaps it is Kathakali the famous and art form in the whole region where performers plays folk legends and spiritual ideas from Hindu epics with facial gestures and footwork, all this to express different ideas or feelings, the costumes are quite elaborate and even the makeup is very distinctive (it take almost an hour to paint their faces).
Discover why the magic of Kerala is on it people.
5. Backwaters
These are a chain of lagoons and channels that are parallel to the Arabian Sea, you can actually navigate them on a houseboat (kettuvallam) this network connects different villages and gives you the opportunity to know more about their daily life, some people are fishing, some other are crossing it on a small boats or just refreshing having a dip in it. Through these channels, people used to transport rice but with time and infrastructure, they stopped giving it this usage so now those boats got modified to start offering these fantastic rides. Look carefully, locals will be gladly waving at you.
6. Flora and fauna
Once we are there we shouldn’t let the opportunity to get in contact with nature to pass by. Take a hike on the field and discover their popular spices (cardamom, pepper, cinnamon) or into their forest and sanctuaries to eyewitness the diversity of Kerala.
7. Landscapes
During all the expedition we had the chance to visit all different kind of places like beaches, lakes, forest, and hill, all of there are just beautiful and peaceful.
8. Music
There are music schools in Kerala where even the young attend and help to keep these cultural traditions alive, horns and drums are the most used instruments during their dances and celebrations.
9. People
In my first blog post I decided to talk about them, It was such a pleasure to be in contact with amazing people, they are so friendly, kind and very smiley, all that was very important for me and made me have a very pleasant journey in India, trust me I was not the only one who had that same feeling about it.
10. Ayurveda
This is a historic and traditional medicine system with its roots in Kerala and it’s believed that its origins are from 5,000 to 10,000 years ago. It is based on the theory that illness is the natural result of life in harmony with the environment and states that we must keep our body clean and pure.
Check out this video to know more about Kerala:
Accomodation in Kerala
These are two more hotels that we really enjoy while we visited Kerala:
Greenwoods Resort
The Greenwoods resort surrounded by huge trees.
Tea County Munnar
On top of a hill there’s the hotel Tea County Munnar.