Tamil Nadu to Kerala

There isn’t a real India any more than there is a real U.S. of A. But if there were, it would be in the south. Relatively unruffled by the waves of invasion that swept through and transformed the north, the south is the repository of the Dravidian culture that underlies the Indian reality.

We begin in Tamil Nadu’s Chennai (formerly known as Madras) and drive to Mamallapuram, the City of Seven Pagodas, “a largesse of spirit and stone,” Louis MacNiece called it. Next we fly south to culturally fertile Trichy (Tiruchirapalli), Tanjore, and the World Heritage Site Brihadishwara Temple. After stopping in Chettinad to visit its ornate mansions and indulge in the revered local cuisine, we continue to Madurai (whose temple, Wilfred Blunt wrote, “made me at last feel as if I had seen a temple of Babylon in all its glory”). After some colorful village-visiting near Madurai, we climb into the High Ranges of the Western Ghats for a stop at lovely Munnar, surrounded by brilliantly green tea estates. Now on to Kerala’s Malabar Backwaters of the Arabian Sea. We unwind with a couple of days slowly wending the meandering, reposeful, and riotously luxuriant backwaters, overnighting at a tranquil waterside resort with private bungalows. We make an excursion to a local village festival, an old-fashioned gala full of dancing devotees, cymbals, drums, gorgeously bedecked elephants, and exhibitions of pyrotechnics. And our finale: the historic city of Cochin, the first European foothold on the subcontinent, a place Indians proudly call “the Venice of the East.”

Days 1 & 2: USA to Chennai (Madras) • Day 3: Chennai to Mamallapuram • Day 4: excursion to Kanchipuram • Day 5: fly to Tanjore via Trichy • Day 6: Tanjore to Karaikudi • Day 7: exploring Chettinad • Day 8: Karaikudi to Madurai • Day 9: village excursion • Day 10: Madurai to Munnar • Day 11: Munnar • Day 12: Munnar to Kumarakom and the Kerala backwaters • Day 13: on the backwaters and festival • Day 14: Kumarakom to Kochi (Cochin) • Day 15: Kochi • Day 16: fly to Mumbai • Day 17: return to USA.

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