Kerala

Kerala is the most literate state in India, the state with the highest human development index, and the state with the most sophisticated trading history on its coastline — a combination that produces a culture of unusual confidence and unusual depth.

The Malabar coast received the Romans for pepper and the Chinese for silk and the Arabs for horses, and each trading partner left something: the Chinese fishing nets at Kochi, the Arab-influenced architecture of the Malabar Muslim mosques, the Jewish Quarter at Mattancherry, the Syrian Christian churches that follow a liturgical tradition predating the Roman Church by two centuries.

The Kathakali dance drama, which takes seven hours of preparation in makeup and costume for a three-hour performance, is the most technically demanding performing art in India: the facial expressions alone require ten years of study. The Onam harvest festival in August and September — when the entire state decorates with flower rangolis and the Nehru Trophy snake boat race is held — is simultaneously agricultural, religious, athletic, and domestic, the most complete cultural event available in India.

Places to Visit in Kerala

• Alleppey Backwaters
• Munnar tea estates
• Kovalam Beach
• Fort Kochi

Things to Do in Kerala

• Houseboat cruise through the backwaters
• Tea plantation walks in Munnar
• Ayurvedic spa treatments
• Kathakali dance performance