Kerala Backwaters

Kerala's backwaters are a 900-km network of interconnected canals, rivers, lakes, and inlets parallel to the Arabian Sea coast. The ecosystem supports a unique way of life - fishing communities have lived in stilt houses along the banks for generations, moving between villages by country boat, trading coconuts, rice, and fish. The water buffalo graze on the narrow strips of land between the canals; Chinese fishing nets (cheena vala) dip into the water at dawn in a choreography that has continued since the 14th century when Kublai Khan's traders introduced them.

The quintessential Kerala experience is a night aboard a kettuvallam - a traditional rice barge converted into a floating cottage with bedroom, bathroom, and an open-air deck from which to watch the backwater world drift past. Alleppey (Alappuzha), the 'Venice of the East,' is the main hub; houseboats glide from here into the Vembanad Lake, Kerala's longest, where the Nehru Trophy Snake Boat Race is held every August - a thunderous spectacle of 100-oared longboats propelled by 150 rowers in perfect synchrony.