South India: Land of Temples,
Palaces and Plantations
story and photos by Judy and Ted van der Veen

Imagine acres upon acres of palm trees, rice paddies, tea plantations (or coffee or spices or rubber), and wildlife reserves, interspersed with towns and small cities dominated by magnificent stone temples and maharajahs' palaces, and you have the southern tip of India. While the Golden Triangle of the central north is the most likely choice for a first trip to this vast sub-continent, there are other fascinating regions to discover as well. Lynne Mayer's The Magic of India in the June 2007 issue of TTS provides excellent advice on preparing for a trip to India as well as a description of that more "touristy" Golden Triangle. Here we will tell you about our extensive tour of the south in November 2006. For three full weeks we were part of a group of fourteen visiting the three southern states of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, a tour called South India Explored organized by Exodus Travels in the UK. We began and ended the tour in Cochin far down on the western coast (Arabian Sea) of India, travelled by luxury coach up into the hills to stay in Ootacamund ("snooty Ooty" of the British colonial era), through two national parks to Mysore and eventually Bangalore, where we boarded the train to cross to Chennai (formerly Madras) on the eastern coast (Bay of Bengal).

From Chennai we followed the coast south to the former French territory of Pondicherry, then back across the tip via Thanjavur, Madurai, and Periyar National Park to Kovalam, a resort town near the southern tip of the continent. The return to Cochin included an overnight on one of the traditional houseboats through the backwaters. This was a very different India from the one we had visited over twenty years ago (the classic Golden Triangle), and a very pleasant surprise it was.<more>