The Further Surroundings:
From northeast to southeast mountains up to 2600-meter-high, the Western Ghats, are stretching for nearly 2000km from near Bombay to the southernmost tip of the Indian peninsula. They are between 40 to 100 km afar from our place, instantly rising from the plains to their full height, so that every uphill and downhill drive will present overwhelming views. It will take 3 – 6 hours drive to reach their top.
Full of rivulets and torrents, waterfalls and dams. Big plantations cultivating teak, rubber, tea, coffee, cacao, cardamom.
Considerable cooler.
Different rainforest zones, jungle, mixed deciduous forest, windy chilly grasslands. Sanctuaries rich in flora and fauna, the Ghats are one of the biodiversity hotspots of the world. Various types of monkeys, antelopes, gaurs, elephants, leopards, tigers, manifolds of reptiles and birds populate the mountains, many of whom are in the red or yellow list of endangered spezies. Rare plants and trees. Different tribes live throughout the forest in small settlements.
You can find touristically developed places (=overcrowded) and rather untouched destinations in this mountain region, which belongs as well to Kerala as also to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
The eastwards bordering Tamil Nadu on the plains after the Ghats present a quite different appearance; different landscape, different people, different architecture, different sceneries. More dry, more wide and open, less populated, the people rather small, dark, reserved, serious. A poorer, not yet so "developed" state, "backward", bound in tradition (and sometimes superstition). The feudal system seems still to be in place, at least in the countryside.
Westwards the sea, shortest distance 40 km. Traditional fisher folk, mostly Muslims. The coastal belt relatively densely populated, fishing village after fishing village seams the endless white sandbeaches. Coconut trees, wind, sand, waves. Swimming not advisable because the beach still sometimes is the toilet of the locals and also such an exotic performance of whiteskins undressing and venturing into the sea will immediately procure huge audiences. Single beach resorts with private beaches exist along the coastline, there you can do all that.
Northwards stretches the Malabar region with the towns of Calicut (Kozhikode) and Cannanore (Kannur) up to the border of Karnataka, southwards in the erstwhile kingdom of Travancore are the towns of Cochin, Alleppey (Allapuzha) and lastly in the southernmost part Trivandrum (Thiruvandanapuram), the capital of Kerala.
All these destinations can of course be reached by car and jeep (taxis), but also easily by train or, a bit more adventurous, by bus.
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