Story and Photography by Andrea McVeigh<\/p>\n
It was always my childhood dream to have a treehouse.\u00a0 It seemed like the perfect hideaway from parents, responsibilities and real life, a place where I could play games and make friends with the animals (I was heavily influenced by Dr. Dolittle). The toys and Dr. Dolittle fantasies have long gone, and I never did get that treehouse, but decades later in the southwest of India, in the state of Kerala, nestled on the tropical Malabar Coast, my dream did come true for one night at least.<\/p>\n
In travel, as with real estate, it\u2019s all about location, location, location, and Kerala\u2019s positioning on India\u2019s West Coast, bordering the Arabian Sea, with the Western Ghats mountain range to the east, is one of the reasons why the state of Kerala is so popular with tourists.<\/p>\n
A one-hour drive up a mountain, passing nine hold-on-to-the-edge-of-your-seat hairpin bends, is the Vythiri Resort situated on the slope of a forested hill in Wayanad, northern Kerala, beneath the enormous canopy of a lush tropical rainforest. In addition to its luxurious glass-floored villas with private swimming pools, Vythiri is home to not just one, but five, treehouses, all in the middle of the rainforest and adjacent to the resort. Sitting on our treehouse terrace listening to the sounds of nature, we soaked up this taste of rustic luxury. With no TV, radio nor Wi-Fi, we settled back in our balcony chairs as the sun set and the distant sparkle of a thousand planets and stars lit up the midnight-blue sky.<\/p>\n Think of India and, for some people, \u201cDelhi belly,\u201d overcrowding and poverty spring to mind.\u00a0But step away from the major cities, and there\u2019s a wonderful world of color, hospitality and beautiful, diverse scenery.<\/p>\n The scenery in Kerala alone ranges from palm tree-lined beaches along the Arabian Sea to dense interior rainforest, mountain tea, coffee and spice plantations and inland backwaters with their network of canals. Wildlife sanctuaries also draw visitors, as do boutique hotels offering programs of Ayurveda treatments to balance both body and soul. They may not be the sort of whale-music-and-scented-candles sort of spa treatments you\u2019re used to, but it\u2019s fine. Sitting on a stool in one of Vythiri\u2019s spa rooms, naked except for a paper thong, I knew that what the spa, and many like it, lacked in frills, it made up for in authenticity. Kerala is one of the best places to enjoy Ayurvedic treatments in India. This traditional Hindu practice takes a holistic approach to well-being, believing in balancing the body and mind through herbal treatments, diet and breathing.<\/p>\n My tour took me from Kerala\u2019s northern end to the busy tourist city of Kochi, a bit more than halfway down the state, staying in hotels along the route for just a couple of nights before moving on. We traveled by chauffeur-driven car, usually provided by the next hotel along the route.The better hotels will often arrange transfers for guests because driving on unfamiliar roads in a foreign country isn\u2019t always recommended, and some of the hotels are particularly out of the way.<\/p>\n Kerala is a great \u201centry level\u201d destination if you\u2019ve never been to India. There is poverty, of course, and in a country numbering 1.3 billion people with a still functioning caste system, that\u2019s no surprise, but Kerala is a prosperous state. Outside of the big cities, women and men still wear traditional dress. The women looking beautiful in colorful saris, the men repeatedly tying and retying their lungi, the rectangular cloth that covers them from waist to knee.<\/p>\n Northern Kerala isn\u2019t much different from the South in terms of weather (there are two rainy monsoon seasons, in June and from mid-October to mid-November), but it\u2019s where you\u2019ll find more of the plantations and hill stations (high altitude towns favored by the colonialists as a place to escape the summer heat). An eight-hour, 248-mile drive from Vythiri is touristy Kochi. (You\u2019ll also see it called Cochin, the British colonial name that is still used by many locals and often used interchangeably.) By either name, it\u2019s a seaport city of modern shopping malls and international hotel chains and the industrial and commercial capital of Kerala.<\/p>\n Standing in the lobby of the Kochi\u2019s Spice Fort heritage boutique hotel, I\u2019m telling Sujith, the hotel\u2019s affable frontman, about all the things I like about the hotel and this part of town. I like the large courtyard swimming pool and the fact its water is so naturally warm in October that it\u2019s like swimming in a pleasant bath. I tell him I love Saffron, the hotel\u2019s organic restaurant and the importance placed on local, seasonal produce, and I particularly love the masala dosa (a type of crisp pancake made from fermented batter and filled with spicy potato and onions), but he might have guessed that already because I had three for lunch.<\/p>\n I told him I liked the location in the historic district \u2013 known as Fort Kochi \u2013 with its outdoor market stalls, where haggling is the norm, and near the famous giant Chinese fishing nets. The nets are known as Chinese and not Indian because they are thought to have been introduced in the 14th century by Chinese traders. These days they\u2019re mostly for tourist appeal because they\u2019re too close to the shore to catch many fish. A popular ruse is to invite tourists to use a pulley system to pull up the nets, then demand money before you\u2019re allowed off the dock.<\/p>\n I was intrigued by the history of the 140-year-old building that is now home to the 27-room hotel, each room named after a spice in honor of Kochi\u2019s centuries-long position at the center of the Indian spice trade.\u00a0 Nearby is the Paradesi Synagogue, a 400-year-old synagogue that is now a tourist attraction.<\/p>\n There\u2019s just one thing that\u2019s bothering me. I\u2019ve been exploring all\u00a0 day, I\u2019m hot, sticky and sweaty in the humidity and 86-degree heat, and I still can\u2019t find the fort. There was once a Portuguese fort here, but it\u2019s long gone. Many different cultures and colonialists called Kochi home over the years, the Portuguese, the Dutch and, more recently, the British. Each one left a mark in street names and architecture, cuisine and attractions such as St. Francis church, opened in 1516, and reportedly the first European-built church in the whole of India. Colonialism only ended when India gained independence in 1947.<\/p>\n These days the invaders are hippie travelers, foodies, women like me and you. Seekers of some of the best holistic spa treatments and soakers-up of the local colors, sights, smells and tastes. There\u2019s a reason why Kerala is also known throughout the world as God\u2019s Own Country.\u00a0 Who even needs a fort?<\/p>\n www.vythiriresort.com<\/a> [vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Exploring the great city of Kerala Story and Photography by Andrea McVeigh It was always my childhood dream to have a treehouse.\u00a0 It seemed like the perfect hideaway from parents, responsibilities and real life, a place where I could play games and make friends with the animals (I was heavily influenced by Dr. Dolittle).…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3538,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145,137],"tags":[147],"class_list":["post-3536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","category-travel","tag-far","post_format-post-format-image"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nSurprisingly spacious, the most luxurious of the five comes with its own Jacuzzi bath, bathroom and double bed, the usual things you\u2019d find in a hotel, except there are also two thick tree branches rising up from the floor through the roof. And that\u2019s where my travel partner and I stayed for the night. After dinner, we were advised to pack an overnight bag before a guide escorted us up the reassuringly substantial staircase to our bamboo-walled dwelling, 75 feet above the forest floor, on top of a sturdy 250-year-old banyan tree.<\/p>\n![\"Vythiri](\"https:\/\/travelgirlinc.com\/tgwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/vythiri-resort-treehouse-balcony-205x300.jpg\")
Another side to India<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"Kerala's](\"https:\/\/travelgirlinc.com\/tgwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/SpiceFort_India.jpg\")
The fort-less Fort Kochi<\/span><\/h3>\n
\n\u201cAh,\u201d says Sujith, \u201cFort Kochi has everything. Except a fort.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nwww.duneecogroup.com<\/a>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"