Kerala, the land of spices, tea and ayurveda has many firsts: dozens of cultures coexist here, there is the highest literacy rate, great civil rights writers such as Arundathi Roy live here, women give their surnames to their children, communists and conservatives coexist in the government. And now it has become the largest experiment in experience sharing and diversity inclusion among travellers and communities. We are in the world of the ‘God of small things’ from Arundhathi Roy's legendary novel: will discovering ourselves in nature and small gestures by stepping out of our comfort zone lead us to happiness? Surely we get off the tourist track and enter the world of the here and now, with those who live here.

What do the women do and why visit them?

Molly Kochuthressia is a 60-year-old woman who, in retirement, has returned to her old village Sultan Bathery, in the proud region of Wayanad, rich in history and famous for its people rebelling against invaders, amidst the lush spice plantations on the slopes of the Western Ghats mountains. Here she founded Harmony Farm: a model farm, a wooden house with rooms for visitors and walkways accessible to all, the largest certified organic tea brand, an organic fertiliser production. The farmers and the women who work for her belong to the local Adivasi tribe and have been moved from the forest to make way for a nature reserve, thus regaining their natural environment. From here we set off to visit the plantations, stopping at artisans to extract eucalyptus oil, work or weave bamboo, we climb up an expanse of different greens to Chembra Peak, the highest mountain in Wayanad, passing the heart-shaped lake.

Molly is one of the entrepreneurs who have used the Kerala Responsible Tourism Mission Society's project, which has become a model in the world: 40 packages with dozens of experiences in 30 regions, with the aim of involving all the inhabitants, having small groups of tourists, guaranteeing respect for local women and safety for female travellers. The aim: to advance global standards of gender inclusion for the tourism industry and safety for female travellers. a model now being studied worldwide, where for the first time the population is self-managing thousands of initiatives, so that everyone can benefit from the revenue from tourism, but in very small numbers respecting cultures. Great protagonists are the women: for the first time, thousands of women farmers, guides, managers, artisans, spokespersons for the most isolated ethnic groups, manage 70% of 18,000 activities, in agreement with their villages and families, creating safe and respectful destinations for themselves and for tourists. The first consequence of success: more and more female travellers are climbing through sandalwood forests, prehistoric remains and emerald plantations of the finest tea as far as Munnar, entering the ‘rise cup’, the centre of rice paddies and lakes, to the beaches of the south.

Some ideas? Fishing, tuktuk rides, oils and soaps made from concentrated woods and flowers, honeys and preserves, yoga and kalaripayattu classes (the martial art that uses mind, soul, touch as in Ayurvedic techniques), tea picking, weaving, participating in the strangest festivals (like snake dancing), working with clay, climbing to pick coconut trees, nights in the hundreds of farmstays and days cultivating unknown plants, tracking birds from the canoe in the mangrove forest, art exhibitions and cultural festivals in the most isolated farms, poetry readings in auditoriums under palm leaves. Always at the homes of Indian friends, pampered with heavenly menus and Ayurveda in all forms, medicines, ointments, massages, food, juices, yoga, dance

Some of our favorites?

Let’s stay in the mountains, by jeep to Munnar, because here we must see the Flower Garden, a botanical garden with hundreds of roses, and above all enjoy the light among the emerald fields dotted with the colourful saris of the pickers, in the highest tea plantation in the world, to be tasted and bought at the Lockart Tea Museum. When the fog lifts, the elephants go to water and the sounds of the forest quieten down, it is best to take refuge at the Grand Cliff Resort, with a terrace overlooking the sleeping forest, a concentration of all the comforts and pleasures of Kerala in a five-star variant.

In Kochi, get lost in the jungle of dusty historic streets, a world of smiles, temples, altars, mosques, bougainvillea and tuktuk. In Fort, in a quadrilateral between the river, Rose street and Muhammad Road, enter the Le Colonial and Old Harbour hotels, try on dozens of clothes in the boutiques of young designers or sari-clad ladies with sewing machine for a ready-to-wear, rent a bike, taste street food, book an Ayurveda massage. But above all, in Jew Town, you have to have at least one cocktail at the Ginger House Museum Hotel to peek at the suites of gold and maharajah's mirrors, go in and out of antique and apothecary shops, imagine Arab, Jewish, Flemish, Portuguese merchants, beyond the tumbledown facades around the synagogues. Recommended for an overnight stay is Govindamangalam Home Stay: a 100-year-old villa in the green with every comfort and service just like home.

Cochin is also the gateway to the backwaters, the ‘rice bowl’ 14 metres below sea level, all emerald lakes dotted with round grass islets, and sleepy villages on the shores. All in an atmosphere of infectious serenity and calm.

Those with a green soul must meet Julie Joy, the creator of Ecotrailnomads. Having become an anti-plastic guru and organiser of beach and road cleaning campaigns and meetings with schools, she will pass on her enthusiasm for nature, with holidays on the organic farm, cooking to learn vegetarian recipes, or in tents to see waterfalls and explore from Kerala to the world.

In Maravanturuth we meet Ambily Soman, head of one of the many Women's Responsible Tourism Clubs: << The Club is an empowering tool: we offer support to women who want to travel, we organise trips, we train those who want to work>>. With her company Grassroot Journeys, Ambily specialises in women's trips, pilgrimages, visits to other villages. <<Women are often housebound, my friends and I, with our organisation, are the example of how to self-manage very small villages and turn them into interesting destinations for travellers to the benefit of all: we earn a small income, we manage the travel packages, we take tourists on canoes, to discover old village life, ethnic cuisine, we host them>>.

Kumarakom and its water lands are best visited by boat. With Village Ways, for example, you stay on exquisite houseboats and visit the villages.
In Aymanam, on the other hand, there are 40 shikara boats, the boatman takes you on a three-hour tour and you pay 3500 rupees at the tourist office. <<It is very important for us to receive tourists, but also to co-ordinate everyone's work without affecting tradition>> says Geethu, the community representative. On the first stop in the kitchen, they make curry, then visit the lady who weaves and the workshop that creates carpets and objects from coconut fibres. The vegetable gardens at the back of the farms, beyond the mud walls sheltered from the floods, overlook the water and the next stop is an invitation to the kitchen amidst smiles and slow-moving tastings: aubergines, nutmeg, turmeric, ghee rice, biriyani, curry, tribal kurumulaku and koottu in all the recipes. We understand why the novel ‘The God of Small Things’ was set here.

If you want to feel like you're in a Bollywood movie, Katakali classes are popular here, or Kolathunadu rituals with painted, trance-like gurus dancing, or you can go with the women to the garden and market in search of unknown fruits, cook Jadree, shop at the artisans' and prepare a grand dance. These and others are the advice of Gheetu Mohandas, of letsgoforacamp, an electrical engineer, the first Indian to take part in the polar expedition, who, with 30 guides and managers, took Indian women to the mountains and seas, with friends and children, to help during emergencies, to buy handicrafts, to explore, to <<discover themselves in nature by getting out of the comfort zone>>.

Tips from those who know

According to Sukerti Raiwat of Soulfulsafaris with the therapeutic power of art and craft we not only redesign matter but also the landscape of our mind, ourselves. Therefore, his journeys are workshops designed to reconnect, recycle, redesign. Regenerative journeys to create wellbeing must be slow, spritual, socially useful, artistic experiences, intersecting culture, community, conservation, the wellbeing of the planet and people. Sukerti Raiwat's journeys are all this, tailor-made and based on the great therapeutic power of 5000 years of art and craft. At the forefront is philanthropy, the preservation of the planet, the support of ethical causes and enterprises. For example: in the village of Kuttanad, Krishna Kumari teaches you different masalas served on banana leaves with appam rice bread, the boatman Mathai shows you the plants in the canals of Pullicunni, the cooperative in the village of Muhamma has you weave coconut fibre, and, not before buying a magnificent bag, you end up in the magnificent Purity resort on Lake Vambanad, under the care of expert therapists for customised yoga, meditation and ayurveda.

From Marari Beach to Varkala, if you are backpackers you will like the idea of Hellie, a Swiss woman who for years has spent her month's holiday touring India on her own: <<The best and safest way to see Kerala is to travel the coastal road by bus>>. And indeed, between the palm trees one glimpses endless beaches, zigzagging through puddles, markets, hammer and sickle flags, churches, mosques, altars to Shiva and village fairs.
In the villages, you visit plantations and try your hand at surfing, canoeing, fishing, wood and terracotta workshops. But, the last and most important moment of glory can only be an Ayurvedic ‘monsoon package, rejuvenating head, face, body treatment’, when harvest time ends and the monsoon arrives, and as it seems oil is more effective. With a visit in the rain to the festival at the Oachira temple, a thundering procession of drums, horns and elephants.

INFO
https://www.keralatourism.org/responsible-tourism/

 

Tags: women in tourism