Kerala's back country water-ways seem far removed from the universe most of us inhabit, because of it's secluded and it's amazing beauty, yet they are linked to the rest of the world in a very real way, and have been for at least two millennia.

In earlier times, if less so today, these very water-ways were the starting point for the transport of south Indian spices, which eventully found there way to the distant shores of Europe and beyound.

Formed by 40 odd rivers that flow do to the Arabian sea from the Cardamom hills in the Western Ghats, this network of rivers, canals, lakes and estuaries comprises one of India's most beautiful areas -- a rural, riverine expanse of verdant coconut groves and rice paddies.

In Malayalam, the language of Kerala, the backwaters are known as Kuttanad, "the land of short people", a referance, perhaps, to the fact that the farmers seen working here are often knee-deep in paddy fields. 

Even today coconut, pepper, coir, rice and other such products of the region are carried along these water-ways in traditional boats called kettuvallams (or stisched canoes) and village children are ferried of to school in all sorts of country craft.