Raheem Residency
Kerala, India[view map]
Local restaurants
For a guide outlining a few of the many things that you can get up to in the magnificent Indian province of Kerala, click here.
Worth getting out of bed for
Alleppey, with its intricate network of canals leading to the famous Kerala backwaters has a quaint air about it. Its facelift has started with the dredging of the canals and a general clean-up of the canal banks and new buildings like the Ravi Karuna Karan Museum holding a priceless personal collection of artifacts of a local Indian woman, a massive jewellery shop with an incredible assortment of typical Indian bangles and necklaces, and two significant shops which sell nothing but locally-made umbrellas – from brightly-coloured temple umbrellas perfect for English gardens to tiny brollies for tots. A must-see new development in Alleppey is a museum which houses the private collection of artifacts belonging to an Alleppey family – probably the biggest collection of Sarovski crystal in India, wonderfully delicate Meissen porcelain, maybe 400-plus intricately carved ivory pieces collected before ivory became illegal and all government documented and a 1946 Buick car, one of only two imported from America to Kerala that year (the other one was for the royal family of Travancore).
Shopaholics will love Alucka’s Jewellery on Boat Jetty Road, Alleppey, for a huge collection of characteristically Indian gold jewellery including wonderful diamond nose rings and thousands of gold bangles.
Diary
August The second Saturday of the month sees Nehru Snake Boat Race in Alleppey: 100 men in a long, slim boats, rowing and chanting songs and racing along the famous Kerala backwaters. In 2006, a group of foreign women took part for the first time.