Marieke's Art of Living

Day 1 Chennai

Starting in Chennai (Madras) there will be Special excursions, and events that include the charming colonial outpost of Pondicherry with remnant French influences, the vibrant Temples of Madurai and Tirichurappali, exceptional cuisine and fascinating architecture in Chettinad, the gorgeous scenery and spice plantations of Periyar, a romantic night on converted rice-barges beguilingly poled and decked out in white calico and fresh jasmine, cooking demonstrations, Ayurvedic treatments, , and special banquets and performances. This Tour coincides with the major Festival of Kerala, Onam.

Days 2 - 4 Mammlapuram/Pondicerry

Explore UNESCO protected Mamallapuram's cave temples and ancient bas reliefs that celebrate the Pallava Kings. After a delightful seafood lunch at Fisherman's Cove continue to Pondicherry, where highlights include Sri Aurobindo Ashram, the nearby temple of Sri Manakula Vinayakar Temple and the old French quarter with its charming colonial architecture, cafés, and seaside ambience.

Visit Auroville to understand how the various communities operate and where the shops are excellent. A Creole Dinner is arranged in a private home.

One night is spent at Le Dupleix.

Le Dupleix, once the 18thC home of Nawab and General Marquis Joseph Francis Dupleix, the former French Governor of Pondicherry, is today both one of the most gorgeous villas in town as well as being a boutique 14-room luxury small hotel of immense character and charm.

A further two nights are spent at the Dune Eco Resort a unique development inspired by the owner Dimitri Klein, overlooking the Bay of Bengal.

Each villa is inspired by diverse architectural styles of South India and objets trouvées and they pride themselves on their organic coffee and produce.

A French botanist has established extensive trial organic plots of ‘Seed Savers’ seed stock from around the globe to establish which varieties will suit these growing conditions. Expert Ayurvedic doctors provide in-house consultation and treatments.

A cooking demonstration will be offered by the chef who specialises in “Hypotoxic” (cleansing) cuisine.

Day 5 Pondicherry to Chettinad

This Morning, en route to Chennai for the flight to Chettinad (Tiruchirippali or Madurai) offers the opportunity to visit Kanchipuram, one of Hinduism's seven most sacred pilgrimage cities (60kms away) renowned for its 7th and 8thC temples and cotton and famous silk weaving workshops.

Arrive at Karaikudi and your accommodation at Visalam for two nights.

Visalam is a mansion been restored by cgh earth has vast ceilings, cool terracotta floors, and evokes a simple almost monastic grandeur typical of the Chettiar merchants whose rich though now often abandoned houses scatter the region. There is a lovely pool and a great emphasis on regional cuisine.

Days 6 Chettinad

Karaikudi, situated in the Sivaganga district of Tamil Nadu, is the biggest city in Chettinad and famous for its Ganesha temple, antiques, woven textiles, crafts, majestic mansions and a most distinctive cuisine.
Visit the charming “Bungalow” home of Mrs Meyappan’s family who come from a lineage of plantation owners to enjoy the truly marvellous cuisine, a rich legacy of family recipes.

Karaikudi and 74 other villages comprise Chettinad, the homeland of the Nattukottai Chettiars. The Chettiars were a prosperous banking community who ventured overseas to do business in South and Southeast Asia in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Their legacies are the fascinating houses of Chettinad they built with simple materials, as well as precious rosewood and teak.
Nearby at Kanadakhatan is the wonderful village of wealthy merchant homes, almost like a deserted ghost town, but ambient in detail and character.
There will be excursions to some of the nearby villages with their wonderful mansions, the opportunity to visit weaving homes where exquisite cotton sarees are loomed, and a visit to an exceptional tile factory.

Days 7 + 8 Chettinad/Periyar

Today is a very scenic 6 hour drive with a picnic lunch en-route. You traverse the beautiful scenery and tropical farmlands of the Western Ghats, rich with coffee, tea and spice plantations, to reach Thekaddy by late afternoon. For the next two nights you are based near Periyar National Park, a 780 sq km sanctuary created in 1934 as a conservation zone for elephants, bison, sambar, wild boar, spotted deer, a huge assortment of butterflies and waterfowl and the occasional tiger or leopard.

Your accommodation for two nights is the charming and very comfortable eco-friendly Spice Village which has its own extensive organic market garden, spice gardens all around and a marvellous Ayurvedic Centre for health treatments. Enjoy a
morning Jungle walk with a naturalist, visit a spice plantation and a bullock cart safari in the country side to a local village.

Day 9 Periyar/Kumarakom

From Thekaddy you travel by road through very lush, verdant tropical scenery and lunch en-route will be enjoyed at a private coffee and rubber Estate to reach the Kerala backwaters.

Coconut Lagoon - Hidden among the palm trees on the eastern shore of Lake Vembanad, at the mouth of the Kavanar River, Coconut Lagoon Heritage Resort is set on an abandoned coconut plantation in the very heart of these fascinating backwaters, and has been designed to give visitors an authentic insight into Kuttanad life. The resort can only be reached by boat. Its accommodations consist of individual cottages called tharawads, the traditional wooden house of Kerala. Though some of these cottages are of more recent vintage, many are well over a century old and a few actually date back to the early 1700s.

Day 10 Kumarakom/Houseboat

Morning optional excursion by row boat to Kumarokom bird sanctuary with local naturalist.
At noon board your individual Kettuvalam houseboats. They are Kerala’s magical answer to the caravans of the West.
Each Kettuvallom house boat is a floating hotel space with its own staff and a poleman so no modern motors will detract from the spellbinding experience of drifting in the canals and lagoons and absorbing the ancient way of life along the smaller canals and waterways. A traditional dinner will be served on individual boats and with a flute recital.

Onam is a traditional festival of Kerala that reminds every Keralite of those days of plenty, equality, and honesty when King Mahabali ruled the Kingdom of Kerala.
Kerala is at its greenest and prettiest during Onam. Folks celebrate the beauty of the land and the harvest with rounds of hectic rejoicing. For ten days, excited children collect a variety of flowers and arrange floral carpet designs called a pookalam, with a clay mound in the centre, in family courtyards, to welcome ' King Mahabali'.

Days 11 + 12 Kumarakom Houseboat/Cochin

Drive to Cochin and this evening visit a local theater to see a special performance of Kathakali Dance, followed by dinner with Nimmy Paul at her home where Nimmy is custodian over a repertoire of superb Syrian Christian food traditions.
Two days are spent at Fort Cochin residing at the Brunton Boatyard.
Cochin, the oldest European settlement in India is a lagoon of islands and peninsulas separated by backwaters of the Arabian Sea, which are connected by bridges and ferries with a rich maritime history that still ships Kerala’s coir, rubber, seafood and pepper products to foreign ports. Influenced at various times by the Arabs, the Chinese, the Dutch, the British and the Portuguese, and the white Jews who first emigrated from Roman persecuted Jerusalem in 6th century BC to Cochin. It is now a charmingly curious potpourri of Jewish synagogues, Chinese fishing-nets, Portuguese churches, Dutch palaces and British cricket greens. The atmosphere is perceptibly Mediterranean but the climate is characteristically sub-tropical.

The Brunton Boatyard is a modern accolade to the early Dutch and Portuguese architecture of Fort Cochin, situated at the harbor mouth overlooking the busy ship channel. All its rooms overlook the harbor and nearby delta and are tastefully designed and furnished four-poster beds, spacious bathrooms and all the amenities of a first-class hotel. It has its own private jetty, which doubles as a "cafe", overlooking the pool and private garden.

There is the option of an early morning visit to the fresh seafood and vegetable markets of Mandicherry, followed by sightseeing of Cochin visiting Dutch Palace, Jewish Synagogue built in 1567 A.D. St. Francis Church, Bolgatty Palace and Chinese Fishing Nets. Lunch at Malabar house.
For guests with no time to continue, there is the option of leaving Cochin late this evening with Singapore Airlines to return home.

Days 13 Cochin/Chennai/Pondicherry

The last day is a day at leisure with breakfast and lunch provided, time to rest and relax at your lovely hotel, take a swim, or shop. Some rooms will be kept for wash and change facilities.

Singapore Airlines departs late evening connecting via Singapore to international destinations.

You will be transferred to the COCHIN airport for your departure.

This Tour is Copyright of Art of Living. We reserve the right to vary the itinerary at any time in the best interests of our clients.

Your Tour Escort, Durga Singh ji is an exceptional guide and host. A proud, aristocratic Rajput, Durga brings his culture and country vibrantly alive.
A rare Renaissance man with interests as diverse as philosophy, religion, contemporary politics to farming, tribal culture, music, poetry, Durga sports not only a grand moustache but also a wonderful sense of humour.
A marvellous and engaging raconteur, his insights will leave a lasting impression.

Your Tour Leader
For thirteen years, Marieke has been leading tours to the Subcontinent that enthral guests. The exotic vibrancy of India, its explosion of colour, thronging bazaars, amazing stillness in even the largest crowds, elegant and hospitable people, whether from regal lineage or simple, dignified rural-dwellers, and their arts and crafts, their rich spiritual traditions, the commonplaceness of the unexpected and the surprising, and a vast and complex cultural and culinary history of immense variety and diversity of landscape captivate and beckon year after year.

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