Laundry In The Kerala Backwaters Editorial Image

Kerala, the thin slither of southwest India, has long been an industrious spice trading state, thanks, in no small part, to its wealth of waterways. But in recent years tourism has proved a much more profitable pursuit. The Kerala backwaters are a network of brackish lagoons and canals lying parallel to the Arabian Sea of the Malabar coast of Kerala state in south-western India. It also includes interconnected lakes, rivers, and inlets, a labyrinthine system formed by more than 900 km (560 mi) of waterways, and sometimes compared to bayous