India Special The Travel Show

Hello and welcome to The Travel Show -

coming to you this week from Kerala in southern India -

One of the things that this part of the country is famous

They ply the backwaters of towns like this one,

called Alleppey, offering a unique view of rural Indian life.

But what effect will all that to lose and have in the long run?

And later on I'll also be discovering which is faster,

man or machine, in the battle of the coconut tree

Kerala's calling card is its unique backwaters.

A labyrinth of canals, rivers and lakes, running 900km

Now, I've been told that the best way to

experience the true flavours of Alleppey and the surrounding

backwaters is on one of these things - it's a houseboat.

25 years ago the houseboat industry didn't exist,

but in 1991 a tour operator saw the potential in modifying defunct

It was an instant hit and revolutionised

From humble beginnings, many now have

state-of-the-art fixtures and fittings.

Now, when you hear you're coming on a houseboat,

you're not really sure what to expect, but this level

the television, satellite TV, air con to keep you cool in that

Indian heat, but what is really surprising -

From just a handful of boats in the 90s there

From just a handful of boats in the '90s

there are now more than 1,000, offering people a unique insight

into village life along the waterways.

There was a very fast dramatic change in the region due to tourism.

It has become big business for tour operators, like Biju George.

What is the actual draw for a lot of tourists to come

here and experience these backwaters?

This region is called the Venice of the

East, and the natural beauty of the region is one of the main

attractions and is why people to come here to see

I just noticed we have opened up to this huge lake here -

It is the largest lake in southern India.

It is almost 35km, a really huge lake.

It almost looks like a sea, doesn't it?

Would you like to try driving the boat?

You want me to be in charge of this thing?

Just give it a try and you can learn something.

We are quite close to this boat, aren't we?

Usually it is very relaxed, apart from trying to

The houseboat industry has created incredible

wealth for the region, and benefitted lots of locals,

from boat builders and owners, to hoteliers and tour

But what has been the cost to the environment?

It looks like we have hit a bit of congestion,

the problem being that most of these houseboats actually

leave at the same time, so these riverways get packed up

and pretty much act like superhighways for

Where there is a high boom of tourism in a limited period

of time, there is always the sustainability issue.

So no one was prepared, or none of the systems

were prepared, or aware of what we could do and how we can

manage this, because everyone was thinking about the business

No one ever thought about the sustainability

Some say there has been an increase in pollution

and that has affected the locals who depend on the backwaters.

Early the next morning, I went to see for

myself what impact environmental groups claim tourism is having

These guys have obviously come out very early in the morning.

The sun is still coming up, isn't it?

They are pulling out the clams from the bottom of the lake.

They come out early in the morning, around four o'clock,

Campaigner Sudha Soni grew up around Lake Vembanad.

Yes, and this has been going on for generations.

So how does the pollution of the water affect

One - the pollution of the water stunts the growth of the clam.

The second thing - the rig that they put into the water

to collect the clam, the net that is attached to it

sometimes brings up the waste that is thrown into the lake.

Sudha is working in conjunction with the environmental

group Tourism Concern on a new system of enforced

regulations and certification for houseboats.

She believes they cause much of the damage.

Tour operators sitting abroad don't know what kind of boat

it is, so when this particular emblem is there, this particular

certification is there, they are sort of confident, yes.

And that will make it more credible and

And one of the benefits of travelling by river is that

whatever it tickles your fancy along the banks, you can

I've decided this church looks pretty beautiful,

Kerala has some of the oldest Catholic churches in India.

This hidden gem in Alleppey was founded in the fifth century.

But ultimately it's the houseboats that have given

We have again from all over the world but, to be precise,

maybe from Europe, from Australia, from the US, and even

from the Middle East, because that is the

Jobin Akkarakalam runs some of the largest and most

His vessels are registered on the government scheme

which awards classification certificates for

The government has got gold star, green

The government has got a gold star, green

star classification given to the houseboats.

They have regular inspections from the government authorities.

They have the pollution control board inspecting our boats.

But not all boat owners are currently signed up

to the scheme, and environmentalists are calling for all boats to have

compulsory checks, to protect the people and wildlife

This could really be one of the most sustainable tourism products

This could be an example for a lot of other destinations in different

If we can adopt a new system to maintain the entire region,

And if you're thinking of heading the southern India any time soon,

Coming up later on in the programme, I find out what it takes to become

one of Kerala's top coconut tree climbers.

The Travel Show - your essential guide,

To learn more about it I have come here to meet a man whose family have

been performing the dance for the past 100 years. How are you? This is

your theatre. Amazing. It turns the performers into supernatural beings,

gods and demons. The process of applying the make-up can take many

hours and it is applied in front of the audience here and forms part of

the performance. There is a singer who sings the stories. The river is

flowing. Then there is a drummer who supports.

The dancer translates these songs through the movement of eyebrows,

eyes, fingers, let's. -- lips. And all these stories come from the

Indian books. Originally developed as a way of

teaching religious scripture to rule audiences, Kathakali is now also a

big draw for tourists coming here to Carol. -- Kerela. On cure is to

know, how do you tell a story with your eyebrows, your cheeks, your

lips and your fingers, can you teach me -- I'm curious. Kathakali

language... This is the position of the hand. Show me a little segment

of how you would use the alphabet to tell the story.

And so with the eye movements, what different types of eye

Rolling the eyes, you can see he is getting excited.

I think it is me being an amateur but when I tried to do it,

my vision blurs, but your vision does not blur.

I am focusing up here, that is why I am cross-eyed!

Once you combine the facial expressions with hand gestures,

then you have a classic Kathakali sentence, but something tells me,

I have got some way to go before I could ever be understood.

Team those moves with some fancy footwork and you have a performance,

Imagine with all the make-up on, the full regalia, probably about 100

people looking at you and that Indian heat to challenge you,

about 47 degrees, I think, but the scrutiny of every single

step and tiny movement, I will crack under pressure.

Traditionally, a classic Kathakali performance,

will run for many hours, sometimes a whole night,

but some modern audiences have shorter attention spans

You know, the original one goes throughout the night.

Everything is detailed, everything is intricate,

and nowadays, we are adapting it for a one and a half

So in a way, we lose our originality, what has been done

throughout the night, that is not being shown now.

But whether the performance is a marathon length all night

or something more contained, the highlight of the show is always

the appearance onstage of Pacca, wearing his traditional

And using steps originally choreographed hundreds of years ago

to entertain and captivate audiences of today.

To end this week, Kerala is the coconut capital of India,

because more are harvested here than any other state.

I have come to find out what it takes to become

In Kerala there are coconut trees almost everywhere.

The state produces 6 billion coconuts annually,

that is nearly one for every man, woman and child in the entire world.

And incredibly, most of them are still picked by hand.

This is one of Kerala's premier coconut pickers.

It takes him just seconds to shimmy all the way up the slender trunk.

And you did it like it was a Sunday stroll.

You are pretty much half my age added on, I should be able to do

I do not know whether that will be the case.

How many coconuts does he collect a day?

Some home stays in Kerala are now teaching tourists the art of coconut

tree climbing so let us see if I am up to the challenge.

I want to hoist myself up but my arms, they just

The numbers of climbers have fallen dramatically as the younger

generation have gradually moved away from manual jobs.

I think it is a bit of a marathon, you have to think of it

as a marathon, you have 20 good metres to climb and if you run out

of strength halfway, it is not going to be pretty.

My feet, I think it is because I have got soft everything,

The coconut industry is worth billions of dollars,

so the decline of manual climbers has called

The state government has tried everything from competitions

to prize-money to find a machine that can entice people back

This one invented by a local farmer has proved relatively

You have got a lot less stress on your toes and your hands

themselves, but getting this motion right is making me

It does make it a little bit easier, I've got to say.

The old method versus this new one - what do you think?

Over here we have the traditional tree

climbers, who will be using the ropes round

Over on this side, we have the mechanically assisted.

We're going to find out who is the fastest, so...

They are pretty much neck and neck at the moment.

Actually the mechanically assisted are going a little bit faster...

There we go, and they are switching, and the turnover is a little...

Wow, the traditional climbers are doing very well indeed.

The mechanical one has a little bit of a problem coming down.

How does victory taste, boys?

Sadly, that's all the time we have for this week,

but join us next week if you can, when...

Carmen is in northern Peru at a nature reserve where she will meet

these guys, the endangered spectacled bears. It's incredible to

be so close to a bear. There's no gate, there's no fence separating

us. She's just there a few metres away. That's all coming up next

week. But don't forget, you can join us on all of our travels wherever we

are in the world by following our social media feeds. All the details

should be on your screens now. But for me, and the rest of the travel

show team here in Kera will, a, it's goodbye!

Before I get to the UK forecast, news of that dangerous situation

in the United States, in Florida, as Hurricane Hermine barrels

through the north of the state, Thursday night and into Friday

This shows you the bright colours on the rainfall forecast,