Cost: $9,600
Single Supplement: $1,000
Tour guide; all meals listed on the itinerary; air-conditioned luxury coach, private coach transportation to/from airports; all events, cooking classes, and hotel accommodations as indicated in the itinerary International and domestic airfares; excess baggage charges; airport arrival and departure taxes; travel insurance; meals, wines, or sightseeing not included in itinerary; personal expenses such as laundry and communication charges; gratuities, email/fax/telephone charges, and hotel minibar.
This is an Ensemble Inspired Journey prepared by Tour de Forks.


Welcome to India. To mystery. To enchantment. To unsurpassable beauty. To exotic splendor where a thousand lifestyles breathe as one nation. India is a fascinating tapestry of languages, customs, and beliefs. The landscape you journey through is beautiful and stimulating. The food, fragrant with spices, is light and delicate with an endlessly varying feast of the senses utilizing fresh vegetables, fish, and seafood. The harmonious cultural melange ranges from the Dravidian past, through various religious and political dynasties, the Chinese fishing and trade routes, the remnants of the Dutch, Portuguese and British colonial past to Syrian Christian and Jewish settlements. We cross the two States of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, each with distinctive traditions and exceptional cuisine.

Join us on this extraordinary twelve day epicurean adventure that will introduce you to the magic of South Indian culture and cuisine in a mix of days that include excursions, discussions, hands-on classes, demonstrations, market visits, and special dinners. There is also plenty of opportunity for wonderful sightseeing, shopping, and local interaction. Hidden doors will be opened to you and you will experience the elegance and traditions of a by-gone, opulent colonial lifestyle, the hospitality of special families and traditional rural villages.

Arrive in Chennai. You will be met on arrival and taken to your hotel, the Taj Fisherman's Cove where a seaside cottage has been reserved for you. This former Dutch Fort is now a discrete resort on the Bay of Bengal where you can enjoy the pool, waking up near the ocean, and excellent food.

A perfect setting to recover from jetlag. Lunch and dinner will be provided.

Breakfast seaside at the hotel. This morning explore UNESCO protected Mamallapuram's cave temples and ancient bas reliefs. After a delightful early seafood lunch at Fisherman's Cove continue to Chennai airport for the short flight to Madurai. On arrival, visit the vibrant historic Hindu Meenakshi Temple, dedicated to Lord Shiva with its 12 magnificent gopurams or towers that are elaborately sculptured and painted. After lunch, drive to the heart of the Chettinad district to stay at Visalam. This superb family mansion has been gracefully restored with cool tiled floors, surrounded bysoothing gardens and a lovely pool. In the afternoon, explore several villages and the local arts and crafts and exciting temples.

Karaikudi and 74 other villages comprise Chettinad, the homeland of the Nattukottai Chettiars, a prosperous banking community who ventured overseas to do business in South and Southeast Asia in the 19th and early 20th centuries. From these lands, they shipped their wealth to the families left behind. This included spices and when blended with ChettinadÕs local mainstays of pepper, cinnamon, bay leaves, cardamom, nutmeg, green/red chilies, etc., it created the Chettinad cuisine, described as one of the most aromatic in India. Spices are serious business in Chettinad and no Chettinad cook settles for anything other than freshly blended dry or wet combinations of spices, herbs, and nuts. In addition to the mansions in this surprisingly rural area, Karaikudi offers extensive antique shopping, weekly shandy (village market), a number of temples, craftsmen working with wood and metal.

In the morning, enjoy a cooking class with Chettinad's most famous cook who prepares exciting family dishes that are light, unique, delicately spiced and memorably delicious with ingredients such as quail, prawns, fresh water fish, and a fabulous array of seasonal vegetables and pulses. The morning's work will segue into a fine lunch. The afternoon continues with further exploration of local villages and crafts.

Embark on a scenic six hour drive to Thekaddy, take in the tropical farmlands of the Western Ghats, rich with coffee, tea and spice plantations and enjoy a picnic lunch en-route. An Ayurvedic massage will be offered as a relaxing treatment after this long journey. For the next two nights, enjoy the accommodation of the charming, comfortable
eco-friendly, Spice Village. You'll experience an extremely engaging naturalist, extensive organic gardens and spice gardens, and a marvelous Ayurvedic Center. The hotel chefs will engage you in hands-on cooking in the garden pavilion, elaborating on the role of spices and local tribal culinary traditions such as earth cooking and the traditional ceremonial sadya banana leaf platter - the hallmark of all important festivities. There are opportunities for trekking and game viewing in the park as well as visits to local tribal villages.

Leave Thekaddy and travel through lush, tropical scenery. Lunch of superb family recipes will be enjoyed at a private coffee/rubber Estate that dates from and preserves the art deco period. Visit a Tea factory that has been established along ethical principles to assist local farmers with a conversion to organic farming and new markets. After lunch, we journey to the backwater Island heritage resort of Coconut Lagoon. It is hidden among the palm trees on the eastern shore of Lake Vembanad, at the mouth of the Kavanar River and Coconut Lagoon Heritage Resort is set on an abandoned coconut plantation in the very heart of the fascinating backwaters. It's 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. In the afternoon, enjoy a cooking school focusing on fish and seafood preparations before a seafood feast.

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