Hospitality and houseboats

Went to Kerala in India for our honeymoon - two weeks of bliss interspersed with serious eating and constant questions of whether we would like more.

The Keralans pride themselves on their food and general warmth and we have never eaten so much in 14 days. In the end we had to skip lunches, mainly after spending five days on the resort island pictured.

Bangaram forms one of the handful of Lakshadweep Islands in the Arabian Sea. No one I know had ever heard of it before we went and this was confirmed by the only guest on the island when we arrived. Englishman Jamie had spent five days on his own before we turned up. He wrote about his experiences here and called it 1 island, 1 guest, 37 staff. Lucky b&$3^&*, it's a dream headline...

Kerala also prides itself on two other truths: the backwaters on a houseboat are one truely memorable experience and the fact it has someone from its state playing for India - Sri Sreesanth is a lively bowler and a former national breakdancing champion.