Babu's Tree House in Kerala, South India

By Jane Goldberg

Babu Varghese's new tree houses in Kerala, South India are not your average Tarzan and Jane affairs. With flush toilets, sinks with running water, and a carefully engineered, water-balanced elevator to hoist you to your room 100 feet in the air, you feel like you're on top of the world.

Green Magic Nature Resort, www.nivalink.com/greenmagic, offers the privileges of living in nature next to established communities of Keralites.

Babu Varghese, a dreamer who puts his dreams into practice, helped the indigenous people of Kerala's hills create the resort without compromising the integrity of their own lifestyle. I quickly learned that Babu Varghese is one of the most respected guides in Kerala, known as "God's Own Country" for its progressive politics and the highest literacy rate in India.

This is not the first time Varghese has worked with the people of Kerala. He helped convert rice boats that were being replaced by trucks into houseboats for ecotravelers. The cargo haulers were thus able to remain captains of their ships.

The three tree houses are located in different areas for privacy. No trees were cut to build them. I slept in the two houses that were completed; both felt like little five star hotel rooms for the adventurous.

There is also a row of elegant "town houses" on the ground. An organic garden produces most of the delicious vegetables, and the chef lives right on the premises. I had my food hoisted up on days when I just didn't feel like leaving my private abode.

The high point (no pun intended) of my stay was sitting in the tree house reading English to one of Babu's workers, rocking in a bamboo swing, and listening to the Malabar Schoolboy thrush sing its sad song. The bird's song is practically the only sound you hear apart from the gurgling stream below and the rolling syllables of the lovely Malayalam language, spoken only in Kerala. There are no phones, no television sets.

Green Magic is ideal for a single woman traveler, for couples and families--for all who want to relax and "get into nature." I've tap danced through Indian palaces, five star hotels, beach resorts (including Goa and Kovalum), temples, the big cities, and even an ashram or two. Babu Varghese's Green Magic is one of India's best-kept secrets.

Although I took an arduous bus ride to reach it, guests normally will come by plane to Calicut, where Vasco de Gama landed. Babu's bus will then meet and carry them to Vythrie, an hour from Calicut and the tree house "base camp," a little house where many of Babu's workers stay.

From there it's a rugged, rocky half-hour ride up the mountain by jeep. The price of $100 a night includes all meals and amenities. Contact: (011) 91-471-327-488, fax 332899; comindia@mdz.vsnl.net.in.

JANE GOLDBERG, Assoc. Professor of Dance at New York Univ., tap danced through India on an IndoAmerican Fellowship in 1994 and a Fulbright Scholarship in 1998. She helped pioneer the tap revival in the U.S. and Europe.