The other amazing thing about this verdant and unique patch of India, rich in pepper, natural rubber, coconut, tea, coffee, cashews, and spices, is its bucolic backwater network of lagoons and canals.

FORBES: KERALA: Cruising The Waterways of India's Malabar Coast

You could still find rubber tires here and there, but you couldn't get patch kits or the kinds of adhesives that would stand up to a repair job anymore, so we had no choice but to go back to wooden wheels with iron rims.

NPR: Excerpt: 'World Made By Hand'