"“Backwater” is typically meant as a metaphor, and not a particularly kind one. But the Kerala backwaters are among the world’s minor natural wonders — this network of inland waterways along the southwest Indian coast makes for, if nothing else, a marvelous place to get lost. It’s here, on the shores of the eponymous lake, that the Malabar House group, the South Indian boutique concern with a predilection for small hotels named for abstract concepts, has opened Purity at Lake Vembanad." - Tablet Hotels