Kerala Trip

11th Aug 2009 to 15th Aug 2009

Kerala: is a state in the south-western part of India. It is bordered by Karnataka to the north, Tamil Nadu to the south and the east and the Lakshadweep Sea towards the west. Thiruvananthapuram is the capital and largest city of Kerala. Kochi and Kozhikode are other major cities.

Kerala is a popular tourist destination famous for its backwaters, Ayurvedic treatments and tropical greenery. The state has a literacy rate of 94.59 percent, the highest in India.

Malayalam is the language spoken in Kerala, it’s a combination of two words, Mala meaning mountain and alam meaning the land or locality (which lays along side the mountain).

Day 01: 11-Aug-2009

We had train (Name: garibh rath) to Cochin at 8PM from yashvanthpur Railway station. Train started at 8:30PM. It was an overnight journey to kerala.

Day 02 : Date : 12-Aug-2009

Aleepy beach

We reached Ernakulam Railway Station at 9AM. Chauffeur - Mr Omanakuttan was waiting for us in the Station. Alleppy boat house was our first place to visit. It is around 2 hours drive from Cochin.

Alleppy is also known as Alappuzha. It is a beautiful town in Kerala which is well knows for its mesmerizing backwaters, arresting beaches, lush green paddy fields, houseboats and snake boat race.

We reached Alleppy beach at 11AM. In its peaceful ambiance all you can hear is the melody of the unfathomable waves at the shore. We had a very good time playing in water.

House Boat

We headed towards Alleppy boat house and checked in to houseboat at 12PM The houseboats are provided with all modern amenities, open sit out, sunbath deck, specious living area, kitchen, bath attached bedrooms with T.V, DVD and other entertainment.

Aleppy Backwater

After little refreshment started cruising in the houseboat of Kerala which is locally called Kettuvallam. It is also a perfect option for accommodation. Kuttanad is a land of lush paddy fields and stretches for 75 Km sandwiched between the sea and the hills.


Overnight stay in houseboat….Some might get bored to stay one whole day in houseboat…but for us it was nice for relaxing whole day as we had overnight journey in train.


Day 03 : Date : 13-Aug-2009

After breakfast in boat house, we headed towards munnar, which is 180km.

Munnar : is a town located in the Idduki district of India's Kerala state. The name Munnar is derived from the Malayalam words Munu (three) and aaru (river), referring to the town's strategic location at the confluence of the Muthirappuzha, Nallathanni and Kundaly rivers.

It was 5hr journey and on the way we had been to kuthumkal waterfalls.

Misty Moutain resort

Mist near the resort

The room was booked in Misty mountain resort  (http://www.mistymountainresort.in/) … We reached Misty mountain Resort around 2:30PM. It is located only minutes from Munnar town. The resort is surrounded by mist all the time. Climate is too good. Thought of visiting market place in the evening…..but it started raining at 4-30PM..so did not go anywhere. Evening we had a stroll in the tea estates near to our resort.

Day 04 : Date : 14-Aug-2009

This was a busy day, so many places to visit and too many snaps to take.

Photo point

we started at 9AM……visited photo point( nice view of tea estate)…went to horse riding….next went to elephant riding place….there was a big queue for that…so just took some snaps and headed towards next place.

Mettupetty Dam

Next visited Mettupetty River and dam : The beautiful hill station of Mettupetty is a 13 km drive away from Munnar. The panoramic view of the dam surrounded by wooden hills and tea plantations. Boating is a popular activity here. The DTPC (District Tourism Promotion Council) Idukki has good facility for boating and has a fleet of speed boats, row boats and pedal boats.

As it was crowded we did not go for boating here. Here we bought a bunch of carrot and had that throughout the journey…

Echo point

Next place is Echo point….the best scenic place…..as the name says…if you shout at this place …u can hear the echo…. Here also there is a boating facility available. We headed towards next place called kundalam dam.. here we went for peddle boating ,had a good time there……then it started drizzling. so headed back…

Kundalam Dam

Came to munnar town and had dinner in some hotel….Driver suggested that was the only pure vegetarian hotel forgot the name though….lunch was ok…..but lot of varieties in lunch….then headed towards eravikulam National Park ….Here need to go in national park bus for 4 KM….and need to go by walk for 1 KM….everyone say it is a home ofNilgiri tahr..animal of goat family (http://www.eravikulam.org/ ) But again it started drizzling….We could not find any animal over there…Headed back to hotel and reached hotel at 5 PM…took rest…

Day 05 : Date : 15-Aug-2009

As per the package plan…today there was not much to see…it was only travelling back to Cochin and visit some churches in Cochin and drop in railway station….so we decided to pay extra money and visit some other place on that day…

Athirapally water falls

Before going to trip…. We had a research on other places to see in kerala and we found some nice waterfall called Athirapally Waterfall (http://www.keralagreenery.org/athirapally-vazhachal-waterfalls.html)

. It is around 92 KM from cochin….We paid the cab driver some extra money and asked him to take us to this water fall…we started munnar at 10AM…on the mid way he took some deviation and took us to Athirapally waterfalls at around 2 PM….It was a nice waterfall….you need to go by walk for around 1 KM to see this falls…..Again need to go 1KM trek to see full view of falls…..It was holiday(15th aug) so it was heavily crowded…but it is a must see place in Kerala.

Again headed back to Cochin at around 3-30 PM…..reached Cochin at 5 PM. We had train at 8-30 PM…what to do till then?….so went to Oberon shopping mall in cochin…did window shopping….spent one hour there and reached railway station at 6-30 PM.

Preview

Train came half an hour late (9PM) and reached Bangalore at around 9AM on 16th Morning.