Kerala-Trip-2015 on Sauvik Biswas

Day 7: The other half of Munnar

Sat, 04 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0000

And you thought we couldn’t combine two experiences together #

Kolukkumalai Tea Estate is the highest organic tea garden in the world. It is also the highest tea estate in South India. In order to reach there, one must drive for about 30 kms from Munnar and then take a 4x4 vehicle and drive for another one and half hours at a speed not more than 15 kmph. We were (un)fortunate to get a vehicle that had probably donated its parts to the making of Jeep of Thesius. The three hour long ride also gave us a nice body massage that Kerala is probably famous for. It did not help that while descending, one of the plates of the rear suspension broke!

Day 6: One half of Munnar

Thu, 02 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0000

A standardised organised trip around Munnar #

There are four major directions one can take to visit various places in and around Munnar - namely, the Cochin direction, the Mattupetty direction, the Thekkady direction and the Coimbatore direction. Most major spots are in the Mattupetty direction. A day’s reservation of a cab for site-seeing cost us 1600 rupees. In this season, most waterfalls have dried up. We could strike off these places which made up about 30 percent of the tourist spots. As a result, it became possible for us to cover most places in two full days.

Day 5: A boat ride at Periyar Lake and moving to Munnar

Wed, 01 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Periyar Lake boat ride was more like a bird watching expedition #

This limited seat boat ride is one of the most sought after activities in Thekkady. We went there quite early, so getting a ticket wasn’t an issue. The Periyar Forest Reserve operates four boats simultaneously, for one and half hours, at about two hour intervals. They also release 30 tickets for online booking. These are often bought by the local hotels for their customers. As a result, getting a confirmed booking is near to impossible (IRCTC tatkal might still beat it). For the first boat ride at 7.30 AM, reaching there at 6.30 is sufficient.

Day 4: Making our way to Thekkady

Tue, 31 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Alleppy to Thekkady #

It is not easy to get from Alleppy to Thekkady. The distance is about 170 kms. The first 70 odd kms are in plains. After that the bus ascends through thin, hilly roads. There are very few direct buses between these two points. We were fortunate (or unfortunate) to get one. There is one bus that leaves Alleppy at 7:55 AM. This bus takes about six hours. The sad part is that we weren’t able to have our breakfast else we would have missed the bus. We survived on biscuits and bread.

Day 3: A backwaters boat ride at Alleppy

Mon, 30 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0000

The cheapest way to reach Alleppy from Kochi is the best way #

The simplest way to reach Alleppy from Kochi is to take a KSRTC bus from Vyttilla Mobility Hub. For just 40 rupees, one can comfortably reach Alleppy in one and half hours.

Vyttilla Mobility Hub

In this brief journey, I cam across two interesting things. The first one was a couple of lorries transporting elephants. The second was a board advertising “Shaolin Jackie Chan Matial Arts Academy”, with the trainer’s face Photoshopped on the billboard. The trainer looked more like a South Indian politician than a sensei. Sadly, the bus moved too fast for me to capture these gems.

Day 2: Fort Kochi is no more a fort

Sun, 29 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Timing is the key #

Here is an important information. Most Jewish places are closed on Fridays, the Synagogue is also closed on Saturdays, most museums are closed on Mondays and all the shops are closed on Sundays. This means that you have effectively three days - Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday - to plan a productive trip in Mattanacherry and Fort Kochi. However, since we had no shopping agenda, Sunday was a productive day for us.

Day 1: A leisurely stroll in Kochi

Sat, 28 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0000

KSRTC bus ride from Bangalore to Ernakulam is really long #

We travelled on a KSRTC (K=Karnataka) Airavat AC bus. It was supposed to transport us in 10 hours. It ended up taking over 12 hours to drop us at KSRTC bus stand (K=Kerala, not Karnataka). It did not help that the bus played a horrible movie, called Hello Brother, on a bad CRT TV.

The Airavat buses leave from the main road in front of a non existent Big Bazaar.