Kerala Trip

4th Dec - Catch train from Mumbai

We took Nagarcoil express train from Mumbai at 08:35 p.m. We were very excited and looking forward to the great vacation in Kerala. I must say, it was indeed great.

5th Dec - Konkan Railway

We woke up at Madgaon and lot of people trying to sell Cashew took our attention. However, if at all you would want to, buy Cashew from Kollam rather.

We spent complete day traveling through Konkan railway. It was very scenic and enjoyed the time though out the journey. Konka railway is marvel in itself. It passes through dense forest, sea line and long tunnels. Some tunnels were as long as 6.5 km.

6th Dec - Varkala

We Reached Quilon (Kollam) at 3:00 a.m. It was quite late in the night and we took pre-paid taxi in order to avoid any confusion and over charge by taxi guys.

After doing preliminary enquiry for Munroe Island and Kollam-Alleppy cruise, we headed towards Varkala beach (Papanasam beach). 

Varkala Beach

Varkala Beach – Varkala beach is very clean, scenic and less crowded beach. The entire area is covered by two cliffs. The main Papanasam beach is between these, while less crowded Black Beach is to the north.

The entire area is accessible by sidewalk way along the cliffs. It is great experience to swim and enjoy the strong current. Undercurrent is very strong at Varkala and be careful if you are going deep. 

From Kappil Bridge - Kappil lake (Kayal) and Arabian Sea

Kappil Lake - five kilometers from the Varkala beach. It is on the border between Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam districts.

7th Dec - Munroe Island

Munroe Island (Munroe thuruth) is 45 min drive from Kollam. Munroe Island is surrounded by kallada river, Ashtamudi Lake and Sasthamkotta Lake. It is famous for criss-cross, small and zigzag backwater canals.

Booking the excursion for Munroe Island is quite easy. Government and private operators offer packages ranging from 2 hours to 4 hours timings. Government boat plies two times a day and carries 5-10 people. Whereas, you can ask for individual boats per couple from private operators. It is good to start early (8-9 a.m.) in order to avoid sun and late afternoon rain.

Reaching Munroe Island is quite interesting too. After traveling for 30 min, we reached to a point where road ends. To our surprise, a ferry came and we got in the ferry along with our taxi. The ferry dropped us to the other side of the lake and we started our journey in taxi from there onwards.

After 2 km drive, we met our boat’s man Mr. Kumar who will sail us through tiny canals of Munroe Island for next 3 hours. Experience of Munroe Island is quite different from the house boat or cruise. The canals are very small; at most of the places only one small boat can pass through the canal at one time; human habitation at both sides of the canal. It was very less crowded. In our whole day, we met only one tourist couple.

Water taxi...

Our boat and the boats man

Small BRIDGE

CANALS

8th Dec - Kollam to Alleppy

Next day, we started journey towards Kumili(Thekkady) via Alleppy and Kotayam. Early in the morning we checked out from the hotel to take SWTD boat from Kollam to Alleppy at 10:30 a.m. We reached SWTD ferry station around 9:30 and there weren’t anyone except us. We thought the boat will get cancelled today due to not enough people. However, the staff assured us that the boat will start even for one person on board. By 10:30, there were total 15 people and the boat started on time.

It was 8 hours cruise from backwater. The water was calm except the places where backwater meets Indian Ocean.

The boat passes through calm and lush green backwater area. At some points, it passes through busy National Waterway 3. The boat stops at Chavara, Amrithapuri, Aayiranthengu, Thrikkunnapuzha, and Thottapally before reaches Alleppy at 06:30 p.m.

Waterways Terminal

Fishing net

9th Dec -

Alleppy to Kottayam -

Next day, we took public ferry from Alleppy to Kottayam at 09:30 a.m. Fferry took 2.5 hours to reach Kottayam. We could relate this to our routine local city bus in the city but pretty less crowded of course. There were boat stands built on backwater at distance of as close as 50 meters. The boat would briefly stop at the stands to let people alight or board. Kind of experience that we hadn’t imagined in our regular Mumbai life.

As we were approaching Kottayam and were half an hour from Kottayam, it started raining. By the time we reached Kottayam it was raining heavily. It looked like it was already raining that area but we approached at that time.

Boat Stand

Boat Stand

Kottayam to Kumily (thakkady) -

We took public transport bus from Kottayam to Kumily at 01:20 p.m. We saw there were many tourists with us in the bus as it was one of the easiest way to reach Kumily. Bus took appx. 4 hours to reach Kumily. The bus staff were quite helpful in spite of the language difference.

We reached Kumily by 05:30 p.m. and checked in home stay Rainbow Cottages. We spent evening taking leisure walk around the area and shopping in the local market.

10th Dec – Periyar wildlife sanctuary

Initially we were interested in doing the night trekking the forest. But that package was recently stopped by forest staff due to security reason. As we weren’t interested in the boating in Periyar, we decided to do the day time excursion to the Periyar forest with the forest staff. The forest staff gave us socks up to knees to prevent us from leech. First we took a bamboo ride to cross the lake and then we started our trekking to mainly chase wild elephants, unsuccessful though. We spent nearly 3 hours in the forest and got to see good wild life. However, we weren’t lucky enough to see big cats or elephants. The main reason for not able to see them were the recent rain. As the small reservoir inside forest were full, the animals didn’t have any motivation to come out.

By the time we finished trekking it was afternoon. Later in the day, we visited the spices’ garden to see spices’ cultivation. 

Bamboo ride

Periyar Forest

11th Dec - Thekkady to Munnar

After bidding bye bye to Kumily, we started our journey towards Munnar at 09:30 a.m. It takes nearly 5 hours to reach Munnar from Thekkady.

The road to Munnar is very scenic and we enjoyed a lot. Sights of lush greenery, tea gardens and lakes were amazing.

We reached Munnar around 3 p.m. and checked in Hotel Tea Garden Inn. We spent evening retiring at the hotel and quickly browsing the local market.

12th Dec - Munnar

In our Kerala trip, we mainly visited the spot on places rather than going through regular sight seeing done by many other tourists. However in Munnar we decided to do the regular sight seeing on the first day just get the feeling of the place well.

We visited Top Station and couple of other places en route. We took – Flower garden -> Mattupetty dam -> Echo point -> Elephant riding -> Kundala Lake -> Top Station. Top Station actually lies in Tamil Nadu and we saw many tourist coming there from Kodaikanal as well. Top Station was very important junction for tea transportation in early 19’s. It is situated at ~1800 meter above the sea level and mostly covered by clouds. There is a hotel as well there; it would have been fun to stay there overnight.

13th Dec – Munnar

We again ditched the regular sight seeing and went on our own. This time we took Tea Museum and surrounding hills. In Tea Museum, we saw how various types of tea are prepared and processed. There is a retail outlet there in case you feel like buying some. Little expensive though.

Nearby the museum, there are quite a few surrounding hills with tea plantation. That area does not fall in between of regular tourist place. We went for a long walk on the nearby tea plantation hills. It was an amazing experience. The place was quite and clean. It was far from the hush hush of the otherwise crowded Munnar and nearby. As there wasn't anyone there to stop us, we explored the plantations, small waterfalls and nearby area to our please.

Tea Museum

And surrounding hills

14th Dec – Bye bye Munnar and Kerala

With promise to come back, we unwillingly bid adieu to Munnar and Kerala to take train back from Cochi.