Gods Own Country: Part Two

Welcome back...... the pictrip will start from where we left i.e. Aleppy or Alappuzha.

Out in the NH47 we found the backwater cris-crossing each other. Beautiful roads and enjoyble experience all the way. One thing that will worry you if you want to reach somewhere early, the roads are not so wide and will never appear without habitation. The full stretch from Kochi to Kanyakumari is like driving inside a single city only. People effortlessly cross roads.

Backwater on both sides of the road mostly throughout the stretch. Tender coconut on roadsides are not cheap though. I dont remember paying less than 20 buck anywhere.......

We were heading towards Kollam

We stopped at a fairly good restaurant (NH 47 MEVAROM JN ,Karunagappally, Kollam).

The whole stretch is like this

Just at Kerala-TN boarder and this one is also NH. Just before Kanyakumari comes Nagercoil ... extremely crowded road

We reached our Hotel in Kanyakumari... Everyone asked to cancel out Trivandrum stay and extend our stay at Kanyakumari for another day. It is really worth it... We got good in everything.. Kanyakumari will not be remembered by us for good food.... Hearing from others, I now reasised that ours was better.........

View of the main attraction from the Hotel room

Took an evening walk across the shore.... a beautiful park and colorful market

This view tower area has everything. You can see the sunset, a beautiful park, rock view, pleasant walk, a street shopping experience...

Time to retire for an early morning visit to Vivekananda rock

I was told about such a queue everyday. At 7AM this is the length of the wait.......

We took this boat after a log wait to reach Vivekananda rock. Let me tell you about this lifetime experience.. No let me better leave it for you to experience yourself !!

A snap of Thiruvalluvar statue taken from V Rock

Vivekananda Rock: Only to be experienced

Before moving to the Kovalam experience, I must forget to mention about two things first being the Baywatch Wax Museum. I want to forget this since I believe (rather sure) that was a complete waster of our time. The second one was Vivekananda Kendram because our timing of visit was not good and it is a beautiful place worth spending some time.....

Our Last Leg: Kovalam

.......and finally

Gods Own Country: Part One

Just before Delhi celebrated 100 years, in a true Bedouin spirit I planned to leave for Gods own country. Cold was yet to catch Delhi and CAT-3 pilots were yet not on board.

Day 01:Kochi
Kochi airport was pleasantly watching us arrive and leave for FORT Kochi. Kochi has charmed me always. Once you are there only you find this city is comparable with any other metro city. It has possibly the most beautiful airport in India. When you disembark in a beautiful morning, you feel a sence of freshness.

We just had a day to spent in Kochi and the list included taking a public ferry from jetty in the back waters, visiting mattancherry, chinese fishing nets and preferably the Cherai beach. Not to forget a lavish dinner to celebrate something personal.

From High Court Jetty we booked a boat to spend the afternoon. As we did not have anough time in hand the boatman took the advantage of it and just could take us to the Jew Town. It was worth that family joy ride and spending time at the ginger restaurant (more than the other tourist attractions).

Everyone visits Kochi to see the chinese fishing net (Okey... here it is). It is like Delhi Ka Ladoo... Nahin Khaya to Pachhtaya....

I was narrating about this Restaurant (in Jew Town) was more appealing than the synagogue or Dutch Palace. We spend few bucks to have some snacks (also pocketed some)....

The whole day was hectic and refreshing at the same time.... Time to retire after a good dinner

Day 02: Munnar

Morning on day 2 was showing 20 degree C temperature and a nice way to start for MUNNAR. We found a good restaurant en-route. We v already started telling the chef to use vegetable oil instead of coconut oil.

On the way this waterfall (Cheeyapara) and we took a break (actually 1 hour against planned 15 min)

Time to take food (This One is good Looking... not the best in food)

Scenic roads......with nostalgic song ... ohh darling aankhon se aankhen char .....

Finally reached our hotel in Munnar. Munnar is a very small town and most of the tourist hotels are about 15-20 kms from munnar towards madurai. Ours was at Chinnakanal Village and very serene place sorrounded by nature (Forest, lake, waterfall, hills, tea gardens and spice plantations).

Day 03: Munnar
Time to hop around the tea bushes .. not so chill december munnar. I found munnar to be different from Darjeeling in two ways (one) here you dont have to visit a tea garden specifically (two) falls, spice plantations etc are along side (please read my Darjeeling experience in this blog).

Let us call it view point and they really named it so. This is just one of the many picturesque points. We were early there and had some tea from the only mobile stall (yup... tender coconut too... you wonder how tea & coconut together !!!) ... possible..

Just one more.... from the tea garden..... My family spent about 2 hours in the near-sight tea garden in various poses. nice place indeed........ the picture is surely one of the best taken without human footprint. In case you plan to visit... take a similar snap and show me (no rewards please... i am not as rich)

Mattupadi Dam is about 14 kms. Before this dam you have photo point, honey bee hive, forest garden and elephant arrival spot (actually we wasted time here and money too) just before Mattupadi dam. The Dam site is definitely a very interesting site. I resited from eating roadside fish fries since no was else was interested. Good small market to buy cheap knick-knacks.

A delicius dinner to end the day

Day 04: Munnar

 The beautiful route to Spice gardens. Most photographic route till this time............

Interesting spice culture of Kerala. Paying a good amount of money to visit someone's garden is a helpless idea for us. My wife thought otherwise... many herbs, spices never seen before... alright !!