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).
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.
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 !!
We will leave for Kanyakumari from here and conclude at Trivandrum via Kovalam.
Click here to go to Part 02 of our kerala & Kanyakumari trip
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.
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............
Day 05: Aleppey Houseboat
Early Moring we just said bye to Munnar on our way to Alappuzha
We started from this boat Jetty. We found a better and newer houseboat in the Jetty. Paid few thousands more to take the double deck luxury houseboat. We had a lot of eagerness to spend good time inside the houseboat and solicited no compromise.
Nice and clean interiors of the Super Luxury Houseboat (Slightly expensive though). We found almost everything excellent. The fear of encountering mosquitoes, rotton food, shabby boatman got vanished slowly. (I would not have believed this photograph to be our own houseboat, pleasantly true...)
We are floating among others in the Vembanad Lake
The world around waters.......
A nice lunch arranged inside the houseboat (the best food so far). Possibly the best lunch during our whole 10 day Kerala visit. Fish fry was delicious... so was the overall preparation. We were discussing about a good tip for the host boatmen (3 of them).
A pleasant morning was awaiting us.... we have to unboard the houseboat at 9.30 am, we are hesitant nontheless........... It was a life time experience... I would suggest everyone looking towards a houseboat experience to be extreme cautious while chosing a houseboat. From Delhi I would have exchanged about 15 mails on houseboat. It worked well for me...
We will leave for Kanyakumari from here and conclude at Trivandrum via Kovalam.
Click here to go to Part 02 of our kerala & Kanyakumari trip
No comments:
Post a Comment