Last year in December, I got a chance to visit Kerela, widely known as "God's own country".
This was one of our first big family vacation and so a lot of planning went through between an uncle who organised our trip mainly, my father and myself. I would like to share my experience here.
Initially we were thinking about opting for some tour packages, but thankfully we dropped that idea. Firstly, most of them are very costly and secondly, we would have been bound to follow their timings and schedules always. It could have become bugging after some time and our vacation might have turned into a school picninc. By the way, I am not at all against these tour packages. They are one of the big employers of the tourism industry. But mainly because we selected most of the places in our schedule after looking into their schedules given on various websites. :) So, they were a big help.
Now, let me share about the places that we visited in this trip and my opinion about them:
Cherai beach - While returning from Thrissur, we visited the Cherai beach, 30 kms before kochi. It closes at 6:30 p.m. so we got only about 30-40 mins here. But it was fun as for most of us it was the first beach experience. When water comes splashing at your feet with the low tide, it is heavenly experience. Take a barefeet walk on the beach and there is no better ways of relaxation. Watch the sun going into the sea at the horizon and be at peace with yourself.
Munnar - It turned out to be a wrong choice for my family, as both me and my mother got sick due to all the twists and turns on the way. But, have to say, like any other hill station, Munnar also has the beautifual landscapes and great views of the valleys. It reminded me of my college days in Simla. As a surprise element, we came across another waterfall on the way. Took many snaps and videos. Attaching one picture below.
In Munnar, my father and sisters went to watch the live performance of Kathakali - makeup and dance, performed by artists of Punarjani group. These artists sure have a lot of patience. Next day, we visited the tea and spice plantations, Palace museum and Kanan Devan plantations where we were first shown a historical movie of how Munnar became one of the biggest tea producers in India, followed by a visit to the tea processing unit.
Kollam - First we visited Kottarakkara, a small town near kollam. This was more of a personal visit to my father's colleague. But I want to mention it here because of its green and clean view all over the place. We also saw rubber plantation and rubber processing factory - how latex from the tree is converted into rubber sheets.
Next stop was Kollam beach, now that is one clean beach. I was too busy taking pictures here, but my sisters were having a gala time playing in the water. Overall, my experience here was one to remember.
Then we started towards Tamil Nadu. I was not aware that one needs to take permission for personal vehicle before travelling inter state. Our check point was a place called Amaravila.
Kanyakumari - We crossed Nagercoil, and reached the southermost tip of our motherland. First stop here was the sunset point. It was very crowded, full of tourists and localites, some relaxing and some buying shell made show peices from the various shops in the market being set up on the shore. We were told that all of this was destroyed in the Tsunami of 2004 and most of the buildings near the shore were rebuilt.
We stayed in Vivekananda Kendra, a rest house facility in kanyakumari. It is very well maintained and clean. There are two big clocks telling about the sunset and sunrise timings in the reception room. They have annapurana(mess), internet facility, book shops etc, all within the campus itself. Next day early morning, we all went to the Sunrise point, but unfortunately there were lot of clouds and sun didn't appear in the sky. Anyways, we headed towards our last stop of the trip - the Vivekananda Rock memorial and the Thiruvalluvar Statue. These are built on two big rocks within the sea. You need to wait in queue to get the ticket for the ferry that takes you to these monuments. In both these places, photography was allowed in limited areas only. There are temples, meditation centers, book stores and a vast statue of Swamy Vivekanada built inside the rock memorial.
Lastly, on the way back, we crossed a vast Windmill park. Later we came to know, it is the largest wind mill park in Asia. Also located on the highway was a temple of Mullapanthal devi, 15 kms from Nagercoil towards Tirunelveli district.
Thus, ended our road trip across the Kerela and Tamil nadu states of south India.
This was one of our first big family vacation and so a lot of planning went through between an uncle who organised our trip mainly, my father and myself. I would like to share my experience here.
Initially we were thinking about opting for some tour packages, but thankfully we dropped that idea. Firstly, most of them are very costly and secondly, we would have been bound to follow their timings and schedules always. It could have become bugging after some time and our vacation might have turned into a school picninc. By the way, I am not at all against these tour packages. They are one of the big employers of the tourism industry. But mainly because we selected most of the places in our schedule after looking into their schedules given on various websites. :) So, they were a big help.
Now, let me share about the places that we visited in this trip and my opinion about them:
Ernakulam - The first thing we did here was to take the boat ferry ride. As Ernakulam(Kochi) is built around water body, so a boat ferry is the fastest mean to visit many places in less time span. There were two options available - either to take the less costly shared ride (where minimum of 20 people are required and we were just 5 of us) or the little costly private ferry (Rs. 600/- per hour). After waiting for about half and hour for more people to join, we decided to take the private ferry for 2 hours.
It was a refreshing change, far away from the city pollution and the view was good. We visited the mattencherry palace, saw the port cochin coast guard, chinese nets (pic below), but had to miss the Jewish Synagogue due to their lunch time.
Thrissur - It is about 100km from Ernakulam and took us about 3 hours from our hotel to reach our destination "Athirapally waterfalls". Some people also refer to them as 'Indian Niagara falls'. Now, people there is a point of caution here: Do NOT take any food items with you. There monkeys here are very experienced in snatching things.
Though the climate was hot and humid but the view was simply beautiful. From one side, we could see the water dividing into four main streams, while from the road-side, you get to see the frontal view of other two streams. A coconut water seller can be found sitting on this side of the road as many tourists stop here to take front view of the falls. I must say, intelligent business strategy. While returning from the falls, we took lunch at a KTDC restaurant. Though there are not many employees here, but the lunch was good. |
| Chinese Nets |
Cherai beach - While returning from Thrissur, we visited the Cherai beach, 30 kms before kochi. It closes at 6:30 p.m. so we got only about 30-40 mins here. But it was fun as for most of us it was the first beach experience. When water comes splashing at your feet with the low tide, it is heavenly experience. Take a barefeet walk on the beach and there is no better ways of relaxation. Watch the sun going into the sea at the horizon and be at peace with yourself.
Munnar - It turned out to be a wrong choice for my family, as both me and my mother got sick due to all the twists and turns on the way. But, have to say, like any other hill station, Munnar also has the beautifual landscapes and great views of the valleys. It reminded me of my college days in Simla. As a surprise element, we came across another waterfall on the way. Took many snaps and videos. Attaching one picture below.
 |
| Falls on the way to Munnar |
Kollam - First we visited Kottarakkara, a small town near kollam. This was more of a personal visit to my father's colleague. But I want to mention it here because of its green and clean view all over the place. We also saw rubber plantation and rubber processing factory - how latex from the tree is converted into rubber sheets.
Next stop was Kollam beach, now that is one clean beach. I was too busy taking pictures here, but my sisters were having a gala time playing in the water. Overall, my experience here was one to remember.
Then we started towards Tamil Nadu. I was not aware that one needs to take permission for personal vehicle before travelling inter state. Our check point was a place called Amaravila.
Kanyakumari - We crossed Nagercoil, and reached the southermost tip of our motherland. First stop here was the sunset point. It was very crowded, full of tourists and localites, some relaxing and some buying shell made show peices from the various shops in the market being set up on the shore. We were told that all of this was destroyed in the Tsunami of 2004 and most of the buildings near the shore were rebuilt.
We stayed in Vivekananda Kendra, a rest house facility in kanyakumari. It is very well maintained and clean. There are two big clocks telling about the sunset and sunrise timings in the reception room. They have annapurana(mess), internet facility, book shops etc, all within the campus itself. Next day early morning, we all went to the Sunrise point, but unfortunately there were lot of clouds and sun didn't appear in the sky. Anyways, we headed towards our last stop of the trip - the Vivekananda Rock memorial and the Thiruvalluvar Statue. These are built on two big rocks within the sea. You need to wait in queue to get the ticket for the ferry that takes you to these monuments. In both these places, photography was allowed in limited areas only. There are temples, meditation centers, book stores and a vast statue of Swamy Vivekanada built inside the rock memorial.
 |
| Twin Rocks at kanyakumari |
Thus, ended our road trip across the Kerela and Tamil nadu states of south India.
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