Rail tracks, next to the airport and I saw a train during takeoff

Journey back home
We had breakfast with the visitors and wished them a good journey ahead. It was time to leave this beautiful place. There was a bus to Aluva waiting for the three of us at the bus stand. The ride was long and down hill for the initial part and on flat land after Kothamangalam. We traveled significantly in the plains but noticed that roads in Kerala are full of turns and bends and straight patches occur seldom.

The obscure Airport – in case you miss the sign

At Aluva we purchased some packets of fresh banana chips fried in coconut oil, a signature snack of Kerala. The Cochin airport is now located at Nedumbassery, about 13 km from Aluva, but few people in the town seem to know about it.

Curious flag posts of political parties

Security checks at Cochin airport was extra tight and my rucksack was scanned and re scanned. I had to leave my deospray behind and explain many other things (we had huge packets of banana chips).
Cochin (Kochi) airport, nice to see a well designed airport.

Epilogue
Many people had declared that this 5.5 day trip would be very hectic and it was sinful to travel to Kerala for such a short duration. Never mind all that. We had a blast and I can’t wait to go back to Kerala once again. It is a state of genuinely hospitable people, delicious foods, and endowed with infinite natural beauty.

Thanks for staying with me on this journey!

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Fruit Market

Fruit Market

Munnar sightseeing
DTDC (District Tourism Development Corporation) Idukki arranges a sightseeing tour of places around Munnar. Our bus had 3 couples and 2 tourists from Belguim besides the three of us. The excursion is resonably priced at Rs. 250, however we were unable to visit one destination due to bad road conditions. Also the Eravikulam National Park was overcrowded, so the authorities closed it by the time we reached. There are 23 gigantic tea estates in Munnar and one can see tea farms at various stages – fresh plantations, tender leaves and plucked stumps. The day was very wet in the morning, dry during the afternoon and it started raining heavily in the evening again!
Tea plantations

Madupatty Dam: 160ft high with a vast reservoir.

Rural areas around Munnar

Belgian friends
We met Sofie and Grete, tourists from Belguim on this DTDC trip. They are on a 2-month holiday in India since July 02. Traveling all over south India, they are totally comfortable with south Indian food, the travel. In the last leg of their journey, they will be in Mumbai. It was a pleasant experience to meet them, and incidentally, we discovered that they were staying in the room bang opposite to ours!

Tea! Everywhere!
Tea Flower

Tea plantations

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Tea plantations

Mumbai experience?
After breakfast, the trio left for Munnar. The bus was packed to its full capacity, yet the conductor was squeezing people in. We were sitting on front seats that unfortunately fell in the ‘reserved for ladies’ area. The conductor asked us to remain seated amidst the group of ladies surrounding us (oh god, they talk so much!). This scene reminded me of the crowds in Mumbai local trains. These guys can definitely cope up with the crowds in suburban trains of Mumbai. Strangely enough, in the initial part of the journey, large number of ladies were traveling, each one with some warm utensils in their bags.

I cannot easily distinguish between Tamil and Malayalam languages unless I pay careful attention to the speech. From the behavior and accents, one can feel a dominating Tamil influence in this border town. Many shops have texts written in both languages and plenty of buses and private vehicles ply with Tamil Nadu number plates.

Rain, winding roads and tea estates

Spiraling roads
The route from Thekkady to Munnar travels through some of the highest ranges in Western Ghats. The road takes continuous twists and turns alternating between valleys, forests, streams and peaks. As Munnar draws closer, one can see extensive tea plantations covering hills completely. Just before Devikulam, the road passes through some breathtaking views!

Confluence at Munnar
Munnar Town

Munnar (mooon aar), in Tamil, literally means ’3 rivers’. The town is situated around the confluence of these rivers. Typifying India’s secular culture, a church, a temple and a mosque are prominently located on three hillocks overlooking the town. In the evening, we went for a walk to the old Munnar town, about 2 kilometers away. Munnar is full of picturesque surroundings, with more than 12,000 hectares of lush tea fields, eucalyptus plantations and ofcourse hill ranges, streams and very pure air. At night, draped in plastic sheets, we went out again for a walk in heavy rains and chilly winds for a cup of coffee.

Churches

Mosque and a temple on adjacent hills

Comparitively though I liked Thekkady more. It is a silent and isolated place compared to Munnar which is relatively crowded (umm.. compare Matheran and Mahabaleshwar).

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Night journey
The bus reached Kottayam at 03:30 when the conductor woke us up from deep sleep. Hoping to get refreshed we ordered tea from the tea stall, but it tasted bland.. damn!
It was raining a little and formed small puddles all over the bus terminal. There was nobody in a position to tell us about the bus.. aargh! Finally found one bus driver sitting in his idly parked bus:

Me: Excuse me, Do you know when the next bus for Thekkady leaves?
Driver: Makes a clueless face. I realize that speaking complete English sentences is not required
Me: Sir, Thekkady bus. When? (with gestures)
Driver: Rattles something in incomprehensible Malayalam, speaks to a passenger. I think he is consulting
Me: No Malayalam. Please English
Driver: 5 o clock
Me: Thanks. Thekkady reach when?
Driver: 8 o clock
Me: Bus start Kottayam?
Driver: No, Kochi going.
Ok I quit. Next person
Me: Sir, Thekkady bus when? (Yatin, my office mate instructed me to address everyone by ‘sir’)
Person: Bus go, 4 o’ clock, go fast. And points to a bus for Kumbli. lafda.
Me: Kumbli no, Thekkady bus where?
Person: Kumbli, Thekkady neighbour. Indicates with gestures that these are adjoining towns.

Damnit Priyank! you have not done any homework. I curse myself.

From the beach to the forest
Grrr.. There was no driver, and it was dark inside that bus! But, after a while, that bus did leave for Kumbli, the bus terminal 4 km away from Thekkady. It started getting cold and windy in the morning as the bus breezed through the hilly roads passing through dense forest. We rented a room near the Thekkady forest entrance.

Breakfast, aka tiffin

Dosa and Ayurvedic water

Piping hot dosas, steaming idlis, spicy sambar and coconut chutney. Foods such as these formed a part of our daily breakfast, which is referred here as ‘tiffin’. Note that tiffin is not available after 10 or 11 am, after which the lunchtime begins. A cup of hot coffee or tea in the typical large white china clay cups is a must after this. You’ll also find ‘red’ ayurvedic water being served in the mornings.

In the afternoon we ventured inside the forest to Periyar lake formed due to the dam on river Periyar. KTDC (Kerala Tourism Development Corporation) arranges a 90 minutes boat excursion inside the lake, which offers a breathtaking view of the entire region. During non-monsoon season, they say, it is possible to spot wild animals too. We were not very lucky in that respect.

Periyar Lake

Sorry state of affairs

KTDC and Forest department arrange the boat ride inside the Periyar lake. These boats are ill maintained and one can see oil slick at different parts on the lake. Also the roof is ineffective as it leaks from unexpected points, so be careful with the camera. There are neither any dustbins nor any rescue floats on the boat Finally, the boat is filled beyond capacity, which clearly means that if there are no legal tickets, there is still a way in.

The educated village
In the evening, we went to the Kumbli market for light food but ended up having a heavy lunch. The town is just a tiny mesh of roads around the main bus stand. There is a lot of Tamil influence as the border is only 5 km away from here.

Market

Kerala is really an educated state. There was some communist political leader speaking at the bus stand and a decent crowd gathered to hear him. His speech made no sense to us due to our inability to understand Malayalam. However, we did distinctly hear words like ‘US’, ‘crude oil’ and stuff. Incredible it may sound, these politicians were talking about world topics and people were listening! Imagine such a thing happening in Maharashtra!!

Politics!

The village has narrow roads dotted with a number of cottages and residences that proclaim ‘home stay’. These places offer good rooms (at high prices, aimed at the foreign tourist) for long durations. There are a number of shops selling spices and other overpriced stuff (again aimed at the foreign tourist) It started getting colder after sunset. Rains accompanied with cold winds made it quite exciting to go out for a stroll at night.

Souvenir shops

All three of us being (smart, talented, etc..) Engineers, that night we had lenghty discussion over some topic and tried to model some equations to solve the problem we were facing. After lot of mental masturbation, the issue was settled!

Tourist destination Kerala

At every moment you will note how tourism has influenced the state. It appears that people are convinced of the equation between tourism and prosperity. At all the places, the common man is extremely helpful and polite. At times people will talk amongst themselves before giving you directions. Even the government staff (Bus, KTDC etc) was courteous enough with information to help us plan. Yes, the language problem exists, but broken english will surely work. Infact, the townspeople take pride in conversing in Hindi too! The people are genuinely warm and hospitable. No wonder it is one of India’s most famous destinations.

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Suprabhatam

While Advait and Devendra were sleeping (ok, I wont say snoring) peacefully, I went out for a little early morning walk. The streets were just waking up on this lazy Saturday morning. My first taste of coffee in Kerala was at the main junction, standing along with many lungi-clad people who were giving me strange look. These are pictures of M.G. Road, the central road of Trivandrum

We were intrigued by the design of the buses. They have no glass windows. Instead there is a thick sheet of cloth that is wrapped and fastened at the top. Simply pulling the lever will unwrap the sheet, so the window is either fully open or fully shut (0 or 1). The bus conductors have electronic machines, which produce electronic tickets. Hmmm.. certainly something that would ease the life of Mumbai’s BEST bus conductors!

We were skeptical about the monsoon, since it supposedly rains continuously during this time in Kerala. Fortunately, today the weather today was bright and after everyone awoke, we promptly decided to see the Kovallam and Kanyakumari beaches.

Breakfast and remote darshan of the Padmanabhaswamy temple lifted our spirits. A note for the tourists: the city bus station at Trivandrum is a kilometer away from the central bus station, but the walk is pleasurable anyway.

The crescent beaches
Kovalam has 3 main beaches – Hawa, Lighthouse and Ashoka beach. We landed at Hawa (or Eve’s) beach, which is crescent shaped and very beautiful. One can walk along the shore and the rocks to the adjoining Lighthouse beach. The beach is arguably Kerala’s most famous beach and charming place to see the sun dip into Arabian sea.

Instructions at Kovalam in English, Malayalam, Hindi and.. German!

Kovalam beach

Fishermen weaving their nets

Abu from Mazgaon
We met this guy Abu, who was waiting for a bus to Kanyakumari at the Kovallam bus stand. He was from Mumbai, traveling alone for the first time to Kerala. He gladly joined our gang for the next day.

Delicious Keralite food
We had some lovely traditional Kerala lunch at Trivandrum. They served so many delicacies and rice that we were overwhelmed! Sambar, rasam, curd, daal, vegetables, Payasam, papadam, and many more items we didn’t know the names of. It was tempting to taste fish curry too, but since it was rainy season, we restricted ourselves to vegetarian food.
Food!

Palace of wood
Our next stop was the Padmanabhapuram palace in Tamil Nadu, on our way to Kanyakumari. Built in 1601, this palace was the seat of the Travancore rulers. This is the largest wooden palace in India and is constructed with teak and granite. Guides at various places in the palace give details about various rooms and areas.

Padmanabhapuram wood palace and a shrine outside.

Kerala and Tamil Nadu
You will notice some difference in the cultures of the two states. People, dressing, language, courtesy and even the cleanliness levels of the cities vary. Don’t be surprised to see 50% of seats in the front portion of the buses in Tamil Nadu reserved for ladies. Women in Tamil Nadu travel a lot – sometimes they outnumber the men! Noticed this trend twice: On the Trivandrum-Kanyakumari route and again on Thekkady-Munnar route. Disclaimer: I have barely traveled into Tamil Nadu and not in a position to form an opinion yet.

Southernmost tip of Indian peninsula!
We hopped from Trivandrum to Thuckalay to Nagercoil and arrived at Kanyakumari (Cape Comorin), which was in neighboring state. The landscape was very pleasant!.

Zipping from one little town to the other in state buses

It was evident that we would not be able to witness the sunset from the southernmost point of India. Too cloudy. We had no plans for overnight stay, hence could not see other places of tourist interest in the area. Nevertheless, the experience of being at the extreme point was a memorable enough.

Kanyakumari

Bay of Bengal – Indian Ocean – Arabian Sea

Journey from the deserted Kanya kumari bus terminal to Trivandrum took over 3 hours. We ate dinner at Trivandrum, quit the room and immediately boarded the next bus to Kottayam, which was a journey of another 3 hours.

In past 24 hours, we had flown from Mumbai (Maharashtra) over the Arabian sea, landed in Trivandrum (Kerala) and saw the sunset at Kanyakumari (Tamil Nadu). Pretty cool, isn’t it?

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Having posted 25 stories over past 19 weeks talking exclusively about my trip to Russia, I thought of taking a healthy break and doing something else. Since I am terribly busy these days doing this and that, I have decided to take up a small project that was long overdue. In the next 5 posts (this one included), I will post about my 5-day trip to Kerala.

Kerala is a little communist state in South India that is well known for ayurvedic medicine, tourism and export of human capital. “God’s own country” is the slogan used by Kerala tourism board, and it sounded laughable. But when I went there, I thought that claim to be true…

The important thing to note here is that I am not going to write anything new. Instead, I’ll just copy paste the story as I wrote it back in 2006 – unedited, but in my current format of posting. It is very interesting to note how one’s writing styles, choice of words and even photographing habits change over time.

I hope you enjoy it.

Kerala travelogue: Day 1 of 5: From Mumbai to Kerala

The bomb and the flight
I reached Mumbai airport directly from office and was relaxing in the waiting area comforted by air conditioner while it rained outside. Suddenly a battery of police officers and airport authorities appeared and started evacuating passengers from inside the terminal. Apparently someone had placed a call warning about a bomb and one unidentified bag was spotted near the entrance gate. Bomb disposal squads were called to inspect the baggage while we waited outside the cordoned area. It turned out to be hoax, but during those ten minutes, the crowd was tense and I’m sure many were praying. There were some large cameras pointing at the glass windows trying to capture whatever they could. Media, sigh! I was imagining the news channels screaming ‘Breaking news‘ (they do this even if a cat is stuck on a tree).

Consequently our flight was delayed. Add to that the overcrowding at the security terminals. We managed to somehow scrape through and probably were the last ones to board the aircraft!

Welcome to Kerala
We landed at Trivandrum airport after a brief halt at Cochin (Kochi). The ground was damp, the sky was cloudy and the midnight air was fresh Welcome to Kerala!

Thiruvananthapuram central rail station

A friendly pre-paid taxi took us to the town center where the railway station and bus station are situated. He did not ask for any extra money (!). We made some general enquiries about buses and chatted with the locals trying find a place to stay. It was well past midnight and the city was sleeping peacefully. We got into a lodge on MG road, negotiated the rent and finally booked the room to stay.

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