"The God's own Country"......Kerala...a beautiful state on the southern tip of India, is a major tourist destination in the country. Kerala...land of coconuts and much more. Don't worry, I will not tell you about the Kerala attractions, how to go, what to do, what is good or bad. All these things are available in detail and proper way on internet.
Here I am just sharing my experience about my short tour to Kerala, as my blog name itself indicates the same.
On the 1st week of October 2014, long holiday week (Dussera), we decided to go to Kerala to enjoy the backwater. As I am living in the Bangalore, me along with my wife and our sweet & cute baby Arnav, started our journey from the Bangalore Cantonment railway station on 2nd Oct 2014 at 7:15 pm & reached at Ernakulam North railway station next day morning near about 5:10 am. We waited at railway station till 6 am, as we didnt wanted to disturb our friend by breaking his sound sleep, who is living in the Kochi. It also saved the auto/taxi night charges...ha..ha.
On first day (3rd Oct 2014), after breakfast, we visited Kochi Hill Palace. As usual we paid entry charges Rs.30/person, to see historical things, which is always a not interesting thing for me. As compare to the inside of palace, outside area was much good to spend the time, the all I can say.
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| Hill Palace |
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| Chinese fishing net |
In the evening we visited Kochi fort. As like any other person, the picture into our minds was like Vijaydurg or Sidhudurg fort, but when we actually reached there, our eyes were finding the structure like fort but we couldnt find anything like it. We asked our friend, where is the fort? & with the big smile he replied, there is nothing like a fort but still this place is called as Kochi fort. The new thing we saw was the Chinese fishing net & different kinds of fishes. We enjoyed the sunset, seen lots of different kinds of boats and came back to friend's house.
As per our plan, next day 4th Oct 2014, we moved towards the Alleppey by train 56379/Ernakulam Alappuza passenger in the morning at 7:30 from Ernakulam south junction. It is daily passenger train from Ernakulam south junction. As it is a passanger train, we were little bit worried about the rush, but fortunately the train was quite empty that day. In our boogi there were only 5-6 passengers till the end of the journey (Alleppey). We preferred to go by train only, as it is my favorite mode of transport, specially when you are travelling with kid. We reached at Alleppey railway station at 9:45 am. Train journey through canals, plenty of coconut trees, morning fresh & cool weather was very pleasant & enjoyable.
Another mode of transport to Alleppey is bus. Plenty of buses are available from the Vyttila Mobility Hub. It also takes same time to reach there, but you never get comfort like train, specially when trains are not so crowded.
As it was a long holiday & peak season in the kerala, we should not waste our time to look for a houseboat, we directly went for the shikara/motor boat option. Houseboat charges were almost 60% more that day. First thing was that, options for the houseboat were very less or I can say, 95% houseboats (good houseboats) were full & remaining 5% were having high cost and low quality. When we went to book the shikara, it was also costly. They were charging almost more than double, normally shikara costs Rs. 500/hour. Finally we managed to make a group of 9 people with other 2 families and booked a big motor boat for 4 hours and went to explore the backwater.
Backwater experience was just awesome, full of excitement, enjoyable & memorable. Motorboat started from Vadai canal (entry gate of backwater), then moved towards Neharu trophy boat race fishing point and then it took Kollam-Kottapuram water way....bamboo lagoon back water front resort and entered into Vembanadu lake .
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| Vembanadu lake |
From Vembandu lake our boat entered into pamba river. We had lunch in a small hotel situated on the bank of pamba river, were rice was the only dish and fishes for non-vegetarians. Look some of the pics of the pamba river.
After lunch, return backwater journey started. We went to small canal, Minnapally kayal and again back to Pamba river and our 4 hour backwater journey ended at Vadai canal (staring point) at 3:30 pm with lots of happiness.
Our return train from Alleppey to Ernakulem was at 5.45 pm, so instead of going to local attractions, we went to Alleppey beach, which is just at the backside of the Alleppey railway station. We spend time on the beach till 5 pm, beach was very clean, well maintained and full of humidity. We were badly exhausted with heat & sweat, but it was masked by the happiness of backwater journey. We took some rest at Alleppey railway station & started return journey to Enakulam by same train 56379/Ernakulem Alappuza passenger.
Third day was little bit lazy so we planned to stay in Kochi only as we had return train to Bangalore in the night, and didnt wanted the day to be hectic. Now question was, what to see in Kochi as there nothing special was remaining to visit. So as usual like a week-end traveler in Bangalore, we decided to go to "LuLu". U must be thinking of what is LuLu...isnt it?...ha ha...
LuLu is the largest shopping mall in India situated in the City of Kochi & it is the 48th largest shopping mall in the world. The mall was opened in March 2013 and contains more than 215 outlets including food courts, restaurants, family entertainment zones, a multiplex, ice skating rink and bowling alley etc. The most I like was ice skating..ha..ha.. It was like natural comedy by common people (skaters), their moves, falls, expressions, body languages were too funny, I was not able to control myself from laughing......ha..ha. I know if I was there skating on the ice, by default I would have been entertained the audience. We almost spend three hours and it was great fun & enjoyment. In the evening we visited marine drive, a not so interesting place and went back to home to get ready for return journey.
A 3 days short tour to Kochi and Alleppey was quite nice and enjoyful for us. If anyone wants to have a peaceful holiday, then you must visit and experience Kerala backwater. But make sure to visit during cool seasons to avoid excessive heat. You will definitely feel to be in the piece of heaven.
