Kerala Trip

We went to a weeklong trip to Kerala - The God's own country. We started at 5 am and reached Wayanad at 12 pm. We first headed towards Edakkal caves which are located 25 kms from Kalpetta in Wayanad. As we go up, there were steep narrow roads and at last we gave up as our poor car could not handle the steep roads teamed with heavy traffic. We hired a jeep for 70 bucks and went up and were horrified to see tonnes of people queuing up to have look at those caves. We decided that it was not worth to waste hours and stress out in the very hot climate just in the starting of our trip, so we returned back disappointed.

On our way up to Calicut there were lots of beautiful tea estates, we could see greenery everywhere. It’s difficult to explain that feeling but it was soothing and calming for my eyes to see a land so lush with greens everywhere you can lay your eyes on. Just picture perfect. We then went to Pookat lake on the way which actually is very beautiful but we were again disappointed to see huge crowds taking away the joy of watching the otherwise placid lake. Turns out that the day before was ramzan and so all the muslims came out to celebrate and it was October 2nd too.

On the journey back to Calicut, we came across the ghat section with 9 hairpin bends, not a big deal one will say, but I was surprised to see huge traffic one usually come across on busy monday mornings in Bangalore. At one point the roads were actually jammed and we waited for half an hour for it to get cleared. But nevertheless the journey was beautiful.
We reached Calicut (or Kozhikode) at night and checked into a hotel called East Avenue Suites which was very good and comfortable. Next morning we drove to Kappad beach which is a short drive from Calicut. This is the land where the famous Portuguese sailor, Vasco da Gama set his feet in the year 1498 along with 170 men. This was a lovely beach with hardly any crowd thank god, but has deep waters so had to be careful not to go far.

Suhas got so scared by the force of the waves and water slipping away sand under his feet that he decided that he wont put his feet down in any beach from now on. We then went on to Guruvayur which is a nice place with good temple which houses small and sweet Krishna. Though we could only catch a short glimpse of Lord Krishna because of crowd, it was worth. The deity has so much glow around him that our hearts were filled with contentment and happiness. Till now we dint find any pure veg hotel in Kerala but here one can find only those so much for the satisfaction for my MIL.

The highway in most of the Kerala doesn’t look like it at all with houses, shops and trees everywhere with not a single piece of land without any vegetation. You can see people everywhere as if half of the India's population is here, even the highway is never deserted and the roads are fab. We landed in hotel hariprasadam not a big hotel but ok to spend a night. Everywhere here in restaurants we found some ayurvedic water with pink color.
On the way to Kochi, we went to cherai beach, spent an hour there which was good time spent. Rocks had been arranged there for seating in the shore and we sat there under a bamboo umbrella shaped shade.

From there we headed to Vipin island. There was jetty service from there to Fort Kochi in which we can transport our cars too. Fort Kochi is famous for its huge chinese fishing nets.

There are a number of home stays available in Kochi, very neat and comfortable but we opted for hotel room instead as for a night or 2 they are very expensive. We were not able to find a single decent hotel which has pure veg restaurant. At last we booked an udipi hotel which was not very comfortable and neat. Next day was peacefully spent in a backwater trip. It was a pretty good experience with three hours on a houseboat with yummy lunch served and two hours spent in a small country boat which took us to small villages to get a glimpse of their lifestyles.

Next day we were off to Kanyakumari early in the morning at 5 so that we can catch the sunset there. I could not believe there was so much traffic towards kanyakumari that we thought we might be in for a disappointment. Bad luck that though we reached there just in time, hurried up the watch tower, the sun hid behind a cloud just before setting. There was such a heavy breeze there on the shore that if I had kept Suhas down he would have swept away by the force. The ocean was roaring as if in anger.

We checked into a good hotel this time and next morning were up by 5 to watch the sunrise, but bad luck again as the sun again hid under heavy clouds. Nevertheless it was a beautiful sight with clouds and the water changing its colors to bright orange.

Loved the sight of ocean covering everywhere around the piece of land we were in and with three oceans merging giving the water different colors of green and blue. Kanyakumari beach was truly breathtaking and awesome.
We went off to Madurai from there and as we left Kerala, highway had become highway again with plain land on either side and with all that magical greenery gone.