In God’s Own Country..

Its a place known for its rich flora n fauna, the backwaters, the massages, classical form of dances, age old martial arts, the land of Adi Sankara… Yes, I’am talking about Kerala: God’s own country!!

This tour was taken during the last semester of M.Tech. We were a group of five viz., Adi,Shridhar, Raghu, Navada Sir and myself. Thanks to raghu who has been able to recall the itenary to a large extent.

over to raghu…

We went to Munnar, Thekkady wild life sanctuary (ie Periyar Wildlife) and Kottayam back waters for 3 days 4 nights.

Day 1: Evening at around 5 o clock we travelled by train to ernakulam (kochi) from mangalore.

Day 2: Morning at around 5 o clock we reached ernakulam railway station. From there we went to ernakulam busstand. We took bus to munnar. At around 9 o clock we reached munnar. Stayed in a lodge in munnar. We booked a jeep there for about 1000 /- . Visited all the important places in munnar by jeep. See the pic below, doesent one experience heaven ?!!

There are these Tata tea estates every where you look. Should say,the green cover is a treat for our eyes. We were back in our room by 7pm; had dinner and stayed in the same lodge for that night.

Day 3: Morning at around 6:30 we took a bus to thekkady. In thekkady “periyar wild life sanctuary”. Please note that Periyar sancturay is not a park, it is a gaurded forest.By afternoon we reached Periyar. At the sanctuary is the periyar lake which is a man made one. one can go for boating in that lake, you may figure out some wild animals like elephants etc…. but we didnt go for boating in the lake as we planned to go experience the backwaters for boating. We went for some nature walk for about 3 hours inside the forest. One gaurd would accompany us.

I should say that we were lucky to see about 15 elephants in the wild,
some sambhars, birds.. talking about birds, we were also lucky to see the Horn Hill bird, which is known as the pride of Periyar!! its an awesome experience to see these creatures in its natural habitat. cost: Rs.100 per head, minimum of 5 people sould be there.

Some trivia: one song from dilse movie (Jiya Jale) was shot at this lake.

Near the sanctuary there is a place “kumily”, its the bordering place of TN and Kerala. There are shops which sell handicrafts items, pretty decent t-shirts, etc..
From kumily we went to thekkady busstand. We took a bus to “kottayam” at aound 9 pm; reached “kottayam” at around 12:00 mid night; booked a lodge close to bus stand.

Day 4: Morning we left to “kumarakom”, it is around 15km from kottayam. We booked a boat (250 rs per hour) and went to alleppey by back waters. One can get to see the breath taking scenaries, esp the coconut trees just accopmany us through out the journey!! Spent some time in alleppey and came back to kumarakom in the same boat. It took around 4 hours for the to n fro journey. Had lunch at Alzhapuzha.

Later, went to a bird sanctuary in kumarakom. In this bird sanctuary, we went for a country boat ride!!…man, this was the hi-lite of the journey.. i thoroughly enjoyed this journey!!..would love to go for another ride anytime!!

Evening came back to kottayam; checked out the lodge; had dinner and took a train from kottayam to mangalore.

Day 5: Afternoon around 1 pm we reached to mangalore.

Thanks raghu…

So, travel freaks… dont miss out on Kerala. Need more info?.. do write to me..

~ by nobleman on September 29, 2007.