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..

An the ancient Chinese saying goes, “The journey of a thosand miles begins with a single step.” I would love to travel the world… and ive started!! but there are miles to go before I sleep!!

Ive tried to categorise my visits and placed them in separate entries. Hope you will like them.

To start with, let metake you through the “Green Route” trek!!

The green route trek was one where all the 13 guys, had un-adulterated joy. In short the statistics of obstacles which had to be overcome were imposing to say the least. Consider this:

The distance to be covered: about 54Kms

Number of tunnels to be surpassed: 57

Number of bridges to be overcome: 81

The trek was spread over two days. the first days’ journey was between, Shakleshpur and Edakumeri. It is roughly half the total distance. We had the pleasure Mr. Girish Navada and Mr. Nagendrappaof, who are our lecturers. Mr. Nagendrappa kept the entire trek very lively. I still remebr him singing kananda songs along the way!! Mr. Navda, trust me, is one person having loads and loads of stamina. His energy and balance are something which would leave one wondering.

On the first day, we got to see a long bridge. We thought this would be the longest amongst the bridges, which we realised is not true on day two!! Under this long bridge, there was a stream flowing. We, crossed the bridge and went down to the stream to plunge ourselves. The pic below, shows us in the stream. This is wout i would call “Happiness Redefined!!”

Immediately, after this bridge, one will find the longest tunnel!!. This is where we lit our torch!!.

The tunnels are infested with bats. It was evening time and we witnessed the home-coming of batman’s lith n kin!! While passing through the tunnels, one must ensure to keep their face downwards, as it would be showering bat spats all over!!

The first day came to an end, when we reached Edakumeri. We spent the night at the station which had no roof!!. We did collect some wood, made bon-fire n all. Honestly, I was afraid to continue the second day, as there is the option of cutting short the journey. I mean one can trek through the forest, separating the highway and edakumeri. But, I couldnt voice my wish of cutting short the trek as I had given a word to Mahesh who took a word from me that he would join the trek provided we cover the entire distance. That night was filled with images of the adventurous trek.

The next morning, we guys had to experience another memorable experience!!.. answering nature’s call!!. I must say there is some kind of pleasure in answering nature’s call in the wild!!.

We covered some distance on day two, when six of us decided to take detour. This left with the remaining six to cover the remainig distance. The guys who took a detour, had their own story to tell. But we guys who covered the remaining distance were to experience a SHOCK of a life time!!

Barely, some distance after we parted, we came cross the longest bridge!!. I can experience that feeling even now as i write!!. On one side of the bridge was the huge hill, while on the other side was the huge.. huge valley, filled with lush greenary. Talking about the bridge, man, standing at one end of the bridge, we couldnt see the other end of the bridge!!..

As we overcame one obstacle after another, we realised the dese ghat section was going past by nus. We could see the foot hills now. The journey was filled with ambiguity, as no one knew the exact distance that had to be covered. There were the railway workers who were busy with the track conversion. These workers, themselves, were not sure about the exact distance. We trek for an hour, ask one passerby, the distance, he says 20kms more. Fine, we wlk for another hour, trust me, we walked like professionals!! Then ask another worker, this time he tells, its another 20 kms. Those were testing times. The sun was ruthless and time was flying by. We had to make it to Kukke, as we cannot afford to take the risk of camping in the forest, especially when we get to see the elephant dungs all over!!

The first sign of Kukke is when we saw a tar road. That was the first time we felt the sense of near accomplishment.

As we neared the station, I ran almost 3/4th Km. I cant believe I actually did it!!.. WE FINALLY ACCOMPLISHED!!!.. we were there, Subramnya Road, Kukke Subramnya. I just got goose bumps!!

We, went to Nethravathi river. Had bath and just made it to the temple at Kukke. We received the Lord’s blessings. Spent the night at the temple. Took the first bus to Mangalore the next morning.