Kerala - God's Own Country

I was so happy and excited to visit Kerala as for long time this was on my list to complete. Finally got a chance and witnessed the beauty of Kerala from 9th Dec 2011 to 15th Dec 2011.

I always prefer to book hotels and do all arrangements of my own, in fact when I tried the same for Kerala my experience was different, the packages are not only popular over here but also more reasonable than whatever you plan and with no headache.

I took the package from Paradise holidays and it cost me 28000/- whereas if I would have planned it would have comes around 35000/- .

But I suggest if you plan for package, plan well ahead unfortunately in my case i was so late that in last moment i compromised on the type of hotels because of peak season the most of good hotels in munnar were booked. Otherwise i would have preferred Misty Mountain.

so after googling many Kerala offers finally i got the good rate from Paradise booked them . Package inclused Deluxe type 2 means in hotels i will have deluxe rooms which in general cost 3k to 3.5 k and break fast complementary and ofcouse Tata indica AC good enough for me , my wife and my 10 months old daughter .it was 5 nights 6 day plan.

9th Dec 2011- landed at Cochin airport to much surprise it was hot in December. My driver was present outside and see the coincidence we share the same name. Good omen to start with.
He took us to home stay of Paradise to get refresh ourselves. Than we started our journey to Munnar our booking was done in Munnar Gateway. I personally felt it is not recommended hotel it’s a big waste. it’s a lodge .very small rooms with no hot water , although they gave me emulsion rod to manage . by the time we reached there it was evening 7:30 pm . The dinner in hotel was pathetic for a vegetarian only one curry. It was sheer waste. And biggest problem its 25km away from munnar it consumed extra 1 hour of travel .



10th-Dec:- after morning breakfast we started our journey to explore the munnar . and woooow lush green tea gardens everywhere on the way the whole vally was shining Green it was awesome view so refreshing , so good whether you feel like yes this is what need to me . had lot of photo session . than moved to Mattupetty Dam . Beautiful lake with a beautifully view . The best part i liked at these points is there was no population explosion in spite of peak season. Like i have experience in other tourist places. You will get enough view enough time for everything . There were some other points in the same route all were beautiful.

than we came back for lunch in city had a good north indian thali and went for Raj mala : here forest dept manages after one point and last bus goes at 4 o ' Clock . Although there is no wild seeing over here but going to high altitude and witnessing the nature at its best is one something you will earn .. Fresh air and Greenery all side with Hill view .. Lovely time you can have with .

We came down and went staring to our hotel Munnar gateway . relaxed in the hotel ..

11-Dec-2011 -- Thekkady : feeling of ayurveda


next day morning we moved towards thekkady . the 90 kms stretch is one of its own kind .. highly suggest if you have motion sickness than have proper medication . I have never seen so much of curve . you can't sit straight on this road . we reached thekkady at 2:00 pm and went to rosewood hotel .. thisi just situated just before the tiger reserve Gate.
You went to Kerala and you can't afford to miss at least this ..which even i dreamt of sometimes to get best massages from best folks from the best part of the world.
straightway i went for full body massage and complete package as i did not want to miss single moment of it .. it was 2K ..i found this ok ..they are very professional , hygienic and traditional .
Although i will say Massage was ok , as i thought it will be magical but it was not . but no regrets .
I stayed here in tree top Hotel .
At 6:00 pm i went to Kelari (Kerala Marshallate) teh tickets cost were very high 200/- per head . I wanted to see this marshallate to which i was proud of being and Indian , but after i watched the show i was damn demoralized and cursed the govt for not taking care of this talent . there is no doubt that kalari is one of the lethal marshallate but now we have lost the sharpness of this weapon .
you will experience like the people who are performing and novice to this and had done hardly any practice.
Anyhow i did not go kathakali as i am not fond of that .
i thought of doing some shopping but teh items were very costly and expensive . if you want to have souvenier . do not buy any thing here . you wil get plenty of shops on the highway to cochin from allepy go here .


12-dec-2011 (Periyar Lake)
I planned to go for boating in periyar lake with lot of wish to spot some wild animal at least Elephant . so got up at 6 o clock , called the driver went straight to the gate there were huge queue of buses and cars .
the Gate opens at 7 o 'clock and boat time was 9:00 am hence people will start coming by 6 to get the entry pass . this entry pass is only for your vehicle to get inside and number of people travelling with it . so do remember your vehicle number and number of people travelling with you .

there is 3 km inside my cab dropped me . People were running to one more entry gate which is 300 m always from the drop point . I did not understand why people were running anyhow this place is damn confusing so here is what you need to do .
all the adults need to go and stand in Q . there is iron brigade you will get into this stand in queue all the adults . the forest guard will come and give you individual form to fill it up . do remember to take pen . you will fill your details reach to counter show him entry pass which you took for your vehicle . he will give you one more slip keep it with you. Now you can need to take camera ticket so go to another big Queue take the camera slip and than go to the queue from where you can board the Ferry . do see your boat name which is printed you need to bard that boat only it also has seat defined .
so after all this hooch pooch i reached to my seat took out my camera did come clicks and boat started amid the lake . we could hardly spot anything it was just simple boat ride . Na hathi na hathi ki doom .
came back in 45 mins and went straight to the hotel had heavy breakfast in Tree top hotel . I liked the food and service over here and started our journey towards the Alleppey .

12-Dec-2012--alleppey house boat



This was a long journey. we reached by 2 O clock it was humid and hot in planes . that too in December and i was looking at my winter clothes for what i brought them as it was only needed at munnar and thekkady .
so here you will get many types of house boat . I had booked the one with upper deck they call it luxurious . so in your package food is included lunch, dinner, and next day breakfast.
i had one bedroom , 1 cook and 1 rider of boat . the cost of house boa varies from 7k onwards . mine was 8k also it depends upon your luck , your negotiating skills and season . as mine was included in package itself. so it was all there.

Boarded the boat initial impression was just wow . this is what i wanted and i got it .
Boat rider told me we will start now and we will have lunch in another 30 mins Ac will be on from 9 :00 pm to morning 6 : 00 pm . I said fine refreshed in the room and went to the upper deck relaxed on the net and had a very good Kerala authentic lunch . and i was feeling content . so in the backwaters of Kerala so peaceful , i was just thinking is this what i was expecting .. somewhere i have seen all this while growing up (odisha , Bengal) . this view if rice fields in teh backwater is not unique for me but still relaxing and experinceing the USP of kerala is all i needed no regrets like body massage . there are something which all required to experience forget it if you enjoyed it or not . somehow after 3.5 hours of sailing we stopped at village and boat will stay here till next day 8:30 am . yes this is where i got the pinch and pain it was hot and humid and now nothing to do for next 15 hours . after 5:30 pm boat will no go backwater as per the Govt rule as fishermen will go there for fishing .

beside mine another boat came and it was English couple had a chit chat with them , i boasted about my nation and so many stuff even though i was not liking it . and than i realized the house boat stuff may be its not for me kind of ppl bt its for them who has never seen and experienced it . i like activity and sitting idle was killing me .
anyhow had nothing to do can't help waited for Dinner as that is the only thing i wanted . dinner was too chilly but good food . went to the bed and slept till 8 am. and than boat started we had breakfast and reached the allepey back .
House boat story ended and I did not like it

13-Dec-2012: alleppy Beach


Now i just wanted to relax doing nothing hence i my next stopover was at Pagoda Resort . I went there checked in . the hotel is old and service is pathetic but good spacious room . with very big balcony and bathroom with bath tub . i was looking for this at least .
In the evening i went to beach , is a peaceful beach with no hooch pooch of people . enjoyed the sunset and came back and relaxed in the hotel .



14- Dec - 2012 ( cochin )

I started my Journey towards Cochin with is 53 km from allepey . on the way we saw many shops of handicrafts . i stopped at one bought some stuff these were really cheap compared to thekkady .
Reached cochin by 12:00 pm there are not much of things to be seen at cochin , Chinese net you can see , there is Dutch palace but none of them are not worthy to watch out for.



And after cochin sight seeing we came to our last day of trip to Saj earth resort near airport . they charged me around 4k with complementary breakfast .this was one of the best Resort i have seen till now with all modern facilities and all room are pool facing . had a lovely dinner and Wine . the rates are quite reasonable over here .


15-Dec-2012; End of Trip

after checking out they arranged cab to drop me at airport free of cost :)
.
so one more place from my checklist is over now. lets plan for next one.

Good and bad at Mt abu

i visited this place in Feb and below are my findings i know ppl will agree and differ , and this is just my feelings.
things that i did not like
1) Mt Abu is not a gr8 hill station. i felt this is the only station in gujarat and rajasthan that why it got famous as a hill station really its no where comparable to shimla or any real hill stations.
2) People have spoiled the natural beauty , gujarat is anti liquor state but not rajasthan thats why it is pulling many tourist from gujrat and you can find people drinking and dancing at many points in public places freely. i think it should be ban at public places and govt should appoint police on these places. not good for the guys planning to travel with family.
3)so called nakki lake is also not gr8 to watch out for , water has gone dirty. not worth watching.
Things i like
1)kishan garh house is really gr8 place to stay .
2)views from this hotel is really gr8 and refeshing
3)dilwada temple is one of its own kind.
Sugestion
If you are planning for trip and if you have choice Mt abu shud be last on your priority.

Vizag the City Beautiful with Araku Vally and Burra caves

hi all,
some months back i been to vizag... i must say one of the beautiful city i have been to .. it requires 2 nights and 3 days to cover the vizag and araku valley(usp)...
I booked tickets in Garib Rath, which starts in night so after a comfirtable journey in train , we reached Vizag station... early morning at 7:30 am
here first thing If you are going to stay in Resort in Rishikonda beach(this is what i will recommend as all sight seeing are near by to rishikonda) you have to take a cab .. it cost me 300/- [cry] (sumo ) almost 22 kms from station.Befriend with a cab driver .. otherwise take some contacts number of Travel agents they will definately help you later.
If you are couple better go for yatri nivas at rishikonda beach..(do advance booking)
If you are in a group better stay in sai pria resort at rishikonda beach.. just half KM from Yatri nivas.. good thing about this resort is rates are reasonable approx 1300/-.Very good food and it has swimming pool too..;) and just infront of sea beach..:D
As we were in a group we went for sai pria resort ... after a lovel b'fast went to sea beach , njoyed the splash of waves for almost 3-4 hours ,, came back to resort had a lovely time in swimming pool..
After a heavy lunch we called for a cab.. in Resort's cab are quite costly.. This is where the travels agents will help you..call for local cab for local sight seeing.
After calling cab .. we went to kailash giri.. try to rach this place by 4:00 pm so that pictures will come real beautiful. vizag looks awesome from this hilltop..
after spending 1 hour here..we came down. to beautiful marine drive road.. came all the way to see museaum Pandubi.. must see museum , realy very gud experince..
There are some parks and some local sight seeing , which are O.k but i am not sure i missed out anything important in vizag.. than we came back to resort..had a lovely night in the resort.
Next day early morning we took cab for Araku valley.. and really araku valley in itself is a paradise , the greenary , the coffee garden the hilly view is really gr8 to savour the atmosphere.
Some ppl say witnessing Vally by train is good. if you have hill sickness. better go by train. it goes upto araku. train starts from vizag at 7:00 am everyday and reaches Araku at 11:00 am if iam not wrong. you can take local cab from here.
We went for Burra caves.. [B]Important thing over [/B]here is when you are reaching burra caves. just 1 kms before burra caves there will be lot of road side dhabas.. and cab drivers will stop there .. i did not liked the food over there. go till you reach the destination . just before the entrance of burra caves there is small restaurant of yatri nivas.. this is good restaurant and you will get hygenic food.[happy]
Burra caves are gr8 they are so huge you will be required extra energy to go down.. this was my first time experince of caves.. i have not seen yet Ajanta but no as big as that. but still good to watch out for.
we spent almost 2 hours in the caves and came took the cab and came back to vizag. while going down to vizag it will take 3 hrs we reached vizag station 8:30 pm again took garib rath and reached hyderabad next day morning.
Now some important tip:
Vizag is good in the month of October to January. rest of the month it is too humid to survive.

Bhitarkanika trip in Orissa

Bhitarkanika is famous for crocodile breeding and it has been believed you can witness many crocodiles there. I been to this place in the month of march(bad time to go for wild life tourism) , unfortunately , it was sheer wastage of time. by the time i got to know i was already there.

I started my journey from bhubaneswar in the afternoon took the cab from OTDC. reached chandbali and stayed a night in yatri nivas. Next day early morning took the boat (all boats are private they will charge 1800/- for a boat irrespective of number of people, arrangements will be done by OTDC guys.) it will take 1:45 mins to reach dangamal , place from where you can witness crodolies lyings across the banks of river. (that is wht they say but i did not see single croco).. but crossing mangrove forest in the midst of muddy river was something like watching ANAconda movie. Awesome forest .

Boat wil take you to spt from where you have to walk for 3 kms to check out the place where Usually migratory birds come. I saw many spotted dears. but no birds.

After tiring trekking we went to croc breeding centre. where you can see many crocdiles. fortunately i took hold of baby croco with the assistance of zoo keeper. and this was all i saw in bhitarkanika . some of the lessons learnt for wildlife tourism are :
1) Best time to visist any wildlife tourism is decmber and January.
2) If you want to see croco , try to reach dangamal directly . as reaching chandabali and taking boat will kill your early mroning time.
3) Reach dangamal early in the morning , by 6:00 am . This can be reached by road i think. you can take private cab from bhubananeswar. do not rely on OTDC.
Hope this will help you in some regard.

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