Being the foodies that we are, we had managed to eat at almost every good restaurant in the city- from the basic kerala restaurant ‘Kalpaka’ which served mouth watering Syrian Chilly Beef fry with hot Appams . To the Mediterranean cuisine at upmarket ‘Cedars’, which served excellent fondue.
Sorry sort of diverted from travel! So while we were having a wonderful time in Chennai, we one day decided we need to take a vaccation. And what better place to go than Kerala. Kerala is one of the southernmost states of India and is called ‘Gods own country’. Its famous for its beautiful backwaters, serene hills, spices and vibrant culture. And I originally belong from this state!
Due to lack of time, we could not book our train tickets in advance (we definitely couldn’t afford to fly). Thus, we ended up with a ‘Waitlisted’ ticket. We followed up the status of ticket almost on a daily basis and on the last day we figured out that our status was 'Waitlist 1'. But we were optimistic and assumed from morning to evening atleast one person is definitely going to cancel his/her ticket. So there we were at the right time at the station, working our way through the final reservation chart to see our status. And we realized that we were still waitlisted!!! Now we stood at the platform staring at our train and seeing the sea of people fighting with each other, claiming their seats, filling their luggage in every inch of empty space, hawkers trying to sell their wares and the Ticket Conductor doing last minute ‘adjustments’ for some. I decided to try my luck with the TC too but i guess i am not good at this as he did not feel sympathetic enough to my cause. That’s when we decided that an Indian Railways ticket cannot be allowed to ruin our first proper holiday and with that determination we got into the train.
We covered most of the journey by resting ourselves on newspapers spread out in the corridor (I have never ever done this before but Div was a pro at this). By the middle of the night while I was dozing and falling over Div when a kind gentleman came up to us and told us of an empty berth in the next compartment. So we promptly occupied it and while I slept, Div kept a vigil on our luggage (that’s true love :-). In the morning we got down at the Ernakulam station and Div quickly went and got us a ticket for Alleppey on a passenger train. After a 1.5 hour train ride, we reached our first destination Alleppey.
Alleppey is well known for its beautiful backwaters and mouthwatering sea food. It is also known as the ‘Venice of East’, because of the backwaters being used as roadways. We already had our hotel reservations and we were staying at ‘Tharavad’, which in Malayalam means ancestral house. This was sort of an old traditional house converted into a guest house, the facilities were basic but charming. All the wooden furniture & accessories are of old style and reminded me of my grandparents house. But the high point was the hot breakfast of idli, vadai & dosa made by the cook.
After resting for a while, we ventured out to check out the city. Being a Kerala-ite myself I had seen lot of Kerala cities as thus nothing came as a surprise, the lush greenery everywhere, the curious people who stare at anyone & everyone or even the toddy shops (alcohol) sprinkled all over the place. Looking at the number of toddy shops/ low-end bars, I think Kerala definitely has one of the highest rates of alcohol addiction in India.
We were walking by the backwaters, when we saw the numerous houseboats parked there. We then decided to rent a house boat for a day, which would give us a tour of the backwaters. Now there are several tiers in this- you could go for a simple houseboat, which in off-season costed us Rs. 5000. Or you could go for a more fancy, double deckered one which can cost you upto Rs. 10,000 or more. This is one of the most beautiful experiences I have ever had.
We started our journey in the morning, we were sitting in the porch. The scenery in front of you is just stunning, vast expanses of calm water peppered with coconut trees. On the sides of the water are houses and you can see children playing, women washing utensils, and daily life continuing. We were soon served with chilled beer!!
While we were busy clicking everything passing by us, we came across a fish seller on his boat gliding by. He showed us his fresh catch of the day. We were soon served some fresh fish , which was cooked for us by the cook on the boat and we had an awesome lunch of rice, fish curry in coconut sauce.
We continued enjoying the scenery with a cup of tea in the evening. In the night, the boat was anchored on the side and we slept peacefully with the water lapping by our windows. The only big spoilers were the mosquitoes!!! Even though we had smeared ourselves with mosquito repellent and then covered ourselves with a huge mosquito net, they still managed to sneak in from somewhere.
I cannot even start to explain how beautiful mornings are in such a setting, we continued to relax and take in the scenery with a morning cup of tea.
We were then taught the basics of fishing with a hook & line by our boatman. Div managed to catch a small fish too but we let it go back into the water.
But alas like all good things, our romantic boat ride too came to an end.
We walked around a little in the city for the rest of the day and in late afternoon, continued towards Munnar on a hired SUV.
Now Munnar unlike Alleppey is a beautiful hill station and is essentially a ‘tea’ town. There are beautiful hill slopes covered with tea plantations. Apart from tea, Munnar is also known for a variety of spices it grows like cardomom, cloves, cinnamon etc.
We started the trip by seeing the beautiful Attukkal Waterfalls. Now I would usually have preferred to jump into the fresh water but we had two problems- one it was slightly chilly and two there were a group of college boys staring at us :p So we gave it a pass and proceeded towards Mathupetty Dam.
One our way we passed acres and acres of beautiful tea plantations. The beauty and peace of this scenery can hardly ever be put down into words. Most of the tea plantations here are now owned by the Tata Tea Corporations, infact one of their brands is named after a plantation hills here known as ‘Kannan Devan’.
The Mathupetty Dam in itself is no engineering feat; I mean it is a usual dam. But the scenery around it is just stunning. The water reservoir and the greenery around it makes the place picture perfect (as the pictures will tell you).
From there we went to see Devikulam, where we also saw a herd of elephants !!
We spent the second day in the Ervikulam National Park. This national park is famous for Nilgiri Tahr (a species of wild goat) and is famed to have the largest population of Tahrs anywhere in the world. It also has the usual inhabitants like tigers, leopard, elephants etc. We were dropped at the gate of the national park in our SUV and then we started the trek all the way up through the park. For most part of the trek all we saw were a few langurs but we were not complaining, since the weather was pleasant and the scenery just spectacular. After, almost an hour of trekking, we decided to give up our search for the elusive Nilgiri Tahr and we headed back. But just when we were almost at the bottom of the mountain, there was one of them just standing there, staring at us. It looked quite majestic and you almost forgot for a while that it is just another goat. But in this excitement of finally being face to face with a Tahr, we forgot to take a picture of it!!
Pleased with the happy ending….we headed back to Chennai, dreaming of our next vacation.
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