Mere halaat fir mujhe bazaar me le aayi hai
Baitha hu yaha neelami par palkey jhukaye huye

Jyada kuch nahi hai bechne ke liye mere pass
kuch adhoore sapne hai muthi me bheeche huye

kuch anmool yaadey hai sunahre dino ki
thodi se dhoop hai thodi se chaaw hai

thodi si nadi hai thode parbat hai
thodi hi hawa hai thoda sa aakash hai

chand bunde hai bemausam barsaat ki
meethi se khushboo hai us mast raat ki

thodi sa swaad hai kashmir ki vaadiyon ka
thodi se thandi barf hai nepal ke paharon ki

thode sa sath hai dormitory ke doston ka

kuch unkahi kahaniyaan hai do din ke yaaron ki

ye sab jo mere liye ekdum anmool hai

par is bazaar me in sabka kya mool hai

is bazaar me kuch bik sakta hai to wo hai mere waqt

wo waqt jo hai apnoy ke liye 

wo waqt jo hai jameen aasman ke liye

wo waqt jo hai sapnoy ke liye

umeed hai lautunga is bazaar se 

kuch chandi ke chand sikoon ke sath

mere apnoy ko kuch khusiyan dene

ki taqat hogi mere hath

hoga saude ye ghate ka ya munafe ka 

ye to waqt hi batayega

kya is duniyadaari me beetegi jawani

mera budapa aa jayega

Kerela - Backwater Experience

Day 4 - Sunset at Kumarakom

Our Backwater experience of Kerela began as we drove towards Kumarakom on the 4th day of our Kerela trip. Kumorakom is a small tourist village set in the backdrop of Vembanad lake. Going from Kottayam towards Kumarakom, we could see the narrow water channels sandwiched between the road and row of small picture-perfect Kerelan houses. We could also see small canoe-like boats tied in front of almost every house, evidently the preferred mode of transport.

We reached Tharavadu Heritage home which had near perfect reviews at trip-adviosr. After our day's stay, there we have no reason to refute any of the good things written about the place. From our first impression, as we entered the gates of the 120 year old traditional Kerela home, to the hospitality of the staff and owners, the quality of food, the location, we liked it all. The fact that all this came at a price which was within our budget was an added bonus. 

The main accommodation is within the neat structure of the heritage home. The heritage AC rooms for 2500 Rs looked really spacious and comfortable. But we choose to stay in one of the bamboo cottages (1500 Rs per night.) which are a bit separated from the main building by lots of  trees and bamboo plants. It was a picturesque cottage surrounded by lots of greenery, and a small fish pond (not sure whether to call it pond or puddle) but it looked beautiful anyways. The room was neat and open and very well lit. We settled in quickly and ordered our lunch. I decided to try some fish after the wholly vegetarian diet for 3 days. The fried fish tasted as good as it looked (no offense to the departed soul).

Our plan to explore the surroundings had to wait for an hour because of rains. When we did finally venture out, it was almost sunset time, and we decided to enjoy the sunset near the lake, which was only 5 minutes walk from the hotel. Right across the street is the ferry terminal along the side of the narrow water channel that leads straight to the lake. There were plenty of houseboats parked on the channel, while many other made their way back after the day's excursion.

The first view of the lake was truly breathtaking. I hadn't expected the lake to be so huge. As it turns out Vembanad lake is the largest lake in Kerela, and supposedly the longest lake in India. The lake was made all the more beautiful by the countless lilies and hyacinth floating on the surface of the lake. The yellow, orange and blue shades of the setting sun provided the perfect backdrop. We were left completely mesmerized and I felt like we were finally getting to see the Kerela as advertised in all those travel magazines and websites. There was a small church at the edge of the lake. We sat on its short boundary wall with our legs hanging over the lake, wishing we never had to move from there. Sitting there we had another pleasant surprise. Vasu suddenly noticed a head bobbing out of the lake, then another and then yet another. They turned out to be a family of otters playing in the lake. Too bad, they never popped up long enough to let me take a good photograph. 

As it started to get dark, we noticed many small boats carrying 2 people each heading towards the lake. One of the boat crew told us that they were going to fish. We asked if we can come along and he laughed saying that they would be gone all night. At that moment I thought he was just joking, but later at the houseboat we learnt the same thing, that the fishermen indeed spend the whole night fishing in the lake and return by first light, after which the houseboats and other bigger vessels start plying on the waters. 

On the way back, we tried to rent a houseboat for the next day to take us to Alleppey. All the houseboats, were asking for a steep rate due to Diwali holidays.We also didn't quite like the inside of the few houseboats that we checked. We figured it was best to rent a houseboat at Alleppey. But even that seemed unlikely at the moment given the sudden rush due to Diwali holidays.

Back at the hotel, we asked the hotel staff about the nearby places to see. They advised us to visit Kumarakom bird sanctuary early in the morning. We also got timings of the public ferry that runs between Kottayam and Alleppey. The hotel staff was most helpful in providing any help or information that we needed. For dinner, I ordered Kerelan fish curry with rice. After the delicious fish fry in the afternoon, I couldn't wait to try some more fish, but I had no idea, Kerelan fish curry was going to be too hot to handle. It was tasty but the more I ate the more it burnt the insides of my stomach. In the end I had to drink almost a litre of water, and when that didn't help I ended up eating a full bowl of sugar, before I could go to sleep. So here is a tip straight from my heart - guys unless you have been brought up on tabasco peppers, dont try Kerelan fish curry if you have any love for your stomach and intestines. Go for coconut curry instead.

Day 5 - Diwali on Vembanad Lake



It was the first time in my life, and I don't imagine it happening anywhere else, that I spent almost the entire day and night on the waters of a lake. We got up while it was still dark, hoping to get to Kumarakom bird sanctuary with the first light of the day. We boarded a bus from the front of the hotel that dropped us at the bird sanctuary for 10 Rs. At the sanctuary, we were told that there aren't many birds inside the sanctuary at this time of the year, and we would be better off hiring a boat to take us around the sanctuary. I had my doubts about the sincerity of his advice, but I went with it anyways. We hired a boatman cum guide for the tour for 250 Rs for an hour, may be bit steep price, but I wasn't really in a bargaining mood.



I would easily rate this boat ride as our best experience in Kerela. It was a small boat though bigger than the small canoes a lot of fishermen were using, propelled and steered by a long pole by the boatman standing at the back of the boat. The boatman who was a retired army jawan also doubled up as the local guide, who had more than sufficient knowledge about the birds. Vasu was quite amazed at his ability to identify a bird even at a distance at which we could barely make out any distinctive feature. Initially, we moved along a wide water channel, and then joined the main lake. The guide took keen interest in spotting birds and pointing them to us, explaining their names, distinctive features and habits. I wish I could say I remember any of it, but I do remember seeing two purple heron (which are supposedly rare), and plenty of indian pond heron, cormorants, ducks, egrets, and some others.



Remember or not, I had an absolutely wonderful time, spotting these magnificent birds and trying to capture them with my camera. Even more than that, I loved the way our boat glided between the beautiful lilies, on the absolutely stunning lake on a clear day. And after the Periyar madness, I especially enjoyed the fact that there was absolutely no one else there apart from us. To use the cliche, I felt as if I was in nature's lap, the time holding still while we glided slowly across the lake, listening to bird calls instead of the usual traffic horns, a feeling of peace soaking into our souls, healing the scars left by the craziness of a city life. This is what a vacation is all about, to find a place, where time is no longer a precious commodity, where there is no hurry to get anywhere. To find a place where you can sit all day doing virtually nothing, without experiencing even a hint of boredom. For me, Kumarakom is definitely such a place, one which I would like to visit again and again to spend some quite time.



The boat tour also took us in front of a few resorts that were built right on the shores of the lake. For the first time I was actually tempted to stay in one of these, especially Taj that was right in the nesting area, and Kumarakom lake resort that had beautiful lake view cottages. For all the positive things about Tharavadu, one negative is that it was some distance from the lake. Ofcourse, the biggest negative with these resorts being that they are way out of my pocket, and I quite appreciated the homely feel that Tharavadu had.



As we moved into a very narrow channel right alongside Taj, our guide opened an umbrella for us. He explained that we were entering the nesting area of cormorants, and the umbrella was to protect us from the countless droppings that would be fired upon us. In the end, looking at the state of the umbrella, I was really grateful that he had this foresight. Along this canal, on a number of trees, we could see numerous nests being occupied by cormorant families. Our trip lasted for about two hours, and I was so delighted by the experience, that I offered an extra 100 Rs tip apart from the 500 Rs.



After that we had idlis at a nearby shop, took a bus back to the hotel and checked out. The hotel owner advised us to take a taxi to Kottayam as there was no direct bus to the ferry terminal, but by now we were really in backpacker mode, ready to slog it out. As we moved out of the hotel with our rucksack, a bus was already waiting at the bus stop, and we had to run to catch it. As I was standing in front of the bus with Vasu, she pointed out the strange fact that all the women were seated or standing in the front of the bus, while all the men were on the back side, and perhaps I was supposed to follow the same scheme. It took us 30 mins to reach Kottayam, which seemed like a crowded metropolitan after the quite Kumarakom. At the bus station, a friendly co-passenger lead us to another bus which would take us to the ferry terminal. Overall, I found that buses in Kerela, were quite cheap, well connected, frequent and easy to use.



At the ferry terminal, we were told that the public ferry to Alleppey that we waned to take has been canceled. It was quite a shock to hear that, after all the effort we had spent in getting to Kottayam specially for the ferry, when we could have reached Alleppey by road in the same amount of time. Luckily, a group of locals, who were also waiting for the same ferry, hired a private boat and invited us to share the cost with them. Though, I would have liked to experience the public ferry, the ride turned out pretty well,  both of us choosing to sit on the roof of the boat.



Initially, the boat traveled through narrow water channels, with houses on both side of it. An interesting thing was that there were small draw bridges built over the channel to connect the two sides, and everytime our boat had to pass through, someone would rush to open the bridge by pulling a rope. Later on the channels started to open up in the main lake, presenting spectacular views. It took us nearly couple of hours to get to Alleppey and we reached there around noon.



At Alleppey, we got down near the Nehru Trophy Boat race start point, as I wanted to stay in one of the lake side huts. I called up Malayalam lake resort and few others that were recommended by tripadvisor. But seemed we were running out of luck. All of the resorts were fully booked, due to Diwali holidays. Earlier, I had tried renting a houseboat for the next day through a contact provided by a friend. Even, his response was that it was almost impossible to get a houseboat at this time and if we do get one it wouldn't be for anything less than 10K. So there we were, standing on the road with all our luggage, wondering what to do next, when a person approached us on a motorcycle, and asked if we were looking for a houseboat. I told him we were looking for a hotel, and our plan was to rent a houseboat tomorrow. He said he got a canceled houseboat booking for today and was willing to give it for 4500 Rs. That got me excited but I had half the doubt that at this price he would be renting me a decaying, smelling houseboat, so I asked him to show the houseboat first. What we had was a brand new looking, well furnished single room houseboat, just what we wanted. I could no longer contain my excitement, I wanted this boat, and I managed to further bargain it down to 4200 Rs. See this is what I talked about in the beginning, unexpected surprises when you go unplanned. One day earlier we couldn't get any booking at all, and the next day we got the houseboat cheaper than we ever expected. We wouldn't have received such a lucky break had we done either the houseboat or hotel booking in advance. But then it could have gone the other way too, and we were prepared to leave Alleppey without enjoying the houseboat experience at all.



The houseboat consisted of a living room in the front, a double bedroom in the middle, and a kitchen area towards the end. The houseboat had all required facilities like AC, water heater, shower, TV etc and was almost like a floating hotel. We settled in our room, while the houseboat staff prepared lunch for us. The lunch again was pretty delicious, the scenery adding to the whole experience. After lunch, we lifted anchor and took to the waters. We went around the Punnamada lake where Nehru Trophy Boat race is held. I sat on the front tip of the boat enjoying the views of the backwater life, capturing as much of it as I could with my camera. There was a lot of hustle bustle compared to the serenity of Kumarakom, houseboats moving to and fro, smaller boats carrying fishermen and locals, women washing clothes, kids swimming. We also saw some birds including kingfishers and herons, and the highlight was spotting a water snake.



By now we were quite used to the fact, that no matter what, it would start raining at exactly 4 pm every evening. Today was no exception, and it started really pouring. I have always loved rain, and rain in such green surroundings is most pleasing. Slowly we entered the main Vembanad lake. We could just make out the outlines of Kumarakom at the opposite end.






As the sun started to set, the staff parked the houseboat and started preparing for dinner. I requested them to prepare coconut fish curry as well. Vasu decided to learn  the Kerelan recipes from the cook, while the beautiful sunset put me in the mood for some drinks. By now the lake was almost shining with the last light of the day, and in the distance I could see firecrackers going off in the sky. Fish curry was as good as any I have ever tasted, the Kerelan food continued to treat our taste buds. More often, we expect to compromise on food when away from home, but we will remember Kerela for food as much as for its natural beauty.



I almost passed out after dinner and woke up at around 3am. Immediately I was pissed to see that we were still parked at the same spot at which we had dinner. Somehow I had assumed that we would be moving all night on the lake, while we sit outside enjoying the cool breeze. I suspected that the staff was saving on diesel to make up for the low rate. I peeked outside through the window and the rest of the houseboats seemed to be anchored at one place as well. So this is what all of them do at night, stay at one place. I personally found it quite irritating, to me it would have been great fun to be cruising on the waters all night,.Whats the point of renting a houseboat instead of a hotel if it stays at one place all night. I expressed this point of view to the houseboat driver, who explained that they aren't allowed to move in the lake at night, as there are small fishing boats there.



Finally we started moving, after breakfast. We joined in the traffic of houseboats returning to Alleppey after the night's outing. This is the routine they follow day after day, moving off for the lake at noon and coming back the next morning.The houseboat dropped us at the same place from where we got an auto to Gowri Residence. It was almost in the middle of town not exactly a beautiful setting but I guessed this was the best we could do due to the rush. What also sold me is the fact that they offer free cycles to explore the town. Our backwater experience was over, short but sweet. Now it was time to explore the Kerelan beaches and that too on a cycle.....

Kerela - Planning Tips

This is specially for my friends who are planning a trip to Kerela. Its an effort to put down information that might prove useful in deciding your plan.

Highlights :

1) Early morning boat ride on Vembanad Lake around Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary


2) Experience Goa at Varkala beach and cliff-side


3) Houseboat stay at Alleppey


4) Treat your senses at Abraham Spice Garden, Kumily



Recommended :

1) Bamboo rafting on Periyar Lake ( leeches are a big problem during rains)


2) Ayurvedic massage with special oils

3) Kathakali Dance performance at Kumily


Tourist traps :

1) Over developed Kovalam Beach
2) Early morning boat ride at Periyar specially on weekends and holidays
3) Uninspiring Alleppey Beach

Places I missed out on :

1) Wayanad
2) Poovar

My planned itinerary  (9 days) :

Day 1) early morning flight to Kochi - drive straight to Munnar(127 km) - sight seeing by car
Day2 ) Plan a trek to Atthukad waterfalls, visit Matupetty dam
Day 3) Early morning drive to Thekkady/Kumily (90 km) - bamboo rafting on Periyaar lake
Day 4) Explore kumily - kumily to Kumarakom (120km) - bid farewell to cab
Day 5) Kumarakom, go to Alleppey.
Day 6) Alleppey - overnight at houseboat
Day 7) Alleppey - kollam tourist cruise (8 hours) - to varkala by bus (30 km)
Day 8) bus to kovalam (60 km)
Day 9) trivandarum - evening flight to delhi



My actual trip :

Day 1) Fly to Kochi - to Munnar, enroute waterfall and spice garden visit, massage and dinner at Munnar Town
Day 2) Munnar sightseeing - Athukad Waterfall, speed boat ride on Matupetty dam lake, flower garden. Drive to kumily (Periyar Sanctuary)
Day 3) 11:30 am boat ride on Periyar lake, Abraham Spice Garden, Kathakali Dance at Mudra, Massage at Santhigiri Ayurveda
Day 4) 7 am Periyar boat ride, drive to Kumarokom, experience sunset at Vembanad lake
Day 5) boat ride around Kumarakom bird sanctuary, bus to Kottayam, public ferry to Alleppey, rented a house-boat for the night
Day 6) Alleppey beach, cycle ride to Marari Beach,
Day 7) took train from Alleppey to Varkala, swim at Varkala beach, sunset at Varkala
Day 8) Walk to fishing village at Varkala - train to Trivandarum - taxi to Kovalam - visit beach
Day 9) Kanyakumari, hanuman temple and padmanabhan palace enroute, evening flight to Delhi

Travel tips :

1) Kochi - Trivandarum route is well connected by public buses and trains. We find trains a fast and convenient way to travel on this route.

2) For detour towards Munnar and Kumily buses are available, but renting a cab seemed better option, as it is faster and comes handy for local sight-seeing. We booked a cab for 4 days at 1500 Rs per day from makemytrip. It included Kochi - Munnar - Kumily - Kumarakom with local sightseeing at Munnar and Kumily.

3) kottayam to Alleppey public ferry is a scenic way to reach Alleppey

4) We wanted to try public ferry from Alleppey to Kollam (for reaching Varkala) but 8 hours for  a trip which can be done by 2 hours with a train seemed too long. If you have time at hand you might like to try it.


Munnar



Must do : Take a stroll through lush green tea gardens
Recommended : Flower garden, speed boat ride on Matupettey Dam Lake

Where to Stay : Avoid Munnar Town and try to stay near the plantations. We stayed at Ayur County which was nice but too far from Munnar to be worth it unless you are staying for long.

Where to eat : Sarvana Bhavan in Munnar Town, delicious meals at 60 Rs.

Tips : It can get a bit chilly - take light woollens.


Kumily/Thekkady/Periyar

Must do : Abraham Spice Gardens (try to get Mr Abraham to do the tour personally)

Recommended : bamboo rafting (booking at Ecotourism centre - avoid during rains) , kathakali dance (book early to get front seats, makeup start 30 minutes before show)

Avoid : weekend rush for the morning boat ride

Where to stay : We stayed at Coffee Inn and really liked the front cottage (1000 Rs/night). But there are plenty of equally good staying options in Kumily (both budget and expensive). Get there and take your pick unless its the peak season.


Where to eat : Plenty of places offering south indian meals. Chrissie's cafe  served nice pizzas and pasta (slow service)

Boat ride on the Periyar Lake is the usual way of touring the sanctuary. Arrive atleast one hour early to get tickets. Boat timings : 7 am, 9:30am, 11:30 am, 2 pm and 4 pm. The 7am and 4 pm trips are for two hours. Rest are one hour each. Entry ticket available at park entry. Boat tickets available inside at separate counters for KTDC and forest department boats. Carry pen for filling forms.

Other options are bamboo rafting and trekking trips organized by Ecotourism centre. Interesting but avoid during rains - leeches are a nuisance. Some operators offer 4WD jeep safaris but since jeep safari are not allowed inside the park, we didn't try it.


Kumarakom

Must do : Visit Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary early in the morning. Frequent buses ply on the route. At the sanctuary, hire a 3-4 person boat to take you around the Sanctuary and spot birds on the Vembanad lake.

Recommended : Enjoy sunset at Vembanad lake next to ferry terminal.


Avoid : Booking a house-boat at Kumarakom. The houseboats at Allepey are much more tourist friendly, more abundant and generally cheaper

Where to stay : Heavily recommend Tharavadu Heritage Home (200 m from the lake) for medium budget travelers (1500 - 2500Rs) - we stayed in their bamboo cottage at 1500 Rs. If you want an AC room, then go for their heritage AC rooms at 2500 Rs. Otherwise there are plenty of high-end resorts right along the lake shore. 

Where to eat :  Best bet is at the resort. At tharavadu I tried fired fish which was delicious. Kerelan fish curry was rather too hot, try coconut fish curry instead.

Alleppey

Must do : the house-boat experience. Be prepared to shell out 6k (may be more in peak season) but well worth it. The trip starts at 12:00 pm, includes lunch, dinner and breakfast, and gets you back at 10 am the next day. Tip : look for houseboat with upper deck sitting area.


Recommended : Take a cycle ride around Alleppey town visiting the temples.
Boat ride along the back waters.

Avoid : Alleppey beach. Uninspiring and too rough for a swim

Where to stay : Finding an accommodation along the back waters proved difficult without advance booking. Malyalam Lake Resort is heavily recommended at Trip Advisor. We stayed at Gauri Residence which was in the middle of town, not a great location but the heritage home was decent.

Getting there tip : Although Alleppey is well connected by road and rail, you can try the public ferry from Kottayam to Alleppey (2 hours) through the scenic backwaters. There is also a tourist cruise from Kollam to Alleppey but that takes 8 hours and may get boring after a while.

Varkala

Must do : Take a swim ( but be careful the sea can be a little rough ), enjoy the beach experience


Get up early morning to see villagers haul in the catch of the day ( the fishing village lies ahead of black beach)


Recommended : Enjoy lunch on the sea facing restaurants perched on the cliff

Avoid : Getting too tanned. After cool Munnar and Thekkady, you are suddenly face to face with the sun. Keep your sun screens and hats handy.

Getting there : train takes 2 and a half hour from Alleppey to Varkala. Varkala cliffs are nearly 7 kilometers from the rail station ( 70 Rs by auto)

Where to stay : We stayed in Kerela Bamboo House in huts which we liked but might be too basic for most. There are plenty of other sea facing hotels on the cliff

Where to eat : We got hooked to pizzas and pastas served by Cafe del Mar. Plenty of restaurants display catch of the day, so go for it if you are a sea food lover

Shopping tip : There is plenty of jewelry and clothes for shopping. Dont buy anything above 50% of the quoted price. Even then you might be paying more but if you like it, its worth it.


Kovalam



Supposedly Kerela's most popular beach but I would advise to give it a miss altogether. Too much construction has destroyed the natural beauty of the place and we found the place too crowded. I would rather recommend visiting Poovar which is nearby (we didnt go there). Still if you can't resist it avoid the weekends when local tourists flock the beach.

Where to stay : The sea facing restaurants charge too much premium. Look for cheaper options at the back side. The room we got at Wilson Tourist home at 500 Rs was the most spacious of all the hotels we stayed in Kerela.

If you are willing to shell out some money, it would be worth it to spend on one of the upmarket resorts with a private beach. Uday Samudra and Taj Vivanta are recommended by friends.

To God's Own Country

Prologue

The traveler that I am, somehow God's own country, Kerela had remained elusive for me for quite long. My only visit to Kerela had been a long weekend drive from Bangalore to Kozhikode in Dec, 2006. Even before we entered the Kerelan border marked by swaying coconut trees, I had formed two opinions of the place, its very Green and very Hot even in the month of December. Over the next few days the explorer in me was slowly drowned in the resort's swimming pool, as my friends refused to step out of the resort's oasis into the day's heat. When I did finally manage to convince them to accompany me to Kappad beach (where Vasco-da-gama had first landed), the deserted beach occupied only by local fisherman failed to compete with the beautiful resort, and everyone except me unanimously decided that the swimming pool was a much better bet for a good swim. When we finally left after spending three days in the resort, I felt as cheated as eating paranthewali gali's paranthas in a south delhi mall.

On this short trip, I carried back with me three misconceptions about Kerela :
1) Its too hot to be visited any other time of the year except Dec to Feb.
2) Being a coastal state, its tough to get vegetarian food
3) the place would generally fail to live upto its hype as the top tourist destination in India.

As it turned out, I was pleasantly surprised to be proven wrong on all three accounts :)

Anyways, to cut a long story shot, I decided to take full use of two holidays at Diwali, to plan a full week trip to Kerela (22nd Oct to 30th Oct). After going through my Lonely Planet and couple of other travel books, it seemed it was almost a no-brainer to arrive at the list of places that I wanted to visit. These included Wayanad, Munnar, Thekkady, Kumarakom, Alleppey, Varkala, Kovalam and Thiruvananthapuram (trivandarum). I had to drop Wayanad as it was bit out of way and increased my traveling distance considerably. Second decision was to choose between a self-driven circuit from Kochi to Kochi, rent a cab from kochi to thiruvananthapuram, or to use public transport to get around. As I failed to get a reasonable deal on either a bike or a self-driven car, and I wanted to keep my trip adventurous without going overboard, I opted to rent a car for the first four days, and to do on our own for the remaining five. The tentative itinerary started looking something like this :

Day 1) early morning flight to Kochi - drive straight to Munnar(127 km) - sight seeing by car
Day2 ) Plan a trek to Atthukad waterfalls, visit Matupetty dam
Day 3) Early morning drive to Thekkady/Kumily (90 km) - bamboo rafting on Periyaar lake
Day 4) Explore kumily - kumily to Kumarakom (120km) - bid farewell to cab
Day 5) Kumarakom, hire a houseboat to go to Alleppey.
Day 6) Alleppey
Day 7) Alleppey - kollam tourist cruise (8 hours) - to varkala by bus (30 km)
Day 8) bus to kovalam (60 km)
Day 9) trivandarum - evening flight to delhi

Over the years, both Vasu and I have realized that we like a bit of unpredictability during our trips. To achieve this, we generally stay well clear of any organized package kind of trips and we try to use public transport whenever possible to get around. But planning on your own, takes a fair bit of research to come up with the places you want to visit, tourist-traps you want to avoid, modes of available transport with route-maps and timetables, and a list of hotels you might stay in. I enjoy the planning part almost as much as the actual travel, and it really makes me look forward to being in the places I am reading about. The reward of all this effort is that we can plan an itinerary suited exactly to our taste and in the process save a bit of money as well. Also, public transport may not lead to the most comfortable or fastest way of traveling, but it allows us to explore the places more closely and throws in unexpected surprises, sometimes good and sometimes bad, but unforgettable all the same. To the same end, we also avoid making advance hotel bookings unless we are traveling in peak tourist season (which again we try to avoid) or traveling with parents. This allow us flexibility to stay longer in places we like and leave the places we don't like sooner than we had planned.

So my advance preparation included, booking a flight to Kochi with return flight from Trivandarum (@10K per person), first night hotel booking at Munnar ( Ayur county@1500 Rs recommended by my dear friend Deepak), and a cab to pick me up from Kochi airport and take me to Munnar, Thekkady with a final drop at Kumarakom from makemytrip @5700 Rs. Apart from this I collected information about the places from books & internet, heard first hand accounts of my friends who have been there, and printed maps and information that may come handy.

Day 1 (22nd Oct) - The Journey begins - Destination Munnar

Our journey began with an early morning flight to Kochi. The flight was pretty uneventful except for the fact that it was actually an international flight going on to Dubai, and there was some confusion when we were suddenly pointed to immigration area for departures. As it turned out there was almost a back door entry for such flights and we found ourselves in the duty free zone without going through immigration. As we walked out of Kochi airport, we were expecting someone from Makemytrip to meet us at the arrivals. This was my first experience with any such agency, and immediately I had to regret it, as we spent the next 15 mins trying to find anyone looking for us. Finally, I had to call makemytrip office, who were completely clueless. They gave me the number of the local company, who put the blame on makemytrip saying that they do have a booking but for a week later. Thankfully, they offered to send a car over, and after an hour of waiting or may be more, we were finally on our way to Munnar.The journey had started on a bad note, but that is not always such a bad thing, as I believe that on a long trip something or other is bound to go wrong and sooner the better. Thankfully, that was it, and the next 9 days were going to be the most amazing. Irony being that the problem occurred on the planned section of the trip, and the unplanned ones went smooth as silk.

Enroute to Munnar, a couple of my misconceptions were proven wrong straightaway. The weather was surprisingly nice and we stopped for a delicious vegetarian banana leaf meal, that would leave us literally licking our fingers ( actually they didn’t give any spoon so there was no other way). A vegetarian meal, served on a banana leaf, consisting of rice, sambhar, rasam, papad, pickles, butter milk and two vegetable preparations of the day. This was followed by a dessert called payassam, banana chips and some fresh bananas. A king's meal that costed us 50 Rs per person. As it turned out the vegetarian food was one of the best we had anywhere in India, and when I did try some fish it was equally delicious.

After a most satisfying lunch, we started the beautiful drive to Munnar on curvy roads flanked by impossible greenery on either side that threatened to engulf the road if not kept in check. The generous amount of rainfall and plenty of sunshine ensures that there is plush greenery anywhere you go in Kerela. Our driver for the trip was Verghese, a friendly fellow from Kochi who spoke decent Hindi. Only trouble was that as soon as we landed in his car, he also became our tour operator directing where we go, where we eat and where we stayed. I am sure this would be appreciated by lots of tourists, but being directed is exactly what we hate most. So, our tour started right away. We stopped at couple of waterfalls on the way. Then Verghese took us to a Spice Garden on the way. There were conducted tours for 100 Rs per person, where a guide showed you around and explained the intricacies of spice plantations. It was a nice experience but seemed too touristy and crowded. At the end of the short tour, you could buy locally produced spices, home-made chocolates, beauty products and health related products. I had a strong suspicion that the drivers get a fair amount of commission from the sale, as everyone was strongly motivated to convince their passengers to stop there.  I cant comment about the quality and pricing of the products, but the home-made chocolates were really yummy. After that Verghese had planned an itinerary for us that included Kathakali dance performance, followed by Martial arts performance, followed by full body massage, followed by dinner at Munnar town - all this even before we landed at our booked hotel for the day :) We decided to say no to Kathakali and martial arts show as we felt tired after the long drive, but were tempted by the massage option.

A few kilometers before Munnar town, the haphazard greenery gave way to manicured tea plantations on either side. The tea plantations with uniformly sized plants form a green colored carpet with dark criss crossing walking paths forming delicately beautiful patterns. Most of the tea plantation in Munnar is owned by Tata. The surroundings are beautiful, though Munnar town itself is quite uninspiring. We went straight to Mayura massage center, where both of us settled for a 90 minute massage + steam bath package that costed us 1000 bucks each. Massage was pretty relaxing, though I have nothing to compare it against, this being my first experience. Yes I have been to thailand and No I was not brave enough to go for much more tempting Thai massage. Guess my Indian roots made sure, the first one to roam his hands all over my oily body had to be a guy. Anyways, I was satisfied that I was finally doing something on a trip which was good for my body instead of the usual punishment that it goes through under harsh sun, bitter cold and dusty roads.

We wanted to try Sarvana Bhavan for dinner, but our driver again managed to lead us into a restaurant of his choice. No doubt he got some paybacks from the restaurant (may be a free meal), and I am equally sure he got some commission from the massage place. He was disappointed to know that we already had a room booking. Otherwise, he would have got us a nice, cheap room at a friend's hotel, he said. It was almost 9 and started to rain by the time we reached our hotel at Ayur county which was located at a very pretty location, but too far from the main town to suit the needs of travelers like us who just needed to spend the night. It had been a long day for us and we only had energy for a quick bath before going to bed. Munnar being a hill-station can get quite chilly at night and we had to ask for extra blankets to make sure we slept cozily. Our original plan was to reach the hotel at lunchtime, and we could only manage to get there at bedtime. Already we were not going to plan, and this only meant that it was going to be a fun trip....

Day 2 (23rd Oct) - Exploring Munnar

We woke up early on Sunday to a beautiful morning. There was a slight chill in the air but the sun felt great.We decided to have our breakfast out on the terrace which had a lovely view of the surrounding tea plantations. There was a signboard at the resort which pointed to a short trek to a lake downhill. I would have loved to spend some time exploring the picturesque surroundings on foot but our driver Verghese was still in charge of our tour planning and he was already ready with the car.

The first stop for the day was a waterfall on the way to Munnar town. I felt the one we saw on the Kochi-Munnar route was more beautiful than this one, as the natural look of the waterfall was spoiled by some high fencing. Anyway, Verghese got a nice opportunity to wash his car, while we decided to walk ahead and take a stroll amidst the beautiful tea gardens. 

Enroute, we also stopped at a quite location between the tea gardens. We decided to venture into the plantation using the narrow walkways that workers use to pluck tea leaves by hand. A short walk away there was a big rock that we climbed on. We sat there for some time, enjoying the lovely view and cool breeze coupled with warm sunshine. I felt really peaceful, so different from the maddening Delhi crowd. I could have spent the whole day, just sitting there, doing nothing at all. Meanwhile, Vasu and I started dreaming about owning a small house in that lush greenery.

Next we stopped at the Flower Garden which had an amazing collection of flowers and decorative plants. I would recommend it to all nature lovers. Vasu was completely mesmerized and wanted to bring back all the beautiful plants with her. Although she couldn't carry any plant, she did carry enough motivation to create a nice little collection of her own in our house along with a small kitchen garden in front. Then Varghese took us to an elephant camp, where you can take an elephant ride through tea plantations. Vasu refused to ride any elephant for fun as she believed it was against the dignity of such magnificient creatures. Obviously Verghese failed to see her logic and tried his best to convince us to go for the ride, but its almost impossible to make her give any ground in such matters.

After that we went to the Mattupetty dam. The road goes right over the dam, with the reservoir lake on one side of the road, and the dam gates releasing water on the other. We also took speed boat ride on the lake which lasted around 20 minutes. The driver did his best to make the ride more adventurous than it needed to be by taking frequent sharp turns.

Next Verghese wanted to take us to Echo point and Eravikulam National Park. But by this time we had enough of the touristy circuit. Our original plan was to spend the night at Munnar, and leave early morning for Thekkady. Instead of the normal boat trip on Periyar lake, I wanted to do the full day bamboo rafting + trekking trip organized by Ecotourism Centre. I figured it would be difficult to reach in time for the bamboo rafting if we leave in the morning. So we decided to take lunch in Munnar Town and leave for Kumily after that. We insisted on going to Sarvana Bhavana for lunch and were well rewarded with a delicious south indian thaali for only 50 Rs. By the time we finished, it had started raining.We were told later that there are two monsoon season in Kerela, June and July when it rains non-stop, and October when it rains every evening.

According to Google maps, Munnar to Kumily is around 90km with a traveling time of 2 hours.We learnt that the time suggested by Google needed to be multiplied by a factor of 2 to arrive at the actual time it would take to travel between any two places in Kerela. The road from Munnar to Kumily twists and turns for almost the entire route. The route seemed even more greener in heavy rainfall. It took us almost four hours to get to Kumily and it was already dark by the time we got there.As we entered Kumily, it seemed the only reason the place existed was for tourists. It was a small strip of hotels, spice shops, tour companies and souvenir shops. We decided to stay at Coffee Inn which was recommended by Lonely Planet. I really liked the small bamboo hut which was quite secluded and peaceful. We booked the hut for two nights at Rs 1000 per night.

After that we went to Ecotourism Centre to book our bamboo rafting tour, but were disappointed to learn that there were only 10 seats out of which only one was remaining. We left our numbers with them just in case there was any cancellation, and went to have dinner at Chrissie's Cafe. As we waited for our pizzas, we started talking to a foreigner who had taken the bamboo rafting tour that day. Her experience had not been pleasant though, mainly because of too many leeches in the forest. She said she is generally not too worried about one or two leeches, but this was really nasty. She had bite marks all over her legs and some leeches even managed to crawl up to her back. So many leeches were getting into their shoes, that she and her friends had to walk bare-feet. I could empathize with her, having gone through the same ordeal when I attempted a trek from Chakrata to nearby Tiger Falls during monsoons. The hotel owner had tried to warn us about the leeches but we had acted tough and ignored his advise to go by car instead. We had barely managed to cover 1 km, and already I must have pulled atleast 50 leeches from my legs. We had to beat a quick retreat and when we finally managed to reach back, I had another 6 leeches hiding between my toe fingers which had gone all red. Now listening to her experience, we thanked our stars that we were saved from a similar stunt. I guess bamboo rafting would be the best way to explore the lake, but due to rains, this was not the right time for trekking.We played a game of chess before the pizza arrived. Pizza was quite delicious and we ended up ordering one more. After that we walked back to the hotel and nestled into our hut for a good night's sleep.


Day 3 (24rd Oct) - Periyar Lake Safari


With bamboo rafting out of the way, we slept till quite late in the day. In the night, I was woken up by the sound of what seemed like rats running around the space between the roof tiles and wood ceiling. Except that they seemed much bigger than rats. The guy at the reception told us that a family of civets had taken refuge in that cottage. So we got to share our cottage with wild animals - pretty cool. After getting ready, we felt like having Idli for breakfast but it turned out that Idli was easier to find in Delhi than in Kerela. We ended up having Dosa instead. Till then Verghese had arrived with the car, and we drove to the sanctuary gate. Unlike most other National Parks & Sanctuaries, there is no jeep safari inside Periyar. Rather, the most common way of touring the Sanctuary is through boat trips organize by KTDC or Forest Department on Periyar Lake. Other option is to join treks organized by Ecotourism Centre.

The forest department at Periyar has come up with the most hilarious and frustrating system. First, you are supposed to buy individual and vehicle entry tickets at the sanctuary gate. 3-4 km from there is the ticket office for the boats. Now entry to the park doesn't guarantee that you will get a boat ticket, and when number of tourists is more than the available boat seats, this system creates such a mad rush for the boat tickets, that you don't know whether to laugh or tear your hair off. To top it off, there is no advance booking, even for the same day. The tickets are given only for the next available trip. This chaos is at its worst for the 7am boat because it has the reputation of offering best sighting opportunities. Also, there are KTDC boats, which cost 45Rs and Forest department boats which cost 15Rs per person. The boat timings are 7am, 9:30 am, 11:30am, 2pm and 4pm. Out of these, 7am and 4pm trips are for two hours and rest are for an hour.

We were spared the worst of this chaos today, as we had arrived at the gates around 9am hoping to catch the 9:30am boat. After buying the entry tickets, we drove till the car parking. The boat ticket office was around 500m from there.Since the forest department boats were closed for maintenance, the only option was to go for KTDC trips.There was a decent size queue for the ticket and before our turn came the 9:30am tickets were already gone. Since 4pm trip was for 2 hours, we tried to get those instead of 11:30,am but no advance booking was allowed. You are required to fill in the names, age, address and other details of all the passengers in a form. The operator at the ticket counter then takes ages to get all this information into a computer, before you are finally issued the ticket. I am not quite sure, what the department does with all this information. It was disheartening to know that even in the most literate state of India, the Government departments continue to work in the most inefficient way possible, with no regard to the convenience of the people.

After getting the tickets, we went near the lake to wait for our boat ride, which was still 90 minutes away. We saw couple of bamboo rafts being pushed into the water, each carrying 5 people. The rafts were just few pieces of bamboos tied together that  looked too small and delicate to be floating with 5 persons on aboard. It sure looked fun but I was sure they would have a hellish time trekking back with all those leeches waiting to suck their blood. All of the people abroad the rafts were foreign tourists and I wondered if all those Indian tourists waiting for the boat were too scared or too smart to be traveling by rafts instead.


With so much time to pass, we were thoroughly entertained by a group of monkeys who just wouldn't stop monkeying around. They had so much energy and they kept screaming and running around and chasing each other, it looked like they had a bottle of whiskey each. They kept everyone occupied with their antics till it was time to board the boats.




There were two types of KTDC boats, double decker ones, and smaller ones. We were glad to find ourselves in the smaller ones which got us nearer to the action. Finally started our safari, which was a pleasant experience, with lovely views of the lake (which was much bigger than it appeared initially). The animal sightings were limited to a couple of wild elephants, a herd of sambar deer and a group of wild boars, all of them seen from pretty far off. Besides that there were numerous varieties of birds in the the lake. Highlight of the trip came when a small tortoise popped up on top of a submerged tree trunk to give us a pose before jumping back into the lake.


When we got back to the parking, Verghese was now where to be found, so we decided to walk to the gate through the forest. We had gone only a kilometer when we spotted our green Indica coming towards us. Verghese clarified that he thought the ride was for two hours. We told him we didn't mind the walk at all. We had another satisfying banana leaf meal, which was by now our staple diet.

After that we decided to pay a visit to Abraham's Spice Garden which was heavily recommended by Lonely Planet. Verghese tried to persuade us to go to a nearby Spice garden instead, but by now we had enough of his ideas, and stuck to our original plan. But on the way, he did manage to convince us to buy a couple of tickets for the Kathakali Dance performance in the evening. Abraham's Spice Garden was around 5 km from Kumily and from outside looked similar to the one we had been to in Munnar. But am I glad that we went there because it turned up to be one of our most memorable experience in Kerela, highlighting the fact that a little bit of personal touch can go such a long way in making a routine experience so special. We were also lucky to have Mr Abraham guide us personally around his 54 year old, 1-hectare garden. For the next one hour, our senses were on over drive, as Mr Abraham made us smell, taste and touch a variety of herbs and spices, starting from cardamom, cinnamon, cocoa, clove, ginger, vanilla, curry leaves, and a lot of aromatic flowers and leaves. I was also brave enough to try a small green pepper which was pretty hot. I really enjoyed putting fresh cardamom seeds into my mouth. Mr Abraham also seemed pretty pleased in finding a knowledgeable audience in Vasu, and shared his years of experience openly. Though Vasu was more interesting in finding out names of every other plant, and how fast they grow, and how they are used, I was content with smelling and tasting everything that Mr Abraham declared safe enough. 


Later, Mr Abraham was kind enough to invite us to his home, and shared stories about his garden, about how Abraham's Spice Garden was voted in the top 8 most interesting plantations in Asia by some book. He also mentioned that though he gets plenty of foreign tourists, most of the Indian tourists are actually redirected to other plantations that sell products and give commissions to drivers. He also showed us a lot of wood carvings that he carves out of some red wood as a hobby. Some of them were pretty good including Gandhiji and a swan. We also talked about relevance of traditional medicine system in modern times. He said that Ayurveda is more a way of living than a medicinal system, that needs to be followed everyday, rather than only when you get sick. Most people of our age don't have that much patience and hence go for allopathic medicines which give fast result. A lot of medicinal herbs were part of their daily cooking which combined with pure surroundings enable him to live healthy.We had spent quite a lot of time but hadn't had enough, so we went back to the garden with Mr Abraham's permission, to get a final taste of cardamom and a whiff of all the lovely smells.

Since, we had some time before the evening dance performance, we went to Shanthigiri Ayurveda. The place is recommended by Lonely Planet and was also recommended by Mr Abraham as a nice place for Ayurvedic treatments and massages. Since Vasu has a back problem, we consulted a doctor who prescribed a whole bunch of medicines and a back massage for her. We ended up booking massages for both of us after the dance performance. From there we walked to the Mudra Centre where dance and martial art shows are held. We reached the show 30 minutes earlier to see the make-up. We were the first ones to get there, and for a while were worried that we might end up being the only ones present. The performance was in a small hall and we were seated on the first row which was touching distance from the stage. A male performer was applying green paint and other make-up to his face. After that he was helped by a couple of guys to arrange folded plastic sacks around his waist which acted like a frame for his costume. It was an intricate and time consuming process to get ready for the performance. To be honest, I didn't have high expectations from the performance. I felt I would not be able to understand or appreciate the classical dance, but I actually ended up enjoying the show. 



The fact that they spent fair amount of time explaining the dance form proved pretty useful. Kathakali is  the classical dance form of Kerela in which the actors narrate a story usually from epics like Ramayana in a dance form. All the actors remain mute, and the narration is accomplished by facial expressions, and hand and body movements. The green face represents a positive character and red face represents an evil character. One performer first demonstrated a series of facial expressions conveying different emotions like love, hatred, lust, anger and so on. Then he demonstrated various hand movements. We were told that performers undergo special facial muscle strengthening exercises since childhood, and we could see that they really needed that. After the demonstration, the actual performance started. Leaflets explaining the story were distributed before-hand which enabled us to follow the narration pretty much. Overall, it was a nice learning experience and I would recommend tourists to experience it atleast once.





After the dance, we walked to Shanthigiri for our massages. I really couldn't tell any difference from my earlier experience in Munnar. They pretty much seem to follow the same technique everywhere. After the massage, we picked up the medicines for Vasu and also a bottle of massage oil. The whole package amounted to 6-7 half litre bottles of dark colored liquids.I was not too amused by all that weight we had added to our luggage so early in our trip.  It was beginning to rain lightly as we walked back towards our hotel. On the way, we purchased some more home-made chocolates and some masala tea oil, from the spice shops which dominated the whole market. We also had a light dinner, after which we retired to bed early, as we had planned a very early start for the next day.....


Day 3 (24rd Oct) - Periyar Madness




I am trying hard to control my emotions as I think back about the madness of the events that took place on that Monday morning. I had an idea of what to expect from my friend Kshitz,'s experiences, who had visited the place a week ahead of me. I tried to save myself by first trying to book a bamboo-rafting trip and then by exploring the option of 4WD jeep tour around the park. But since no vehicles are allowed inside the park,  I failed to see any point in traveling around it. Even then my sixth sense told me to skip it, to lie comfortably in my bed instead. But having gotten there, I had to experience the 7am boat ride on Periyar Lake. I took comfort in the fact that it was a Monday morning and not exactly weekend.


Anyways, we got up at 5am and were at the gate entry at 5:20. Already, there was a queue of about 15 cars ahead of us but that didn't seem too daunting. I left Vasu in the car, and went to the ticket counter braving the early morning chill. I stood in the queue which had around 10-12 people ahead of me. Things were looking ok so far and I afforded myself a sigh of relief. I had expected the ticket counter to open at 5:30am but at 5:45am I realized that the actual time is 6am. Till then, the queue behind me, as well as the number of cars, had started to look alarming.  I noted down our car number which was required to get the entry pass. At sharp 6am, the counter opened and immediately resulted in the chaos that happens in any queue in India. Soon, there were scores of drivers, handing over money and their car numbers to their friends who were ahead in the queue. I couldn't believe that the forest official didn't stick to the most basic protocol of giving only a single vehicle entry ticket to each person. The guy immediately in front of me ended up getting tickets for 6 cars and by the end of it he was confused which ticket belonged to whom, and how much money is to be returned to whom. Still, by the time I got the ticket, I knew that if we leave now we would easily get the boat ticket inside. But what would be the fun if the department made it so easy. 


I learnt that the gates to the park would only be opened at 6:30am. That means first  everyone present there would  get the gate ticket, and then the gates would open and there would be a mad race to the boat ticket counter. Till then, a lot of drivers had already started breaking the queue for cars, and started parking their cars in front of the gate in a haphazard fashion. A lot of people actually left their cars and hired autos, which could sneak more easily to the front of the queue. When the gate opened at 6:30am, my worst nightmare got true. There was a mad panic as everyone tried to get ahead of one another. On the narrow stretch of 4 km, cars were literally racing each other inside the forest. I could imagine that when these cars stop at the parking, people would be literally  running to the ticket counter. I was feeling so pissed at this sorry state of affairs that I kept cursing myself for letting us into this madness. But having gone so far, I was determined to see it to the end.


As the cars stopped at the parking, people rushed out and started running, literally like mad dogs. The aunties who couldn't run themselves were urging their husbands and even kids to run. Even foreigners, saw no alternative but to run. I was determined not to participate in this madness, and started walking briskly. But then I saw myself overtaken by people running from behind. And that did it for me, I said run, run as fast as you can. Now 600 m can be quite long, specially if you have never run in your life. With half-marathon training behind me, it was no big deal for me. But mid way, I could see almost everyone stop, panting for breath. It was pathetic to see even 20 year olds, struggling to run. Again and again, I felt that all these people have been reduced to the level of racing dogs, because of the mis-management of the forest officials. All they had to do was to sell both the tickets at the gate, and then whoever comes first gets the ticket. Why this stupid chaos ?? With these thoughts, I kept running, and kept overtaking one person after another. When I reached the counter I could see only a handful of people ahead of me. I collected the form and filled in our details.


As the people caught up, there was a competition for forms which were in limited supply. People were literally snatching the forms from the hands of forest guard. Someone told me that there are only as much forms as the number of seats in the boats. Those arriving late started fighting with the authorities. Some parents even pushed their young kids to go to office and request for forms. It was amusing and disturbing at the same time. I wonder if we can see such mismanagement and total lack of civic sense anywhere else. Now those who had got the forms, started complaining about the mis-management, and those without it started complaining and fighting. A guy even threatened to go to court, if he is not given the form immediately.  But ultimately they were left with no other option but to wait for the 9:30 am boat.


Though I got the tickets, I found myself really irritated after all this. It hurts me to see people being treated with such disregard by the authorities. On the boat we were asked to wear life jackets, that were the most uncomfortable life jackets I have ever used in my life. It was almost like someone has wrapped a 6inch thick thermocol around your body. On the bright side, our seats turned out to be the best possible seats on the boat, the front ones on the upper deck. After all this effort, we really didn't have any better sighting than the previous day for the first hour of the ride. I was beginning to think, it would have been so much better to be sleeping in the hotel instead.






That's when our luck started to change. We spotted a couple of wild elephants quite close to the bank. They were spraying red dust over their bodies with their trunks. As the boat turned towards them, we saw 4 adult and 2 baby elephants join them. It formed a good group and we had plenty of time to shoot as many photographs we wanted.






Then on return we spotted a pack of 3 wild dogs guarding a kill. It was the first time we were seeing wild dogs in their natural environment. All of us were in a much better mood now. It also started raining which made the scene even more beautiful. In the end, I would have to say that even though the initial experience was a nightmare, it was almost worth it in the end. But I do sincerely hope that they do something to get rid of the madness.

After the safari, we left for Kumarakom which is 120km away, and took us nearly 3 and a half hours to get there. Verghese dropped us at Tharavadu Heritage Resort which had pretty good reviews on trip advisor. It was time to say good-bye to Verghese and the first section of our Kerela trip. Although, the first 4 days had been pretty good, I had the feeling that something better is awaiting us. After all Kerela is better known for its backwater experience. Also we were without a car now, and without a concrete plan, in a small backwater village. Things were beginning to get more exciting....