Kerela

We flew into Cochin International airport and as arranged we phoned our car rental company to arrange for our car to be dropped off to us and within 30 minutes our car turned up (yes I know, driving in India! What were we thinking?) We completed the formalities and headed off to Kochi to find somewhere to stay. We settled on the Roses Inn on Rose Street, just a stones throw away from the Nehru park and Kochi Fort, A lovely but affordable hotel with a great rooftop restaurant and bar. When we had unpacked we went to explore the area and try to find the famous Kochi fishing nets.

Kochin, by Indian standards is a beautiful city, its very green and open and surrounded by a network of waterways. We spent the rest of our first day wandering the Kochi Fort area, having a meal in the restaurant opposite our hotel and then walking along the waterfront in the evening, joining locals who also come out to enjoy the sweet treat stalls that line the footpaths. We also booked a day out on the water for the following day.

We drove over to our arranged meeting point that appeared to be in the middle of nowhere, however in true Indian style, down a short slip road there was our boat and guide and another couple of people coming on the tour. The boat was quite small, but had a wicker sun cover and was propelled along silently by a man with with a long pole whilst our guide let us know about the area. Our first stop was to see a Lime shell production factory to see how lime to balance PH levels in soil is produced from shells. We got out of the boat and had a short tour of the factory before returning tot he boat and continuing to explore the waterways.

We continued along the Muvattupuzha River and stopped again a short while later where again we disembarked to visit a local house and family. We also got to see some traditional skills including rope making. The boat then took us over the river a short way to another building where a traditional Keralan lunch was provided, served on banana plant leaves. The food was delicious.

After our dinner the boat tour continued at a leisurely pace back to our pick up point where we returned in our car back to the Roses Inn in Kochi spending another night wandering along the stalls by the river front and Nehru Park with a lovely meal in a local restaurant.

The following morning we checked out of our hotel and drove south to Mararikulam and the Maria Hopes Homestay, I homestay that has since closed down, and we were not surprised really as it wasn't the greatest of places that we have ever stayed, is was cheap however and close to the beach and that`s exactly where we spent the next two days, chilling on the beach with the exception of a couple of short trips, one to see the congregation gathering at the St. Andrew's Basilica at Arthunkal, which is one of the famous pilgrim centres in South India. St Andrews draws in large crowds which seep out into the paved areas around the church.  The other an evening trip to St Augustine's Church just up the road from our accommodation which again drew a huge crowd as it was Easter in the evening ceremonies, almost forming a party atmosphere with the crowd spilling out onto the road.

leaving the beach behind we drove up into the mountains through Peerumade and a couple of fantastic viewpoints and then on to Kumily where we booked into the Periyar Inn, Thekkady. This small homestay was perfect, a lovely family run place with clean spacious rooms for a mere £9 per room each night!  

We spent the rest of the day exploring the town of Kumily before an early start the next morning where we went over to the Periyar Tiger Reserve, which is part of the Western Ghats world heritage site in the hope we would see a wild tiger. The reserve is is one of the most visited protected areas in India, and in 2022 bagged the title of the Best managed Tiger Reserve out of all the 54 tiger reserves in India. When we got there we booked a short day trek nature walk which took us on a 5km trek with a small group and guide into the wilderness area around the lake. There were lots of animal sightings but sadly no tigers, we did however come across the carcass of a recent tiger kill. After the trek we took the boat tour which takes an hour and a half and takes you to the bottom end of the lake and back, giving you some great bird sightings and also otters in the lake. Our highlight had to be when we were returning to the jetty back from the boat tour and we witnessed a deer being cornered by a pack of wild dogs against the lake. We spent the next half hour watching the game played out between the deer and the dogs until sadly the deer was overrun and killed by the dogs.

The next morning was Easter Sunday and the owners of the Periyar Inn insisted that they provided us with breakfast free of charge, this is a small act that they do for their guests to celebrate Easter but was greatly appreciated by us. Following breakfast we checked out and and drove over the mountains the 100km to Munnar where we checked into the Treebo Trip Swiss Garden hotel.

That evening we explored Munnar, which is a slightly larger town. There seemed to be some sort of protest going on ate the time as there was a precession going on and police were controlling the onlookers, We never got to the bottom of what is was all about.

The next morning we drove the short way over to Eravikulam National Park where we were expecting to see Nilgiri tahr, a rare goat that is found only in this area. The goats have clearly become used to people as there were plenty about. Their numbers in the wild were thought to have dropped to as low as only 100 by the end of the 20th century, but thankfully they are now increasing. The park itself has limited access to visitors, only being allowed a short walk along a tarmac path and back again. This does give you enough to see the mountains and the goats but plenty of national park for the goats to disappear in if the want to.

After leaving Eravikulam we drove on 15km or so to the iravikulam river and the Lakkam waterfalls. This was a great place to enjoy the water and there were plenty of local families that had thought to do the same. One quite alarming moment was when we saw a snake swimming through the pool at the bottom of the falls, but it was also quite funny watching the people jump pit of the way, a reminder of why there are up to 5 million snake bites in India each year!

After leaving Munnar the following morning we headed back down towards the coast and the beach at Alappuzha. We decided to treat ourselves so booked 4 nights in the Alleppey Holiday Beach Resort, a hotel with a room and balcony right on the beach. After unpacking we hit the beach to relax and later that evening had a walk up the beach to the Amaze World Park (Vijay Park), but dot get excited it was a pretty run down small kids theme park where they sold food and had a few rides, so here we stopped for our evening meal then back to the hotel. 

In the morning we were determined to chill on the beach for the day, but sadly the beach outside our hotel was covered in plastic and rubbish, so we set about spending the whole morning clearing it up. Considering it was 30c plus it was hard work and all the locals thought at first that we were mad, but after an hour or so you could see they changed and a couple even came to help. One chap from the hotel dug a hole in the sand so that we could burn it all safely. The manager of the hotel came out and thanked us for our efforts. After the clean up we eventually managed an afternoon chill on the beach.

That evening we enjoyed one of the stunning sunsets of the west coast and went to a couple of the local beach bars food at the beachfront restaurant that was next to our hotel. We were quite surprised as each place we went into thanked us for our efforts on the beach that morning.

As we had enjoyed the river cruise before so we decided to spend another day on the water, but this time we decided to go in a canoe. We met our guide and canoes at another seemingly random place along the waterways and with a brief instruction off we went. It was another great experience added to by the fact that you could explore some of the smaller waterways and see peoples homes and them going about their day. We also got to see some of the bigger houseboats on the larger areas of water. We also got to see and hold an eagle one of the locals had along the paphto where the canoes were.

On our last full day by the beach we decided to explore Alappuzha on foot, we walked the length of the beach in the morning and had a great time chatting to the locals as there were lots of families enjoying the main beach and then we cut into town where we went to see Alappuzha lighthouse where you were allowed to climb up the steps inside to see the lamp and take in the view. We also stopped to watch the local motorcycle learner school going through their paces.

when we came to check out on our last morning the manager of the hotel said we were welcome to check out as late as we liked if we wanted a few extra hours on the beach and that we were always welcome back, we were the first people that had ever bothered to try to clean up the beach and he was really happy we had. We took him up on his offer before and had a few extra hours there before we finally had to head off to our last nights accommodation, the DRO homes homestay near the airport. Here we spent our last night in India, the car hire company picked up the car from here and the following morning we returned back to the uk.