A Quick Escapade to Kerala
What do you do when you get tuesday as an official holiday?
Take leave on monday and head somewhere new! That’s what I usually do.
Being Onam time, I thought of making it to Kerala to lose myself in the beauty of spectacular snake boat race and Onam celebrations.
Tatkal train ticket attempt miserably failed. And I was heartbroken to have home-ridden on a combined holiday. I badly wanted to go somewhere.
Finally I pulled one friend to join me for this trip. Since bus option too failed, we decided to board the train without reservation along with my roommate(Whose ticket is already confirmed) and pay the fine amount. LOL.
We enquired TTR for availability of seats. There were no extra seats available in train. So we three somehow adjusted ourselves in side lower.
These little discomforts, I would bear cheerfully, when it comes to travel.
Cochin – Willingdon Island
We heard that lot of couple photo shoots used to happen in this island. It was indeed a picture perfect island.
Lunch in a real naatu kadai(A local shop). Parotta and Chicken curry was out of the world.After lazing around in the island for sometime, we took a ferryboat to Ernakulam for our lunch and kerala saree shopping.
Munnar
Straggling Tea plantations carpeting the placid hills make it an ideal destination for honeymooners and backpackers.
We checked into Cuckmere resort, Chitrapuram at night.
The resort we stayed was too good having a balcony with superb views overlooking a dam. We could hear hushing of water below.
Blossom Hydel Park
The park was well maintained. A good get-away near Bus stand itself.
Photo point of Mattupetty
The perfectly lined up trees in the tea garden surrounded by bed of tea garden. Isn’t this green soul soothing?
Flower show in Munnar
Having varieties of exotic flowers, it’s absolutely a treat to our eyes.
Kumarakom – Rice bowl of Kerala
Hotel we stayed wasn’t that good except for the balcony facing an emerald green fields.
While ferrying through the Vembanand lake, the lake was so large that it seemed never ending at some point.
Pathiramanal island
We did enquire for a visit to pathiramanal island. But since it seemed costlier, we dropped that plan and headed to Mararikulam beach.
Mararikulam beach
We were totally mesmerized by the white sands, turquoise blue colored sea with the backdrop of blue sky and lush green coconut trees.
Nannari lemon juice is a must try in the beach.
What is Onam celebration without Sadya?(Sadya is a feast consisting of variety of vegetarian dishes usually served on a banana leaf in Kerala)
We had our palatable Sadya in Travancore Palace, Chertala.
Travancore Palace
As we started our trip spontaneous, we didn’t have time to frame our plan. We missed to check the time of Snake boat race before booking our tatkal return ticket. Snake boat race starts around 2:30 pm at Neerettupuram. We had booked our train by 4 pm from Allepey. That implied we had to miss the boat race this time.Did I say how we had to skip the much awaited snake boat race in Neerettupuram?
Nevertheless our impulsive escapade ended with delightful memories.
You can check the official website for date of Snake Boat race. And do check their facebook page for the time.
https://www.keralatourism.org/festivalcalendar.php
Month of Trip : Sep’16
No of days : 3 Days
Overall Cost : INR 6500
