Kanyakumari Sightseeing

Kanya- Kumari Sightseeing

This tip of India is worth visiting for its own historical reasons. After visiting this place, you can proudly say, ‘I visited tip of the country. ’ We checked in Hotel Sparsa, a hotel which has beautiful landscaping.

1. Swami Vivekanda Rock Memorial

This is must visit place if you are the tip of the country. A boat ride worth Rs 30 per person takes you to this rock memorial in the midst of the ocean. A place where Swami Vivekanda did his meditation is now an attractive tourist spot. Sri Lanka is just 2 hours away from this place via water ways. If you have good eyesight, you can surely see three oceans joining (Indian ocean, Bay of Bengal and Arabian sea)- Triveni Sangam. Look at the color difference.

2. Temple

Also, there is a temple to visit near the beach. A simple religious temple built centuries ago depicts the art and sculpture of the country.

3. Beach

Last but not the least, the beach is one of the tourist spot where you can see amazing sunrise. Do not miss the sunrise here. Otherwise, the beach is not that clean that you would like to sit and enjoy the nature. But yes, if you are a fan of first copy sunglasses, this is the place you will get one. Do bargain a lot. Also, a female shopper needs to be aware because at times plastic ball necklaces are sold by saying they are real pearls.

Hotel Sparsa - Kanyakumari

Hotel Sparsa - Kanyakumari

As we entered this hotel they welcomed us in a traditional way. The staff made us wore a beautiful neckpiece made of sea shells. She also did a traditional Tilak to us. It was a royal treatment. Featuring the marvellous landscape this hotel stands out as one of the best hotels in Kanyakumari at a reasonable rate. The service was good. The rooms were well decorated with the modern furniture. The restaurant had a limited choice of vegetarian food, but the food served was nice. We had breakfast included in our package; however, as our schedule was changed at the last moment and we had to leave the hotel at around 4:00 AM, they arranged for breakfast for us. It was appreciable.

Kovalam Sight Seeing

Kovalam Sightseeing

This is a city where you can relax yourselves at the beach in the evenings and also enjoy the culture of Kerala during the day time. Also do note the climate here in the afternoon is not very pleasant. It is hot during the day time.

1. Padmanaswami Temple

Our first tourist spot was Padmanaswami Temple. Recently, this temple was in news as tons of Gold was found here, so we were excited to visit this temple.

In this temple, the men are not allowed to wear pants and their shirts, they have to wear Lungi’s and remove their shirts. Even females need to cover themselves in a sari like cloth. Temple trust provides such things at minimal rent. Please do not take your mobile phones, glares, cameras etc while visiting this temple. You can drop such things with your driver. Temple trust people charge you separately depositing such things for example: camera Rs25, sunglasses Rs 10 etc so finally your bill will be too high.

Once you enter this temple, you will get the feeling as if you are at the set of some historic Hindi Movies. Soon you will recollect movies like Jodha Akbar. I must admit here that temples in South India are made in an amazing way. They are so big that you cannot see the person standing at the other end. I have noticed that South Indian temples always have four doors according to the direction and they also name them in the same manner. We did offer some Pooja at the temple and enjoyed the sculptures there. The temple is worth visiting.

2. Science Centre

After the temple we visited a Science Centre. Here we saw few basics of Physics, Biology. It was a very big centre and we did not have time to visit that completely. However, it was something similar to Nehru Planetarium in Mumbai. Here we also saw a 15 min movie in a 4D theater. It was fun. In 4D your seats start moving; you feel the water splash and also the bubbles. People going with kids to Kovalam must visit here. It is not very expensive also.

3. Poovar Island

To visit this beautiful island one needs to go via boat. The charges are approximately Rs 700- 800 per couple. There are various places from where one can start this boat ride; however, they offer similar rates. They will try their best to convince you to take a 2 hour boat ride, but one hour ride is enough. We took a one hour ride and it took us from the midst of the mangroves to an island. Here you can see the famous Poovar Island Resort and take some snaps in the soft sands of the island. Also do not forget to enjoy the scenic and most important thing out here; the meeting of ocean and lake. Yes there is a visible color difference and you can actually see the waters merging. 

4. Fishermen’s Routine  

Now this is no special tourist spot but we did see this activity right from our hotel. So if your hotel is at the beach side or you visit the beach early in the morning you might get a chance to check out the routine of fishermen. One gets to see how the fishes and other aquatic animals are auctioned.

Hotel Uday Samudra

Hotel Uday Samudra - Kumarkom

This hotel has more than 200 rooms. It has three swimming pools and a private beach. The unique thing in this hotel was that it is constructed in a way that all the rooms have a sea-facing balcony. We enjoyed a beautiful Sunset from our room. Here we had ordered a cake, it was in Orange color but it was just melting in the mouth. The huge restaurant served us delicious hot breakfast.

Allepeey - Sightseeing

Alleppy Sightseeing

This water city is just two hours away from Kumarkom. This city gives you a chance to stay on waters for one night. It also gives you an option of selecting a houseboat having 1 room to 5 rooms (deluxe to super deluxe rooms).

1. Houseboat Stay

Once you check in your houseboat the journey to this beautiful city begins. In the beginning of the journey we will meet many other tourists who have also just begun the journey. Along with them you will encounter various types of houseboats, ranging from houseboats with balcony, decorated and many more. You will have around 100 houseboats sailing near you. And just like a traffic jam on road, you might experience a traffic jam of houseboats on certain routes.

As the houseboat moves, you reach the interiors of these amazing backwaters and you are away from the busy city LAND life. Here you will see a small village which lives on waters. No land and land vehicles exists for them. They just had their huts or houses on the banks of the backwaters. Their entire transportation is waterways.

En-route this ride, along with the beautiful view, one will also see the routine life of the villagers whose life is hooked to these waters. At one side you will find housewives getting their daily groceries on a small canoe, one side you will find students waiting at the bank to catch their School Ships to reach home from school. You will also see Public Ship stops and Public ships carrying local people from one part to another. You will surely encounter different types of canoe used by the locals. They do not believe in any Merc, Honda, their status is defined by the type and size of the canoe used.

If you are in a houseboat, it will stop at one of the corners for Lunch. You will get dal, chappati and an authentic South Indian Vegetable. The motorman and his helper prepares the food for you. The ride again starts after the lunch and now to the other side of the village. Along with the local life of the people, you will also encounter various types of birds. You can also get a chance to see birds picking up their prey (fish) from water. Also, a view of Sunset will be worth remembering. For all of this you need to sit in the main room and strain your eyes to locate something new every moment.

I would say that if given an option kindly do not stay in the houseboat. Though it has an amazing experience, the rooms of the houseboats are generally small and in the night it halts at one place. When the houseboat halts, it gets occupied with all mosquitoes and insects. I suggest you can stay in a hotel in Alleppy and take a full day ride of the boat available there. These boats are comfortable. They have proper chairs on them to sit. Again there are few varieties here.  

I must say this place is really the,'Venice of India'

Kumarkom Sightseeing

Kumarkom Sightseeing

This is place surrounded by Palm trees and has amazing backwaters. We checked in at Lakesong Resort in Kumarkom. We were welcomed by chilled Coconut Water, one of the famous drinks of South India.

1. Sunset Cruise Ride

Now this was a complimentary to us by the hotel, but I am sure you can book it from somewhere else too. This one hour cruise ride takes you through the backwaters where you can enjoy a beautiful stretch of palm trees. If you are lucky enough, one can also spot few species of the water birds and their routine activities which included hunting for prey, a rare sight. One of the memorable sights for us was a Kingfisher picking up fish from water. Do not forget to take your cameras here; you surely don’t want to miss capturing the beauty here.

2. Kumarkom Bird Sanctuary

We did not visit this place, as we did not want to get up early in the morning. However, this is a place where nature lovers will enjoy the most. If you are lucky, you will get to see various kinds of bird species here. Do capture these species in your cameras; you might not see them again. Also, remember to be careful while you are in this sanctuary. No litter, no noise as there are lots of birds here. Also, for the best view of this place try to reach as early as 5:00 AM.

Tusker Trail Resort Club Mahindra, Thekkady

Tusker Trail Resort - Thekkady

When we reached this resort, there was a record breaking rainfall which lasted for more than 24 hours. As we entered the resort, we were welcomed with a cool refreshing welcome drink. The staff was co-operative. Mr John the head manager gave us the choice of rooms. He showed us two different types of rooms and asked us to select one of them.  We liked it. The rooms were like Machaan. The roads towards the rooms were too confusing, one actually feels that one is in a Jungle and hence the name was Tusker Trail. Even the room number plates were made of animal´s face. There were big rooms with a nice sit out place to sip a cup of coffee. It is a recommended resort.

Thekkady Sightseeing

Thekkeday sightseeing

This is a hill station which is about 4 hours drive from Munnar. It is known for its spices and some famous arts.

1. Spice Plantation Tour

This is the place you do not want to miss as you are in the land of spices. There are many places where such tours are conducted; however, the price ranges from Rs 100 per person to Rs 300 per person, so be careful in selecting. All of them have the same tour. We obviously went for Rs 100 p.p tour. They showed and explained us all different kinds of spices, their advantages etc. In the end, they will take you to their shop who sells these spices, DO NOT BUY FROM HERE. They charge you double the price in the market.

2. Spices Shopping

You might already have some pre orders from your friends and relatives for spices, as they are aware that you will visit the land of spices. However, there are many wholesale shops in the market of Thekkady. These shops are reasonable in rate and will surely not be heavy on your pockets. Do buy as many spices as possible as you will not good quality spices at such reasonable rates in metro cities. And yes, spices have a long life. Also do not forget to buy cashewnuts. Gift packs are also available at wholesale price.

3. Kalari Martial Art

If you are in Thekkady, you must see the famous ‘Kalari Martial Art’ show. It is an hour show where the artists display their skills. You can also click some snaps with them. This is a show which is worth watching. Let me not describe everything about this art here. Watch it to know it.

4. Kathakali Show

After Martial art show, we went for ‘Kathakali show’. This show was again for one hour. Here the performers are dressed in their typical kathakali dress and depict one of the episodes from their culture. The costumes and expressions of the performer are worth watching. We paid Rs 650 for two people for two shows.

5. Periyar Tiger Reserve

This is a place not be missed at all. This reserve does have tigers and if you are lucky you will surely spot one. The view of this reserve is enjoyed from a boat which takes you nearest to the jungle. It is a 45 minutes boat ride amidst the jungle. Caution- There are two type of boating services, one- by KTDC and another by Kerala government. Take the boat service provided by the government as it is cheaper. KTDC boats are little better in looks but government boats are not bad at all. They are equally safe and both travel to same destinations. We were lucky enough to see bison, a huge lizard which was like a crocodile, Sambhar dear, water snake and few birds. The water is around 135ft deep at the corners. It is a huge stretch of jungle and this river is one of the biggest in Kerala. Try to catch the first boat which is at 7:00 AM

Munnar Sightseeing

Munnar Sightseeing

A city discovered by British and developed by them has an amazing landscape of tea plantations. It is one of the hill stations in India where the temperature never goes above 18degrees. Sometimes, it might fall below 10 degrees as well.

1. Ernakulam National Park

This is the only place in India, where we can Nilgiri Thars (Mountain Goats). This park is awarded as one of the cleanest park in India. The park is situated on the hill. You will have to travel in a government bus to this hill; the ticket for the same was Rs 45 per person.

After about 10 minutes of uphill journey, you will reach a dense forest. From here you have to walk uphill to enjoy the beauty of the hill. Enroute you will see Nilgiri Thars walking along with you or having their afternoon nap or even quenching their thirst near some small water body. And yes, you will also enjoy the scenic beauty from top of the hill. At times, it might be too foggy or cold here so people travelling with kids, do carry the necessities. Also, do not forget to check out the museum out there where pictures and stories of few habitats are displayed.

2. Tea Museum – Owned by TATA

Here you will see the processing of tea in a traditional way. The whole process from picking up leaves to the final granules is shown and explained to you. And yes, you can surely pick up your favorite flavored tea.

Along with the tea process you will also get a chance to know the history of Munnar via a 40 minute documentary film shown by them.

These tea plantations were started and encouraged by British people. They also started schools, medical facilities etc for the localities. This whole system of support is still on-going and it is now owned by Tata. Tata supports the tea planters and hence making the lives of villagers worthwhile.

  

3. Mattupetty Dam

This dam has a nice scenic view. This dam is used to conserve water for hydroelectricity. This reservoir is well visited place for elephants.

4. Echo Point

You can call your loved one and hear the voice back at this point. You can try enjoying coconut water worth Rs 20 only. The water was chilled and I also felt that it was unlimited. You can also enjoy boating here.

One specialty of this place is that you will get duck eggs here. As per our guide, duck eggs are good for people having piles. It gets cured within a week. However, I am not sure on this point. There were also duck egg omlets available there.

5. Flower garden

This garden has a wide variety of flowers including cactus and various plants like diabetic plant, orange, lemon, and also some of the spices. This is a place from where you will not like to come out and you will be tired of clicking pictures here in the middle of amazing flower.

6. Hydel Power Station

This is hydel power station where hydro power was used to convert electricity. It is just the small machine at the entrance which is now not in use. This place is not worth visiting. There is an entrance fee out here. However, they have made a huge garden there and the garden is well maintained. So if you decide to just spend some time with your loved ones in the garden you can spend your money at the entrance. Please do not go with the hope of seeing a huge hydel power station.

Nature Zone Resort - Munnar

Hotel Nature Zone – Munnar

En-route Nature Zone

This not so popular resort is worth visiting for nature lovers. To reach to this resort you need a special four wheel drive from the main bus stop. Such car is arranged by the hotel. The 8 kms uphill drive is a combination of 3 kms of tar road, and 5 kms of ‘kuccha road’ and leads to this beautiful resort. Enroute the resort, you have to pass via tea plantations. Also, if the driver can speak some common language he will narrate you some nice and few scary stories of the road. He will start by showing you the footprints of wild animals. This jungle also has a good amount of cardamom plantations, a paradise for jungle plantations. We also saw the rock where the elephant had scratched his body. After this 20 minutes of adventurous ride, we did reach a beautiful resort where along with the guests, elephants also made special visits.

Nature Zone Resort

There are only 12 rooms in this resort, 4 tree houses and 8 tent houses. We had booked a tree house for one night and two nights in tent house. This resort which was on top of the hill had amazing landscape and gardening. We checked in our tree house which was isolated from the rest of the tree houses. Our tree house had its roots in the valley and we could enjoy a nice valley view from our room balcony. Other tree houses, had their roots on a flat land, ours was one exception one. This tree house does move when you walk, but not to worry it is a safe place.

Talking about the room, the washroom had just a glass pane from where you can see the plants and birds while you bathe.

If you are lucky then you might spot a Giant Malabar hill Squirrel from the room window. We were indeed lucky to witness this sight. After sometime, we heard someone shouting near our tree house and within seconds we could hear them climbing our tree house, we went out to realize that they heard the elephant’s voice so they got scared and climbed our tree house. And after few seconds we also heard the same voice. The wild elephants were near our tree house, though we could not see them, we could hear them. However, this resort is safe, as security personnel from the resort had gone to drive the elephants away. We did see elephant footmarks near the reception the next day morning.

Next we went to our tent house.  Next to the tent house, they had constructed a view point where one can sit on a chair and enjoy the nature. Also, a spectacular sunrise awaits you near this point.  And yes, if you get up early in the morning you might have fog as your first guest.

We also enjoyed our meal at tree house restaurant for dinner. The courteous staff treated us well and served us mouth watering food. The hotel staff had also arranged campfire for us. It helped us gain some heat as the temperature was quite low there.  

Munnar...Heaven on Earth

Munnar

We started at 10.00 am from Cochin. On the way to Munnar we had an amazing elephant ride. We paid Rs 300 per person. My husband and I sat together on an elephant. It was a 30 minute ride. It was a nice experience. The way elephants balance while there is a slope and the way they are trained to walk was impressing. Only by a few words from trainer in their language were enough for an elephant to understand things.

We then went to our hotel Nature Zone.

En-route Nature Zone

This resort has not gained much popularity yet but it is worth going there.

The resort is located on a high hill. We had to leave our AC Indica Car down and a special four wheel drive from the resort came to pick us up. It was Jeep of Mahindra in which we had an adventurous ride of about 8kms over the hill.

The driver hardly knew few words in English but we could communicate the basic things and his so called broken English we did understand things. It was a 8km stretch which was divided as 3kms was normal tar road and rest was ‘kuccha’ road.

This ‘kucha’ road so actually made in between the tea plantations. It was so beautiful site to see but yes it was a very bumpy ride upwards, you feel you are in some ride in some amusement park. On the first day we were the only couple in the jeep and to be very frank our driver looked a bit scary atleast to me, don’t know about my husband.

We sat in the jeep and slowly in his broken English he started narrating us few stories which were real life incidents, we are not sure how true they were but they must be 10% true. I can say this because after his story we did face a similar situation like what he narrated.

He started saying that as this was a jungle where there are lot of tea plantations and also cardamom plantations junglee elephants use to roam around and pass by the street. He also showed us the rock where elephant had recently scratched his body; we did see the footmarks of elephant en-route our way to the resort. Now that was scary. He then also stated that few months back elephant killed 2 women who were tea pluckers etc. And after all this, he is telling us that elephants do come nearby the resort also, that scared me all the more.

I was already scared and it was the beginning of evening and after coming up so much by ‘kucha’ road I could see no sign of resort, no name plates nothing, all this forced my mind divert in wrong and negative direction. I started thinking what if this man was a fake and there is some fraud and this guy takes us on top and tells us give all your money and all bad thoughts started running in my mind and I was telling this to my husband, and he was like relay all is fine.

After few minutes, I did see an entrance and I was so relived. It was a huge property, actually in jungle. The receptionist greeted us and then we checked in our room.

Hotel Mercy - Kochi

Hotel Mercy

This hotel has 6 floors. We had a port facing room on the 2^nd floor. The room was big enough. The hotel was spacious and had a nice ambiance. In this hotel, you will not find any switches. Instead of switches there was a sensor board in the rooms with names written on it like fan, light etc. It was something similar to the Godrej safes. It gave an elegant look.