Well
recently I got fed up of the monotonous office life and was at the verge of
frustration when Mr. Hubby came for the rescue (Yup sweet like sugar he
is.hehe). He planned a trip for me to Kerala for rejuvenation and bringing me
back to life. Haha. I am so melodramatic. Well we all need some pampering right
(winking). We planned a 7 day trip to kerala. So here’s my trip plan for you
guys. It may be useful to you if you plan to go there.
We went from New delhi to Kochi by flight and
took a cab to Munnar which is a beautiful hill station in Kerala. Please be
informed that all the cab drivers take to and fro fare from kochi to Munnar. It
costed us 2700 bucks by cab. We stayed in Munnar for 2 days. There are many
places to visit in Munnar. Following are the places which we visited.
On day one
we visited:
1.Lokhart
tea factory- Well it’s a factory where you get to know about the process of tea
production. Many types of tea like white tea, green tea, black tea etc. Ticket
fee is Rs.100 per person. You can buy tea from there. We bought some tea packets
for home and the taste came out really good.
2.Tea
gardens- On the way there is a viewpoint where you can take pictures in the
beautiful tea gardens. There is no entry fee.
3.Rose garden- There is a rose garden where there are beautiful plantations and different types of flowers. There is entry fee. I don’t remember the amount.
4.Elephant garden-Here you can have elephant ride. We were not interested in elephant ride so we came out from there.
5. Matupatty
dam – This is a dam area. Here you can have couple and family boat ride. It’s
really good. We went for couple boat. Fee was Rs450. We saw some elephants on
the shore of the water. It was good overall.
6. Echo
point- This is a point where you can hear your echo back. The weather is very
pleasant there normally and there are many local shops. On the way there was
beautiful scenery and the driver said that many film shootings occur here in
this area. We made a mistake here by missing top station. Top station is a
point from where Tamil Nadu border is visible and the scenery is beautiful
there. We went to top station next day but I advise you to go to top station along
with echo point as they are on the same way.
On day two
we visited:
1. Coffee
plantations- Well these looked similar to tea plantations. We took some
photographs here but I felt nothing new here.
2. Spice
plantation- Well this place was worth visiting. The entry fee was Rs100 per
person. We saw cloves, cardamom, Cinnamon, black pepper, imli, mint, mace
(javitri), rudraksh and so many other trees. Personally I love cooking and I
was so pleased to see from where all the spices come. Here you can buy spices.
I bought sambhar masala and mace.
3. Kundla lake and dam: Then we went to Kundla lake. Nothing special there. It is similar to echo point with some local shops.
4. Top
station- Then we moved to top station. The scenery was beautiful there. But I
would say that the view is somewhat same everywhere in Munnar because of same
type of tea plantations. Some locals told us that earlier Munnar had different
sceneries in different parts but now it looks same everywhere because of the
tea plantations. Nevertheless I loved tea plantation sceneries.
At the end
of second day, local people told us that there is a beautiful sunrise point
near Munnar. But there is no permanent road. Jeep safari goes through kacha
rasta.
On day 3, we
wake up and got ready at 4.45 am and jeep picked us at hotel. O my god that was
hell of a ride. I mean literally. We were just jumping in the jeep because the
road was so so bad. I wouldn’t even call it a temporary road. The driver joked
at seeing us that madam you are getting free body massage (haha).
And then we
reached the point at 6am. O my god, the view was breathtaking. No camera can
capture the scenic beauty of the sunrise. Clouds were moving as if we were at
heaven and sun was rising. It was simply mesmerizing.
Then we went to organic tea factory near this place. This place was a local village (Image of the village shown in Chennai express movie flashed into my mind. I just dreamt of being in such a place when I saw the movie and here I was. Well sometimes our wishes come true ).
Then we went to organic tea factory near this place. This place was a local village (Image of the village shown in Chennai express movie flashed into my mind. I just dreamt of being in such a place when I saw the movie and here I was. Well sometimes our wishes come true ).
Then we left
from Munnar to Thekkady at 11am. This
place is famous for the ferry ride in the tiger reserve. It’s a 2 hrs ride. You
are lucky if you get to see tigers. We just saw elephants, deers and some
birds. We stayed in Thekkady for just one night.
On day 4, we
left for Allepey at 8.30am. It took us 3.5 hours to reach Alleppey from
Thekkady. We rented a boathouse in Alleppey for a day and that was a lifetime
experience. There are different kind of packages for houseboats. Day cruise
take you to a ride for a day and in the evening it drops you. Day-night cruise
starts from 11am and ends at 9am on the next day. The houseboat rates are
according to the facilities that you want. AC for whole day and night costs
more and ac for night time only and fan for day time costs less.
Well the houseboat ride is awesome. You are
moving in the beautiful backwaters with romantic songs in the background. The
boat is equipped with everything that you find in a hotel. Our chef was awesome
and we thoroughly enjoyed the food. In the evening the boat was parked and we
roamed around the village with local kids. We were searching for coconut water
where an old uncle aunty saw us and offered coconut water freshly taken out
from their coconut tree. The energy that the couple had at this age was
amazing. The old uncle took out the coconut and cut it in seconds and we were
looking at him with great surprise. We would be out of breadth for ten minutes
if we were asked to do the same work (haha). That place reminded me of malgudy
days which I used to watch during my childhood days. Simply amazing.
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| first floor |
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facilities on boathouse    
On day 5 we left the boat at 9am and reached kovalam at 2pm. It’s a beach area. We spent evening in the beach. We stayed at a beach side hotel. The vegeterians will have a tough time here as there are very few reataurants that offer good veg food.
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On day 6, we left for Kanyakumari at 8.30 am
to visit Vivekanand memorial. It is 2.5 hrs from kovalam by cab. The memorial
was worth watching. There are two queues here for the tickets. On which costs
Rs34 has a very long queue and you have to wait for hours to reach the ferry.
Another one is a VIP ticket which costs 169 bucks and you immediately reach the
ferry. There is a beautiful sea view from this memorial. This place is also
famous for sunrise and sunsets. As we had less time so we didn’t see sunrise or
sunset here but if you wish to see then plan accordingly.
The on the way back to our hotel in Kovalam we
stopped for shopping in Trivendrum. Well here there are lot of shops. I shopped
south cotton suits from pothys. It’s a great mall to buy south indian suits and
sarees.
On day 7 in
the morning we took flight from kochi to delhi. It took 4 hours to reach Delhi.
So if you
plan to visit Kerala for one week you can visit the places I have mentioned. Kerala
is definitely worth watching and I understood the hype of this place when I
visited it. It deserves all the hype that it has. It’s not everyday that you
get to see a mesmerizing green land like this.
Hope you
find this post useful. See you with more posts like this in future