Kerala!

New Year began with a terrific surprise – we  had won a couple’s return air tickets to anywhere in India – sponsored by Kingfisher Airlines -  in a Lucky Dip at the New Year’s Eve party. But that was the good part.  When we thought of putting the tickets to good use, and decided to travel to God’s Own Country, came the issue of leave and when I could be spared from work. What followed was a terrible tussle with the powers that be, and having postponed the entire trip once already, there was an air of uncertainty – whether the trip would see the light of day. But like they say, every cloud has a silver lining, so things fell in place, and eventually my family I and got to spend a week in Kerala at the fag end of the ‘season’, in the last week of March.  

We are at Kovalam in the Turtle on the Beach Hotel. The hotel is excellent and we were upgraded to a better room on checking in. The view from the room is amazing and the ambience is wonderful. But more of that later. Sitting in my room on a cozy couch overlooking the Arabian Sea got my literary juices flowing, so I decided to post this trip in my blog. So here I am, tapping feverishly away at my keyboard to see whether anything good comes out of it. 

Previously we had spent a night at a houseboat and it was an exhilerating experience. Cruising leisurely on the Vembanad Lake and backwaters with an entire houseboat to oneself with staff always at one’s beck and call was wonderful. The food was the highlight of the cruise, with the cook making some hearty and delicious meals.

We even stopped by a village market and shopped for some crabs which the cook was only too happy to make for us. The best part was that we were picked up by the houseboat right from the resort itself where we were staying at Alleppey. We could see it coming from a distance which was when we got ready to check out. It was such a peaceful and tranquil experience, cruising on the waters of the Vembanad Lake and we went trigger happy with our cameras, handycam, ipod, mobiles to capture everything that we could set our eyes on!  As the day was coming to a close,  we were told that we have to drop anchor by sunset, and no sooner than we settled for the night, thoughts came back to mother earth; and with it my wish to watch the World Cup Quarter Final between India and Australia that was to begin in a short while. But what the heck, we were in the backwaters of Kerala, on a houseboat docked for the night at a nondescript village, so how could one possibly do that unless there was a satellite dish on the boat? But surprise surprise; as we settled in docked for the night, a cable connection was fished out promptly from a house and we watched the match uninterrupted in the houseboat itself. Talk of the Indian Jugaad at its best! Could have one asked for more, I wonder. Well, in hindsight, maybe another day or two spent on the houseboat would have earned the experience as just what the doctor ordered. 
 

The next day we left for Kovalam, but en route we made a brief halt at Varkala for lunch, and also met  Rajesh who had made some of the arrangements for the trip. I got to know him through a mutual friend Firoz who also happens to be my colleague. This was my second visit to Kerala, about eleven years after I had first come here with a couple of friends. Kovalam has definitely been spruced up since then, and having seen Goa recently, the beachfront here seemed to be much better organized with a paved walkway going all the way from one end of the beach to the other. Though the beach and the view pale in comparison, I liked the fact that it was well thought-out and there weren’t untidy shacks that mushroom during the season, and are left out as garbage once it gets over. 

A word about Alleppey and the resort where we stayed. Alleppey is situated at the beginning of the Vembanad Lake, which is a huge lake that had formed when a part of the sea had broken in entered the land through a small inlet during a cyclonic storm and then stayed there to form a huge lake, which also marks the northern opening to the famed backwaters of Kerala. The lake has Kumarakom to one side and Alleppey to the other. It has numerous resorts located on its banks and ours too was one of them. It has been wonderfully named Ilona. It is located at a very secluded place, and during the time we stayed there, there were no guests other than us, and that had us wondering initially if we had indeed made the right choice. But in a way it was a blessing in disguise, as we had the whole place to ourselves - the swimming pool, the restaurant and the outdoors were fun to be in without a crowd, and it gave us what everyone actually comes looking for – privacy and rejuvenation. It goes without saying that the service and treatment from the hotel staff were remarkable.


Since I have started writing this post backwards, as I sit at Kovalam watching the sea from my seat by the bay window, it’s here that this magnificent trip to Kerala is coming to an end, I thought i would conclude this post with the beginning of the trip, something that I was saving for the last.  But was it the best? The jury is still out on that.

 We began this trip from Kochi, where we stayed for close to five days, and this too was an extraordinary experience. On reaching the Kochi airport, we took a cab to Dronacharya, Fort Kochi where my school friend from the Navy, Nitesh had made arrangements for us to stay at their station’s VIP guest house. The day we arrived there also happened to be Holi, and we went directly to the party they were having at the Mess. I met up with my friends from school and NDA there, even my course mate Manish,  and so our welcome to Kerala was colorful and with a bang! By the time the party got over, our clothes and faces were all nicely colored. But then we were taken to the VIP cottage - it has a breathtaking location and a view worth dying for.  It was located on the top of an erstwhile lighthouse overlooking the open sea, and two rooms on the top were converted to idyllic guest rooms. The experience was pretty much heavenly. If that wasn’t enough, Nitesh was also very big-hearted to lend us his car for the entire stay; and that helped us out a lot in going around the entire Fort Kochi, Ernakulam and gave us tremendous flexibility to do all the sightseeing and shopping we wanted to do.  

There are a lot of fun things to do at Kochi, and one needs to really go around the place to get to know it better. Fort Kochi is the heritage center, and has several historical places to visit, each having a history and marvel of its own. The more urban and business like area is Ernakulam, but not without its share of shopping malls and restaurants. In between these two areas is Willingdon Island, which is more of an industrial cum administrative area but has breathtaking views of the waterfront. We left Kochi with a heavy heart, vowing to come back again, but the experience will never again be matched as it was Nitesh and his family who made this one truly memorable.

Now back to the Turtle on The Beach at Kovalam. The pool was wonderful, and the entire place is beautifully lit up at night. The food was good though the service was ordinary, and nothing to really write home about. But the highlight of the stay was the room itself. It was tastefully done with fantastic decor and everything one can think of. The view was magnificent, and it even had an attic with a lovely staircase leading to it and additional beds which unfortunately we couldn’t make use of.

The next day we ventured out to the town of Trivandrum and did the mandatory sightseeing, the Padmanabhaswamy temple, Museum, some shopping and the Zoological Gardens. What turned out to be a huge disappointment was the Zoo, about which though we had read and heard a lot of, was bereft of any wildlife really.

All good things must come to an end, but how could it end without some fizzle, excitement, tension, worry, and heartburn thrown in for good measure? Here is what happened.  We had to board the flight back to Mumbai in the afternoon, and early in the morning the same day we were very unceremoniously informed by the Airline that the flight was cancelled indefinitely. Now this was a hard blow in the solar plexus when one hadn’t seen it coming. We were literally stranded. We asked the airline to make some alternate arrangement so that we could reach Mumbai somehow. But since we were on a trip which was a promotional offer, they couldn’t change us to another airline free of cost. On inquiring whether they could book us the next day on the same flight, they said flying this sector was held up by the DGCA. So the only way out of Trivandrum that day was to go to Bangalore in the evening, stay there overnight and then catch the flight next morning for Mumbai.

That notwithstanding, where do we put up for the night at Bangalore? The flight would be arriving late in the evening and the next day’s flight to Mumbai was early morning. The distance from the airport to the city is phenomenal and going all the way wasn’t feasible. Then began the flurry of phone calls to get some accommodation nearby at Yelahanka, and the usual hurdles - call up, they can’t trace the person who deals with it, they don’t know who’s the stand-by and so on. Though the degree of difficulty was high, but I used all my options available to me at that time, and by the time we were boarding the flight in the evening, my dear friend Deepak (sitting in Chennai) confirmed to me that accommodation was arranged for at Yelahanka.  As an alternative measure I had even got something arranged for in the city too thanks to my friend Charles, but I didn’t have to use it.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, and after reaching Mumbai there was only enough time to catch the flight back home.

What could one (who takes the trouble reading my post) infer from this travelogue of mine? Overall, it was a delightful little trip. But what made it remarkable was that it wasn’t planned months before by some professional tour operator or or dot com agency. All it took was some phone calls to my friends, a little homework on the itinerary and a few searches on the net, and that was about it. A few instances did occur where we could have been left high and dry; but with timely help from friends I could count on, no matter what the hurdle was, it was well and truly tackled with a flourish. I am blessed that way to have such friends... Thanks guys!

Road Trip

Hi again. Back from a whirlwind trip of Southern Gujrat and Northern Maharashtra. It was a drive through terrain that was changing every 50 kms, and most of it through spectacular countryside. We commenced our journey from Vadodara; planning to visit Saputara, a smallish hill station and the only one that Gujrat can boast of as its own. Saputara lies in the heart of the Dang District, bordering Gujrat and Maharashtra. It was the first time that I travelled through central India by road, and what I found was pretty fascinating.

Though very little of Saputara is written or posted on the internet, we found it to be this quaint tranquil little place that is not very high from the sea level or difficult to travel to, and yet having all the trappings of a hill station.

The journey commenced late afternoon and we hit the highway nh8 and proceeded south toward bharuch. Thereafter we hit the actual country roads and the sight was pleasing to the eye. We were driving along a narrow gauge line and soon spotted a cute looking train making its way in the opposite direction. Then came a road junction where we had to stop and ask for directions. We treated ourselves there to pakoras which were amazingly tasty. We continued driving and stopping, asking for directions and starting off again. By the time it got dark we were at the foothills but unfortunately, we missed savouring the drive through jungle terrain of a reserved forest. Nevertheless we stopped by to ease ourselves and take some fantastic pictures of the moon playing hide and seek through the tall trees of the forest.

We reached Saputara by late evening. Though we were mindful of the sweltering heat outside, we were rarely subjected to it as the ac in the car saved us. As we got down from the car we felt a splendid and refreshingly cool breeze blowing which was actually caressing our bodies and quickly got us out of the fatigue that the journey had induced in us. It completely blew our minds as most of us hailing from different parts of the country never quite experienced anything like it.

We made some quick searches and booked ourselves at a reasonably decent hotel which also had a swimming pool. The evening we spent relaxing, partly in our room and partly next to the pool, though no one jumped into it.

The next day after breakfast we went site seeing, the most noteworthy being the table top next to the ropeway which had some of the most spectacular views of the hills and its surroundings.

We then decided to go to Nasik to the Sula vineyards before we set course back home. Though Sula also boasts of a fascinating locale, we reached there at the hottest time of the day when the sun was directly over our heads. Despite the cruel conditions, we braved the might of the sun, had lunch, played a bit of pool, and took a tour of the vineyard, saw how wine is brewed, which finally culminated with a wine tasting session. The setting there is extremely romantic and each one of us promised to bring our loved ones back.

Then was the worst part; the journey back home. Nothing much there except when we stopped for dinner on the outskirts of bharuch. Though a vegetarian joint, but again we were pleasantly surprised by their culinary skills. The bachelors also quickly refreshed their tired eyes as the clientele there consisted of pretty nubile things.