KERALA

KERALA 

We , snehal & me fly to gods own country Kerala.  Kerela is also one of the most popular destinations in India.

We land in trivandrum & in the night we are to stay at club mahindra Ashtamudi. Before we head to Ashtamudi , we spend the day at trivandrum.

18/1:Trivandrum
Museum- figures excavated years back , coins and toys as old as being from  harrappa times.

Padmanabhan temple- temple of vishnu & ganesh. The architecture of the temple is admirable, With scuptures everywhere.The idol of vishnu is one in a kind, since it is in sleeping position on a serpent. All the famous temples of kerela have sand , and I keep wondering why and how they managed to get sand in the temples.

Padmanabhan palace- it is a palace made of wood. One can see natural air conditioning & carved wooden pillars. The temple can be seen from the palace .
And the usual story of an underground passage built for  transporting the kings family to safety in case of emergency goes with it.

Village
Church- we see a church on the shanmugam beach. Most of the churches are placed that way which adds to the beauty of the place.

Kovalam beach- we see the beach at night on the first day. We enjoy the lights from nearby .

We head to Ashtamudi by train . On reaching Ashtamudi , I fall in love with the club mahindra resort, though it is night I can see the lake touching the resort.
In my opinion it is the best resort of club mahindra.

19/1:Ashtamudi
When I get up in the morning, I realize it is even better than I expected. With the resort  touching the lake,  with hammocks adjoining to the lake and the restaurant which is built on the water.

Sankracharya temple- I had read online about this temple but it was too far and nobody knew about it, and when we reach I get disappointed( was expecting something bigger). None the less it's an old temple and with nobody around , it was a nice place to pray.

Church

20/1:Ashtamudi
Cruise- after breakfast we decide to go on the backwaters on the club mahindra boat. The tour is fun with both of us taking pictures. We see the backwaters of kerela, lined with coconut trees.  We see houseboats on the way( we don't stay in a houseboat because we have heard that there are a lot of mosquitoes in the night) .  The wooden boat takes a drop on a Backwater island , we explore the Island a bit , we see a house in the island ( I'm left wondering how the people in that house manage), we have coconut water on the island & we head back to the resort. On the way we see plenty of jellyfish in the water.

Thellasary lighthouse- almost felt like a sky tower.though it was not higher than 8-10 stories , I actually went weak in the knees. It had a  view of the beach coast ,lined with coconut trees. No building in the vicinity was competing with the lighthouse for height.

Kollam beach- a little commercialised . There was a huge statue worth seeing.

Varkala Beach- again we reach the beach at sunset time. We have a good time snacking at a roof top restaurant with the view of the beach.

Varkala Temple-it is night when we go to the varkala temple. we refuse a guide & pray to the Sri Janarthana Swami.

21/1:kanyakumari
padmanabhpuram palace- a wooden structure. As we walk along the guides show us the various rooms, conference halls, dining room (which fed 2000 people at a time).

Vivekanand memorial , temple- a ferry takes us to a mini island which has only the temple ( the island is the size of the temple and vice versa). Also the vivekanand memorial statue can be seen from there. The sea is really rough making me worry if we will get there even though it's a 2 minute ride. The wind was blowing really strong ( making it difficult for us to get a decent photograph ). The ocean was blue in color .

Triveni sangam- merging of the 3 seas- indian ocean, Arabia sea, bay of bengal.

 suchindaram thanumalayam temple- it's an old temple . It's also huge.  The architecture again praiseworthy. It's a must visit temple. We do a parikrama of the entire temple and realise that it has many temples and many deities.  There is a huge idol of Lord hanuman and a big nandi ( the bull).

22/1: poovar
Snehal strikes a bargain for a bike for a few hours. It's so much fun to go sightseeing on a bike.

Vizingham aquarium- they had star fishes , eel & turtles. The aquarium is small but well maintained.

Vizingham rock cut temple- entire temple is one rock.

Vizingham beach,Kovalam beach

Backwater cruise-watching sunset on floating cafe while having coffee and mixed fruit pancake.
We can see the Backwater and the sea separated by a beach . The changing colors of the sky and the sun disappearing is an experience by itself.

23/1:travel from poovar to the thekkady by train and car

24/1:thekkady
Spice plantation tour - the guide shows us how the spices  are grown and processed .elaichi, stevia, pepper, tea tree, mini chillies, peppermint are some of them.

 Periyar cruise- the government ferry takes us around the Periyar reserve and we see birds, bison, deer, wild boar. The submerged trees which are a novelty are a sight by itself. I wonder at the submerged trees and find out that there was a dam built in this region approx100 years ago which led to the flooding of the forest area leading to these trees getting submerged in water.

In the evening we go for a kalaripayattu show and later for a kathakali show.

The kalaripayattu show is a show that showcases the traditional martial art of kerela. 'Kalari' means school or gymnasium and 'payattu' means to fight. The props used are weapons, fire, stick, cloth. Legends claim the art was begun by sage parasurama , the sixth incarnation of Lord vishnu.

The Kathakali show is based on facial expressions through eye, eyebrows, lips, body. Demonstration of 9 emotions. This dance form is unique because its characters never spesk. We see a Drama between the son of indra & a demon who takes the form of lalita. The demon in the form of lalita tries to seduce him and proposes to him but he refuses her and cuts her nose, ears & breasts.

25/1: thekkady

Snehal takes a massage which is a combination of shirodhara &  kizhi.

We go for a night jungle walk inside the Periyar forest.we spot wild elephant,  deer, wild boar. I have to admit I find it scary and adventurous.

26/1:travel

27/1:munnar
The club mahindra resort is located in a place surrounded by tea estates.

We go for a jeep safari to the second highest peak of kerela. On top of the Peak the driver points out to the border of Tamil Nadu & kerela. There is also an echo point.

28/1:munnar
The next day we see a flower garden and then head to rajamalai national park.

The rajamalai national park is home to the endangered nilgiri tahr(ancient mountain goat). We spot 2 nilgiri tahr. The national park is set against a backdrop of rocky mountains amongst them is the highest peak in kerela.

Chinnar wildlife sanctuary-we travel by car and see wild boar,  bison & peacocks. The chinnar wildlife sanctuary is located in the rain shadow area of the ghats. Thus the indigenous flora & fauna is unique .I see cactus that are as big as trees & snake holes that look like ant hills. On the way I also see cob webs along the road on the grass, which I presume is the result of lack of snowfall and wind. The funniest part is the monkeys on the check post trying to get into the car for food.

29/1:
Muttupaty dam- the lake is picturesque and holds a lot of water.

We then go to see another Flower garden which is more like a nursery. There was a lotus pond which held lots of goldenish pink lotus.

Travel to kochi
In kochi we stayed at the taj on the marine drive. I went for a walk on the marine drive in the evening.

30/1:
We went to Guruvayur temple by local bus. It was an experience by itself travelling by the local bus with the soft breeze and the  sight of backwaters on the way.

So we end our trip with the blessings of God at the  guruvayur temple.