God’s own country, Kerala – kickass location

last week went by in a flash. Kerala was terrific and we absolutely loved the time there. We had planned the trip to be 5 days and wanted to cover Allepey and Kumarakom. Then I read about the drive from Munnar -> Thekkady to be in the top 10 in the country and wanted to do it. so we dropped Kumarakom, yes it was a hard call but seemed like the right now.

The trip logistics was planned in a google doc (which still has a couple of more places before my vacation ends). We researched a bunch of online locations and did some estimations. I did not want to take these so-called packages which costed around 20K

http://www.uniquekerala.com/timedistance.htm
http://www.hotelskerala.com/talltrees/index.htm
http://www.indiahotelreview.com/buy-kerala-vacation-26/5-night-6-days-31.htm

Some folks suggested going to temples but I claimed this was a pure vacation thingy and no temples (that leg starts next week for a set of pilgrimage spots)

So finally this is what we did:

Oct 13th Monday 9 PM Allepy express 2nd class AC train ticket Price = Rs.2200 for 2 ppl

Oct 14th Tuesday 11 AM. Reached Allepey.

The plan was to take the rental boat and go around. You know what .. that day was a ‘hartal’ aka strike in allepey. All shops, boating was closed. We went to a temple that day , not sure if it was butterfly effect or the gods being angry that this was a “vacation” trip. Dasavatharam style message for me.. the temple was great, kerala temples have that divinity which i dont see elsewhere.

Stayed at a relative place in Allepey.. one aspect of going there was to meet them. Good people, great hosts

Oct 15th Wed 9 AM.

We quickly re-adjusted plans and dropped Kumarakom. We rented a boat for 3 hrs at Rs.750 instead of taking a house boat. My dear friends.. you need to think about this. Why rent a house boat at 4.5K per day for non-AC and 7.5K for an AC room when you really sleep from 9 PM to 7 AM in 1 location. Thats what I thought… but for people who are actually going to be in a hotel this works well, you get accomodation, lunch, dinner and breakfast and sight seeing as 1 package. but again I was happy with the Rs.750

We took a local bus to Ernakulum and then a bus from there to Chithrapuram, 10 kms from Munnar. We left Allepey at 1PM adn reached Ernakulum at around 2.30 PM. The bus fare per person was Rs.67 for travelling about 60 kms. Then we took the next bus to Chithrapuram at 3 PM. One small problem, this was the bloody local bus which stopped at every place and millions of people got into the bus at each stop. the smart fool that I am, I had sat on the side which was supposedly for ladies and had to get up (the chivalrous kind that I am) and was in the middle of the gumbal. I was thinking about why i made this trip because the driver was a crazy !@#$ who was slamming the brakes so hard every 2 mins. I was creating theories on “Middle class mentality” (more on this on a separate blog). but finally after paravoor, the traffic melted. i got my seat back… yay yay yay. Then we went to adimali and we are talking to the conductor confirming location about chithrapuram.. the bloke knows only malayalam and I have no clue if he is asking me to get down at adimali or if this bus will indeed go to chithrapuram. Luckily I catch hold of the resort manager who promises to stop the bus in front of the resort Go INDIA!! We reach the resort at 8 PM and crash.

Hotel stay per night = Rs.2000

Oct 16th, Thursday 10 AM

We asked for a cab to go around Munnar. Apparently the cost was Rs.1500 and i agreed. The hotel manager decided to drive in his own car and take us around (I thought did I pay too much… fast track charged Rs.10 per km and has the crazy 4hr 40kms Rs.400 and 8hr 80kms Rs.800 packages and decided this should be ok). Anyways the dude was an ex-army bloke about 40 yrs who had been at Kargil and entertained us with some stories. we saw a bunch of interesting places .. the usual suspects in Munnar – Mattupetty, Devikulam, Pothumedu, Kannan Devan & Tata Tea estates. we could not see the Nyayamakad waterfalls since there was an accident a couple of days back where someone slipped and died. Enroute we saw an elephant on the road and had a mini ride on the road. Subha did not like it initially but got convinced eventually. We spent Rs.500 in feeding the elephant with pineapples and corn (ride included). We did some shopping and kicked up interesting wooden trays and interesting hand work

We did about 100 kms of travel and settled for the day and returned to the hotel around 6 PM.

Oct 17th, Friday 10 AM

We took the car from Chithrapuram to Thekkady and decided to use the same car for sight seeing in Thekkady. The car was Rs.2200. I was watching Sehwag bat and did not want to leave at 10 AM but then Subha was not too keen to watch cricket in Chithrapuram . The drive was good but not sure why it was in the top 10 in the country. I guess seeing stuff in the NW has really set the bar high for us. we reached the hotel in Thekkady around 1.30 PM. We stayed at the Lake Queen Resort and took a non AC deluxe room at Rs.1300 per day. Good choice! NO need for AC in Thekkady and there was a super view from the hotel room window. The hotel was in Kumily junction which is the TN Kerala border, so everyone knows Tamil.

Lake Queen Hotel, Thekkady, India
Address: Thekkady Junction, Kumily 685509, Thekkady, Kerala

Phone: 04869-222084, 222086. 09447000077 -Spoke to the guy called Shiva

AC- 2100 + tax,Non AC 1600+tax, normal 1300+tax

The areas around Thekkady, Kumily was simply great … it was raining but had the ideal hill station feel. I wanted to see the Periyar Tiger reserve in Thekkady and so we had lunch, freshened up and drove around in the car for a little while. i was in no mood for the plantations sight seeing. So we went to the jungle checkpost, paid the car and sent it away. The entry cost for the reserve was Rs.25 per person and Rs.50 for the car. If you are a foreigner then the cost is Rs. 300. There was a separate cost for still camera and video camera. we paid Rs.150 for the boat ride per person so that we get to sit on the bigger open boat on the top. The lake had some stunning views, some of the very best I have ever seen and believe me, I have seen some ones in oregon and California road trip which I thought were hard to beat. The boat ride was about 2 hrs and I have never hard any luck with sighting animals on these “safari” kind of trips. We saw some deer from the boat 100 yards away, a couple of elephants 200-300 yards away and thats it. I was disappointed and was hoping I can see a tiger , big hopes. The ride finished around 5.30 PM and we headed back to the hotel in auto rickshaw (Rs.50). If you have additional time, I recommend you stay 1 day at the Lake palace resort which is in the middle of the lake and I believe it will be a great experience. The tariff is around 3.5K per day

Oct 18th, saturday 12 PM

we checked out of the hotel at 12 PM, left our bags in the lobby office and walked through the junction road. we went to the wax museum which had 6 statues, we were the only ones in the museum and I was chatting with the person who created the statues. Each statue costs 6 lakhs and takes 16 months, each day 12 hrs of effort !! Then we went to the elephant ride area and I paid Rs.300 and took the ride within the plantation – checkout photos on facebook. We did a little shopping and picked up some bags. After lunch, we decided to head to the Kumily bus stop to catch a bus to Madurai.

We saw Kumily Soorya, an agent who was mentioning about the real estate condition in Thekkady. well I started the conversation on this topic anyways and he was suggesting to invest at least 5-7 lakhs in cardamom plantations. apparently 1 acre is 2.5 lakhs and generates about 1000 kilos of cardomom. At the minimum, the cost is Rs.600 per kilo ==> 6 lakhs per year. Even if total maintenance cost and labour is 3 lakhs, then profit is 3 lakhs which means you recover the profit. Good to hear. How many times ahve we seen these figures on paper which dont translate in real life. but still I am kicked because I like the area – will I buy an estate? I doubt it.. maybe not the right time now. if you are enthu, let me know.. will connect you with Kumily Soorya

We picked the 5 PM bus, the first 30 mins was very interesting.. curvy roads, vehicles blaring their horns and the bus driver was carefully wheeling the vehicle in those conditions. (I have a video taping of how close the roads were and a near accident ).

we reached Madurai bus terminus around 9 PM, and headed off to Madurai junction (train station) to catch the Ananthapuri express which leaves 11 PM in the night. We got into our AC II class cabin and crashed. Price of tickets = 1586 for 2 people.

We reached Chennai at 8 AM on Sunday morning.

Wow, what a trip!