Kerala : From Hills To Sea

Kerala was on my travel list from a long time and finally we managed to tick mark the place partially by covering Munnar, Thekkady , Alleppey Backwaters and Kochi.

Kerala is known for its beautiful landscape ranging from hills to backwaters to sea and no doubt it truly lives to its title – “Gods Own Country”. Everything is so beautiful and pure that can hardly be found anywhere else in this world. Far away from noisy sound and smokey air, the pristine land of Kerala brings you close to nature.

We started our 5 day trip from Hyderabad to Kochi. The plan was to reach Kochi by air and then directly head towards Munnar – the Tea Capital of India. It took us around 3-4 hours to drive from Kochi airport to Munnar. On our way to Munnar , we saw the majestic Cheeyappara Waterfalls. Thereafter we visited a spice plantation garden and saw how the famous Indian spices are actually grown and processed. It was a great experience ! By this time it was already dark and we retired to our homestay.

CHEEYAPPARA WATERFALL

Next day we had planned for sightseeing in Munnar and nearby. The specialty of Munnar is its lush green Tea Garden. The first sight of tea garden was mesmerizing! It was an amazing amalgamation of nature and man’s hard work. As we ascended over the hills the view was getting better to best.The lush green tea garden , the blue sky and the white mist in between was a heavenly experience. There are many water dams, water falls, rose garden on the way to top of the hill where we stopped and clicked hundreds of pictures. My best stop was at Tata Tea Museum which showed us a documentary of Munnar’s history and processing of Tea (from leaves to tea packets). I bought variety of green tea and black tea from the museum shop. This brought an unwilling end to our Munnar visit.

Tea Garden View

Tea Garden View

View From Hill Top

Third day, our next destination was Thekkady. Thekkady is known for Periyar lake and national forest. After a 3 hours drive through the tea  garden and thick green forest we reached Thekkady. There are many spice plantation garden on the way. We had only one day in Thekkady, so we did the famous Periyar Lake Boating, an Elephant Ride, few hours of relaxing Ayurvedic Spa at Shantigiri and an evening show of Kathakali.

Periyar Lake

Elephant Ride

Kathakali Performance

On fouth day, we started for our houseboat stay at Alleppey Backwaters. Alleppey is around 4 hours drive from Thekkady. We spent an entire day on houseboat which was an unique and memorable experience. The boat did a cruise in backwaters of  Alleppey where we could see the natural flora and fauna and city settlement on the banks. Looking at people using boat instead of car and bike for their day to day activities was an experience of a kind. In houseboat we were served the traditional Kerala food.

Alleppey Backwater and Houseboat

Alleppey Beach

The final day was for Kochi. It took us around 2 hours to reach Kochi from Alleppey. In Kochi we visited the Dutch Palace , Jewish Synagogue, the Chinese Fishing Nets at Kochi Beach, St. Francis Church and ended our day with the sunset at Marine Drive.

In Front of St. Francis Church

Sunset at Marine Drive

With these beautiful experiences we ended our trip to Kerala. The memories we made there will be cherished by us forever.

Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends.

But is played out over and over again in the quietest chamber.

The mind can never break off from the journey

–Pat Conray 

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