KERALA TRIP PART 1

This is that time of the year when there is plenty of free time and nothing to do. Well, my friends and I decided to visit each other’s houses and in the process visit the different places as well. So we all converged at Ernakulam for Lakshmi’s (classmate) birthday. The birthday was on 16^th may. Friends came from all over Kerala. Our group had Britto and me from Thrissur, hari aka virus, Dona and Lakshmi’s from Ernakulam, anupa and arun kumar (a.k.) from Trivandrum and Joseph from Alapuzha and arun warrier (warrier) from Calicut. All the boys decided to stay at virus’s house. Anupa planned to go back the same day to Trivandrum.

I reached Ernakulam the previous day. I started from Thrissur at about 3 pm, boarded the bus at 3.30 pm. Virus’s house in on the way to ekm. But he and warrier and some others were in Fort Kochi. So I decided to go there and in the process will see the city also. The ekm city is developing in leaps and bounds. I was really wonder struck by the number of high rise buildings coming up there. Before ekm, Thrissur is nothing. The journey till Fort Kochi took almost one hour because of the traffic. And when I reached there, others were about to return. So I got on to one of their car and we went to the Merci hotel.

The roof top restaurant of the Merci hotel is very beautiful. The hotel has its back to the Cochin shipyard and the whole shipyard lighted in the dark night can be seen from there. The humidity was unbearable. There was a swimming pool in the middle of the restaurant. We almost wanted to jump in the pool because of the heat. We had light snacks and then started to virus’s house. We stayed the night there.

Next day morning, we started our journey from the marine drive. AK, Anupa and Britto reached the Bay pride mall and we also joined them.

Since it was laks birthday we thought of buying a card for her. There is an Archies shop in BPM. And we met there and bought a huge card for her. (see picture below)

We went to Barista. Now this is a very good shop. Different types of coffees, most of them unheard ones when one is visiting for the first time. But it gives the money’s worth cos the coffees come in glasses that are literally one foot long.

After barista we decided to walk around the marine drive. It was hot and nearing midday. All of us were indulging in cracking chalis in all possible ranges. Since anupa had to leave in the evening itself, boating was not an option as it would take more than 4 hours. So we decided to just roam around the city. The birthday girl was treating us the lunch. We went to a hotel named Khyber on top of Bimbis bakery. The food was good and satisfying. We were in the mood to experiment. So we ordered the dishes that we have never heard before. Thankfully the experiment was a partial success. If u ever see sea food tom yam soup, its nothing but some fish and prawn pieces in rasam!!

After the lunch we walked some way along marine road, went by bus and reached the BPM again. There was this Coffee Beanz shop there. The unbearable sun and heat made us walk inside without any hesitation. And guess whom did we saw there? None other than, Maria, the girl in the Malayalam movie, Notebook. We also made her pose for a photo with us.

We had a lot of delicious coffee ice creams from there. Dona joined us at Coffee Beanz. After that we had only an hour or so to spare. So we again started roaming the marine drive near the rainbow bridge. As the evening drew nearer, we started for the south station to drop Anupa. We were quite late actually. We reached the station just in time for the train with just five minutes to spare. We had the dinner at Pizza Hut. Now this is a pretty decent place to have food if we are ready to spend some cash. The pizzas were good and the IPL match in the TV kept us engrossed. We spend the night again at virus’s house. Warrier was going to Calicut that night at about 12. So we dropped him at the KSRTC bus stand. With heavy hearts we bid adieu to him. And hence only five of us were left at virus’s house. The next day was at veegaland.

The veegaland was as it was the last time I went there. There was only one new ride. VERTICAL FALL!!! Just the name makes you wonderstruck right. Well, only the name makes you wonderstruck because the ride is a very normal one. There is no fall. Only a slow descent from a ten storey height! It was so boring. The day went on smoothly and fast and before we knew it was evening, time for pack up. And we came back to hari’s house. The next day was a new venture. it was in Trivandrum tomorrow.

So late that night we boarded a KSRTC bus and reached Trivandrum early in the morning and the stay was at Daddy Cool’s house (ak). So we went there and slept for some time. Daddy had made some plans for us to see for the next two days. The first day we saw Neyyar dam and Kovalam beach. The next day we went to Meenmutti waterfalls. So by 8 or so we started for Neyyar dam. Its about 20 km from the city. We took a KSRTC bus and started our journey. One amazing thing about Trivandrum is that the no of KSRTC buses are more than the number of city buses. There are lots of them. Sometimes 3 to 4 buses are stopping at one stop going to the same general direction. We reached Neyyar by afternoon. There was this looney woman in the bus we went. She was sort of leaning to vasu’s shoulder initially and then shifted to virus’s legs. I think she is a crack pot. Whatever when we got down she was followed us. I was taking a few snaps of the scenery when she suddenly jumped behind us and said, “Can you take a picture of me?” We said no and literally ran away from there. Luckily for us she saw a foreigner and started following him.

The breath taking beauty of Neyyar dam is worth saying. The watery expanse, the Murugan’s temple with lots of devotional songs and bhajans, the endless stream of devotees, the constant line of people taking bath in the water, it was all a unique sight. There is a Lion reserve right in the middle of the reservoir. There is a safari too. But it being Monday it was closed. But the boating was open. We met a German couple there who also wanted to go boating. Together with two other people we went for boating. Lions are supposed to roam around in the island and there are rumors of crocodiles being in the area. We didn’t want to find out whether there are crocs or not. So we didn’t put our hands in water. The ride was for 30 minutes. We had our lunch in the garden behind the dam. It was homemade khichdi and it was too good. Hurray for ak’s mom.

After the Neyyar dam, we started for Kovalam beach. Daddy was constantly saying that we will bath there. We were not so sure. We just had one extra set of clothes and didn’t was it to get wet. We reached there by 4.30 and run for the light house which closes at 5. We somehow made to it and climbed it. It was breathtaking on the top. It was one of the few views that one will ever see. The never ending expanse of sea on one side and the coconut trees covering the building on the other.

It was beautiful. There was such a calm and serene atmosphere on the top. The gentle breeze added to the effect. It was wonderful. One tends to forget all the things in the world, all the things that matter to him, all the attachments, the feelings, the people, the noise, the memories, everything. Our mind becomes blank and only the vast expanse of the sea filled my heart with warmth.

Was that too philosophical?? When I showed it to my friend, tears started coming from his eyes. (Not because he was moved by it; “why are you torturing me like this?”)

Anyways after coming down from the light house tower, we just changed and charged into the water. One amazing thing about the Kovalam beach is that it’s shallow for about 100m. One can really go deep into the beach. Of course there are life guards but they are not really needed. We played there for about 1 hour and then made our way back to ak’s house. The next day was at meenmutti waterfalls.

The meenmutty waterfall has an infamous history. It was at this place 6 years ago that 8 dental college students were drowned in flash floods when they were swimming in the water. We were not held back by it and went ahead to the falls. The falls is almost 45 km from the city, on the way to Ponmudy. It was a long journey. We started early. Real early! We started at 5.20 am. And that was real early for us. And the bus slowly wound the way around the small hills and curving roads and reached the waterfalls by around 7.30. The main entrance of the falls opens only at 8. So we waited for some time and took the pass and went inside. Another very interesting thing about this falls is that to reach the falls one has to trek in the jungle for about 2 kms.

And off we went deep into the jungle, clawing our way through the dense foliage removing branches and leaves and roots form the path. And at last we reached the falls. It was beautiful. Tell you what. This post is getting really long. I will continue the remaining journey in the part two of the Kerala trip.