Kerala- A Complete Itinerary

I reached Cochin around 11am. After lunch we went to visit the huge Forane Church at Edappally . It is gigantic and i was surprised to see the magnitude of detail in it. It has a huge prayer hall which could sit hundreds. In the evening I visited the 'Marine Drive' where we rode a ferry which took us around the creek. We saw the sunset over there and also saw our INS - Vikramaditya.

Next morning we visited the cherrai beach. It was nice with strong waves lashing on the beach and I wanted to go for a swim but I had not planned a swim for today. After a couple of hours in the beach , we came back to the city and I had plans to visit the Athirapally(bahubali) waterfalls. It is away from the city and it took us a couple of hours to reach the place. It was November and the water was less but looking at the rocks you could imagine the force of water during monsoons.

Next day we made our way to Munnar. It was a long drive and we visited a couple of spice plantations on the way. Our room had a nice view of the tea plantations and the hills. In the evening we went to see acts of Kathakali dance and Kalaripayattu(Martial art form).

On the next day we went to Eravikulam national park which had incredible views of the valleys and tea plantations and then we went to Matupetty dam. Then we made our way to Thekkady throught the hills.

At the brink of dawn , next day , we went to visit Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary. We were taken on a boat on Periyar lake from where we could see elephants, wild boars and different birds that visit the sanctuary at this time of the year. After coming back from the tour which lasted for a couple of hours we came back to our hotel . I tried some of their local food. I was not familiar with the taste and so could not complete the meal. I had an elephant ride in the evening.

Next day we came to Alleppey. We had a calm and peaceful stay just beside the backwaters. It was a lazy afternoon for me. I stayed in the hammocks and tuned to slow relaxing music on my earphones. Had an early dinner and went off to bed early.

On the next day we had planned a one day houseboat experience in Alleppey backwaters. We got up at 12 am and stayed till next day 9am. We were served fruits as we got up. Then the entire day we roamed around the backwaters and we had a good seafood lunch. On the verge of sunset they tied the boat to the land and we got down and met a couple of french people from the next houseboat who were travelling through India for the past 2 months. After a hearty discussion we made our way back to our houseboats.

Next day we went to Kovalam . It is one of the longest beaches in India. It is really nice and you get to do surfing over here as well. We could find a fair population of foreigners here as well. There was a lighthouse which gave a bird eye view of the beach and the sea. There were numerous shops and shacks along the beach where you could shop or go for grabbing something to eat.

Next day we bid bye to Kerala and entered Tamil Nadu and went to Kanyakumari. My room had sea view and we could see the Vivekananda rock which I visited on a steamer boat. The boat was swaying a lot due to the rough waves in the region. We waited to watch the sunset. This ended my tour for Kerala and I made my

return on the next day.