Kerala Trip, clubbed with Mysore and Melkote

Hi All, After a long gap, I am again writing this. Last few months were exciting for me. I had an operation :) and then I got a gods gift in the form my little angel 'Hari Priya'. Didnt really get time to log on to blogs..So here is the latest happening. After a prolonged planning completed a long tour of Kerala and few parts of Karnataka. Tour is of 11 days,out of which 6 days are per my plan and 5 days are as per a Package that I took from peacock holidays. Here is the tour in detail.
Day 1:

All of us, my wife,Hari Priya(daughter),mom, and In-laws started to Bangalore by Bangalore express from Kacheguda Station. Krishna Prasad(Engineering folks know him by KP) received us at Bangalore East Railway Station. Train was delayed by 30 mins. I actually wanted to get ready at station itself,but KP insisted that I come to his house. He took us to his home by his i10,which is very well maintained. His home is in  a very good locality and he turned out to be a great host. We had tiffin+cofee@his house and the cab guy came around 8AM. This cab was arranged by my manager and I thank him for helping us out in a new place. So,we started at 8AM to Mysore. But by the time we reached outside Bangalore,it was already 10.30. Horrible Traffic. We first went to Sri Rangapatnam(which is en route to mysore), an ancient Rangantha SwamyTemple on the banks of river Kaveri. It was my second visit to temple and this time there was little or no crowd. We had a great darshan and my mom and wife did some shopping at the shops there.

                        Ranganatha Swamy Temple



Then we went to Tippu's palace and Museum. It was OK,with lot of old paintings. After completing these three,we reached Mysore.I'd booked a room in Mysore Yatri Nivaas, a karnataka Tourism Hotel. The advantage is, I got a family room(4 bedded) for 900 rupees. I had to shell out 150 for 5th person. This is a better choice for budget travelers as in general, Mysore is costly when it comes to accommodation . A double room will cost more than 1000 rupees. So if you have time, book yatri nivas in advance,so that u will be getting it cheap, also its in the center of the city. We completed the lunch and started for Mysore Majaraja Palace. It started to rain and we had to wait for a while before we start. We went to palace around 2.30PM and immediately went into the main palace.Some people opt to roam around the palace grounds before  heading into the main palace,which is the residential palace for Kings of Mysore, woodayar's. We had good time watching over the magnificent architectural beauty of that palace. No matter how much we write , its not enough to describe that palace. Every inch of that palace is worth a million. We came out of the palace and had a small photo session. My little girl started crawling in that palace and we had a tough time managing her. Kids of this generation are really quick :).  After palace,we went to Brindavan Gardens. It was a long drive , some 20kms from  Mysore. Brindavan gardens, is very famous gardens in Mysore,and it shot to fame for the 'Musical Fountain'. Though every park these days has got a musical fountain, Brindavan Gardens was the first or one of the first to have it. So it became a tourist spot for all Mysore Tourists. Ticket is 15 rupees and there  was big line. Lot of Malayalees(keralites)were seen there,and our driver, Mr Shankar told us that its because of the Onam Holidays. Onam is a harvest Festival in Kerala. Coming back to the brindavan gardens,its not a big garden. I had lot of expectations  on  that,but it turned out to be a small place. The musical fountain was surrounded by 500 to 600 people and they started it around 7PM.Only 4 songs were played and the show was  over.Its a bit disappointing, but couldnt help. We went back to Mysore and had a sound sleep.

Day2

We started early on Day 2 and went directly to Chamundeswari Temple located on the top of Chamundi Hills. Here Karnataka's ex-chief minister,Mr.Yedurappa has come for the darshan and so Darshan was delayed to public.We had good darshan and roamed around for a while before descending. It was drizziling throughout  and it was misty.

            We 3 @Chamundeswari Temple

We headed  to a place called  'Nanjangud'.I went  to this temple,dedicated to lord siva,in 2009. I was shell shocked with the beauty of the temple.So I made sure I put this in this trip so that my mom and inlaws also can see it.The temple  was quite crowded and we purchased 100/- per head  ticket. We came out quickly(courtesy of the ticket).We had our breakfast at Arya bhavan.Once again we saw Mr.Yedurappa ,who came now to this temple :). After this temple, I pushed the driver to take me to melkote. Melkote has a great history.Please  google it to see the importance of the temple. It was a long drive to Melkote. There are 2 temples in melkote. 1.Cheluva Narayana Swamy Temple,which is in the village and the second one is Yogananda Narasimha temple ,which is on a hill. We first visited cheluva narayana Swamy temple and had a darshan of the lord . It was beautiful and blissful. He resembled the panduranga swamy(at least for me). We were told that the temple on the hill top will beclosed by 1PM and it was already 12.40. When we checked again they said it will be closed by 2PM.Since we got conflciting answers,we thought we shall climb it. There are around 150-200 steps,but very steep ones. My mom and father inlaw had tough time climbing them. I took my daughter and climbed the steps. When we went in,the temple  was closed for some alankaaram. We had to wait for a while and in the meanwhile,we had an excellent prasadam.:). Its always the case.Whenever I go to any Narasimha Sannidhi,swamy makes sure that I have prasadam first.We had a   photo session in the interim.  Its a very  good  location with excellent scenic beauty.

                    View from Temple
Finally we had the darshan of beautiful Narasimha and slowly descended the hill.We hit the Highway once again, had our lunch at 'HariPriya' hotel and reached Bangalore Station by 7pm.The only hicup was that,our vehicle was hit by a  Tavera from the back and the bumper  of our vehicle got damaged.Lucky that none of us got injured. After reaching the station,we had dinner and boarded 'Kanyakumari  Express' to Guruvayur.

Day3

We got down at Trichur which is some 20kms from Guruvayur. We had our breakfast at Railway canteen and enganged a taxi to Guruvayur. We hired an ambaasaador and he took 500/- for dropping us at Kausthubham Guest house. I'd already booked a family room at Kaustubham Guest house. The procedure is listed at http://www.guruvayurdevaswom.org/accommo.html. The only glitch is,their checkin-checkout times are from 3PM-3PM.So, they booked the room for me from prev day 3pm to current day  3PM.It was already 11AM by the time I reached Guruvayur and it means I just have got 4 hours.It was Onam time and they said extension is not possible.But I persuaded them to give me time till next day morning. They finally agreed..It  was  a tough thing to do,as I cant speak malayalam and they dont know anything other than Malayalam.Finally,we went to our room. Room was good, but stinking.We immediately got ready for Darshan . In Kerala, gents are not allowed in to temple,unless they wear Dhoti ,that too without shirts/banians. Ladies are not allowed unless they wear saree.Since we knew the rule in advance(My Tiruvanantapuram trip in 2010 taught me this)we went to the temple in the prescribed wear. It was a long queue. We kept all valuables in the room itself as we were warned by our uncle that Guruvayr is famous for snatchers.We had to wait for around 1.5 hours in the queue. It was a long queue in serpent model. The temple itself was small,but the area is huge. Finally we had glimpse of Sri Krishna :). It was  a pleasant sight. After having darshan we went to some other small temples in that area and reached the room. We had lunch at the Kaustubham Restaurent which is in the guest house itself. The first taste of kerala food. The rice was different, it was neither brown rice,nor white rice.but round rice . We took pickles from home,so managed with them for that lunch. After lunch we took an hours rest and then hit the road for shopping. We shopped till 7PM and went back to room We hit the bed early to catch the Ernakulam Passenger at 6.45AM in the morning

Day4

We woke up early and caught a train to Ernakulam. A passenger train. Reached Ernakulam at 9.20AM. We had breakfast at 'Balaji Woodlands' a residential railway canteen of IRCTC. Once that is done,we checked in at a place called 'Annapoorneshwari Tourist Home' which is very near to hotel. Again I took a family room. Today was a rest day kind of. We had lunch and dinner at room itself,by bringing parcels from a veg restaurant called 'Arya Bhavan' . Here we get Steamed rice and its more like an Andhra food. Called up Peacock Travels guy, Mr.Nishad and he confirmed that the driver will come to us at 8AM next day. In this trip, I took a package for Munnar/Thekkady and House boat.So next 5 days are taken care of by Peacock Travels.

Day5

Next day,we got up early and made sure we are ready by 8AM. Mr.Benjamin was the cab drivers name and he turned up on time.We started to Munnar by an A/c Tavera. Mentioned AC in specific because I request all of you also to hire an AC vehicle. You may not need to cool air,but you certainly need some hot air in the travel,so a heads up. En route we saw very huge buildings. One thing about kerala is, there is no highway concept here. Even if its highway,you dont really feel like it is,as there are houses all the way. The houses in this route are big, with vast ground and plantation. Quite a rich feel. One more observation is that all the houses have an angular finish,to enable the rainwater to go down. As the rainfall is quite high in these areas,it is a needed thing.We could feel the change in the environment as we can spot the mist and fog at the distance. Then we saw a small waterfall. Fresh water was coming down the hill. We had a small photo session there and headed to another waterfall. Its quite big. We ate corn and had good time there.One more photo session and we headed to Munnar. We saw several Churches in the way and one observation is that they all have 'Dhwaja sthambam' exactly the way our temples have. May be a cross culture activity. The first sight of Munnar is awesome. Full of tea plantation, East,west,north,south,wherever you see you just have TEA.It was an amazing sight for us,who never saw such plantations in the past. We were taken to a 'Spice Garden;,where all the spices are cultivated. Charges per head is 100/-. A guide, Mr.Lawernce was there to explain us about different spices,the cultivation types and the use of them. They can be used in both cooking as well as medicinal purposes. It was a decent garden where we could see all the spice trees.It was raining constantly and so we went directly to the hotel 'Las Palmas Resort' and checked in . It was a very good hotel with good facilities. We had lunch at the 'Doof' restaurant in the LasPalmas itself and headed for Bloosom park. Bloosom Park is a park where they cultivate several flowers, but when we went there it was just Mud.It was not worth,but since its one of the tourist spots,we went there. May be its not right season for flowers. After this we did some shopping at Munnar town(old munnar) and headed back to Munnar. We again had the dinner at 'Doof' and hit the bed. My baby caught fever during the night and it continued for a while. Its no surprise that the temperatures were so low, even we had tough time. No surprise for an infant to catch cold.

      Background is not a wallpaper, its Munnar :-)

Day 6
We had breakfast at Doof(complimentary ;) )and started our full day Munnar trip. We first went to flower garden. Here there are different types of flowers which are both cultivated and sold.Its a kind of Nursery. From there we went to 'Mettupatty Dam' En route there are lot of places worth looking We had photo sessions at all scenic places. Mettupatty Dam was big and the water level also was quite high. From there we went to a place called 'Eco Point'. It was more like 'Ooty Lake'. There are lot of shops and we did some shopping here. From here ,we went to a small hotel in Munnar town and had our lunch. We missed 'Kundala Dam' as we had to cover Tea Museum and Rajmala. We headed straight to Tea Museum. Ticket was 75/-. It is worth. Here they showed a 45min Documentary on the history of Munnar. After that a theoretical explanation on  preparation of Tea and then practical demonstration was shown. There was a Tea store there and mom bought 'Green Tea'. By the way there is a variety called 'White Tea',which is priced at 8000 per Kg. Looks like it has very good for health. There was a complimentary Tea which was given to all the tourists. After that we had a photo session and headed to Rajmala. Rajmala is a wild life sanctuary ,which houses 'Mountain Goat'. This species is found at only 2 places in the world. Australia and in Rajamala,India. We have to buy a ticket of 15 rupees per head to go in. There is a catch here. Again we have to buy a ticket of 35rs Per head for the bus(they dont allow pvt vehicles). We boarded the bus and it took us to the mountain top. En route we saw a big waterfall, perhaps the biggest in the trip. The sound was so huge, man its really a treat to see it. We finally stopped at Rajmala and we immediately saw 2 Mountain Goats. We wandered for a while there, and there is nothing much,except the mist. So we came down by the bus again, and boarded our Tavera . We did some shopping in Munnar town and went to Hotel. We had our dinner at 'Doof' and hit the bed.

   Group Photo@Tea Plantation
Day 7

We got up early and  completed the breakfast by 8.30 at Doof. We started to 'Thekkady' by our Tavera. The route to Theakkady was very good. We went into the Tea Plantations and were really mesmerized by the beauty of that. We had good photo shots there.  There was another water fall,which was barricaded, we stayed there for a while and then headed to Thekkady. The route to Thekkady was full ghat. Ghat is fine,but it is snake like ghat and we all had some sick feeling. We entered the town of Thekkady and we could feel that we are back to normalcy, w.r.t the climate. Climate in Munnar was so cold that we felt like being in a different country. So thekkady is the place where there is a 'wild life sanctuary'. We directly checked in at 'Hotel Silver Crest'. They welcomed us with Orange juice.We headed from hotel to that sanctuary. Here the place is famous for boating. The entry to the park is 25/- and boating is 150/-.. So we purchased both and waited for the boat. There are specific timings. The last one was at 3.30 and we were ready for that. There is numbering on the ticket and we are supposed to sit according to them. Its a double decker that we boarded,and we are on upper deck. The boats name is 'Jal Raja' . The trip started on time. We could spot a Bison, Samba Deer, few Wild Boars. Its not a great cruise as such. It was through that periyar lake and the atmosphere is the only one that gave some consolation for the money we put on this trip. The trip concluded by 5.30 and we walked back to the Tavera. We did some shopping and hit the bed early.

            Wild Life Sanctuary , Thekkady

Day 8

We had the complimentary breakfast at Silver crest and headed to 'Alleppey'. Route was partly ghat. No big places worth mentioning. We travelled through a town called Changannachery and here, Mr Nishad, the poc of Peacock Travels met us and asked for the feedback. It was a feel good factor. From here we went to Alleppey and man what a sight. I never knew that the volume of Backwaters can be so big. It was like a sea to itself. There are lot of House boats, and we boarded our boat, 'Choice' a luxary one. It has an upper deck where there is a dining table along with 5 chairs. There is a 42'' TV, several Movie CD's. There was an excellent sofa set. It was royal. In the lower deck,there are 2 Bedrooms. Both of them have attached toilets. The windows in the bedrooms are flexible,and one can open them to see the backwater from bedroom itself. The rooms are equipped with Air Conditioners. However they operate only between 9pm to 6AM. Along with the Sarang(the one who drives the boat) Mr Prabhu,there was also a Cook, Mr Joseph. So after formal introduction and welcome drink(Lime water), we started the curise. The boat slowly started through the backwaters and moved through the villages Here majority of the villages depend on the boats. There are landing places,like bus stops. The passenger ferry's drop passengers at those landing places It was a different world. Joseph turned out to be a good cook. The cruise started at 12 Noon and stopped at 1.30PM for lunch. We gave specific instructions that we are pure vegetarians and not even an egg is considered. So he made good lunch for us. After  lunch we again started our cruise. At 4.45 there was a small trouble with the engine and the boat stopped. They repaired it and we again started . By 6.15, the cruise came to a halt. As per the guidelines, no house boat is allowed to travel from 6PM to 6AM. So we stayed on the boat and completed our dinner. We turned on the AC at 9 and hit the bed.

          View from our HouseBoat
Day 9

We woke up early and the cruise again started at 6.30AM. We had idly for the breakfast and by the time we completed, it was almost 8. The boat slowly reached the harbor by 9AM. We got down the house boat and again boarded our Tavera.From there we went to Cochin. The route was plain(not a ghat). We headed to St Francis Church, Baslica and the church where Vasco Da Gama was originally buried(his remains were later taken to Portugal by his grandson). We then went to chinese fishing nets,where a different technique is used to catch fish. Portuguese Museum and Jewish Synagouge were closed as it was friday. We did good deal of shopping there and again went to 'Arya bhavan'(see day 4) for lunch. Cochin is a big town.Its like our Visakhapatnam. A port city. There are many industries. Its a natural harbor, so there is no  beach in the vicinity. We went to Marine Drive(a place where we can have a stroll,adjacent to sea,but its not a beach). From there we went to Railway Station . We had a train at 11.35 , Mangalore Express to Trivendram. The train came around 11.45 and we boarded it to our last destination, Tiruvanantapuram.

Day 10

The train reached station at 4.50AM and we tried looking for an accommodation in the station itself. Only dormitories were available. So we took a family room near station at 'koodiyal tourist home' which is a one minute walk to Railway station. Its opposite to Bus stand(inter city bus stand). We started to Ananta Padmanabha Swamy temple. We went there in 2010 when the gold was not in the news. I could see lot of difference in  the environment. Tight security was in place. As I said in Day3,we are aware of the temple rules and went there in Uniform :). We had darshan in about 40 mins time and we came out and did little shopping. From there we went to room and then had lunch in the room itself( parcel :) ). After lunch,around 3Pm,we went down, engaged an auto for 200 rs and went to Kovalam Beach. We had an excellent time at beach and were drenched with water. There is a good facility of bathrooms there and we are allowed to take bath and change clothes at 15/- per head. After enjoying for about 1.5 hours in sea water,we went to main market in Trivendram. We did shopping for about 2 hours. We didnt know that it was krishnasthami for Kerala. Looks like they have it on a different day. So suddenly from no where,thousands of kids,all dressed up as Krishna and Radha turned up and a procession started. Due to this,traffic was diverted and no autos were available. We walked to our room (1.5kms) and had our dinner en route. We hit the bed early to catch a train to Secunderabad,next day morning.

       PadmanabhaSwamy temple Maha Gopuram

Day11 & 12

Checked out at the hotel at 6AM and reached Railway Station by 6.15AM. We boarded Sabari Express and headed home. we reached Hyd ,the next day afternoon 2PM. Train was late.

It was a good trip.We had really good time and I am happy to show them to my mom and in-laws too. So thats it guys, this years trip is done..And I am planning for something big next year..See you soon.