A Journey by Rail, Road, Water and Air to Gods Own Country

Train Journey (Day 1)

After hectic schedule of Diwali preparations, visiting friends and pooja (prayers), we, along with a friend and his family, started the trip to Kerala.  It was going to be first train journey for my two and half year old (young!!!) son.  He was very excited and we were very nervous J

We reached Yeshwantpur railway station and I was amazed by the facilities available at station.  Some of the facilities like ramp for overhead bridge impressed me a lot.  After boarding the train and settling down, we had dinner and our journey started.  At this time I realized that travelling with kid by train is actually very difficult.  Somehow my wife managed to sleep in a middle seat with my son.  I also managed to fit myself in the top seat.  In the morning, my son kept jumping from one seat to another (eventually fell without hurting himself much.  Thank God!!!) and had fun with train journey.  He conveyed his excitement by repeatedly saying “Papa chook chook train!!!”  We wanted to play scrabble in train but skipped the idea.  Eventually we reached Kottayam at 10AM and it was a pleasant weather with temperature in high twenties and humidity in fifties.

Kumarakom (Day 2)

Cab was waiting for us at the train station and our resort was almost 20KM away.  After one hour journey through narrow roads, never ending canals and unlimited scenery, we reached our resort, Backwater Ripples.  I was mesmerized by the beautiful nature.  I could see the swimming pool with a backdrop of Kerala backwaters and houseboats in it.  It looked like heaven to me.  After a light breakfast and tea break, we checked into our rooms, which were facing garden and kids play area.  All the 3 kids (my son and my friend’s daughters) directly went to the play area to satiate their urge to play.  And all this while I was still feeling the rhythm of train journey J

All of us got ready for swimming and wonderful view of backwaters greeted us again.  We spent more than an hour in the pool.  Except my friend’s daughters, nobody knew swimming so we just spent leisure time in pool.  I kept walking from one end to another and realized that it was a good exercise.  Beer was the only thing that I missed at that time.  

After the relaxing session in swimming pool, we hit restaurant to appease our appetite.  Food was equally good and satisfying.  This was followed by a long photography session.

Eventually none of us could say no to afternoon nap after such a beautiful, relaxing and memorable experience.  I woke up after an hour to hit the gym for some exercise, while my friend experienced a romantic sunset.  He clicked very good photographs of sunset.

After having few drinks at our rooms we headed out for dinner and small walk.  A short session of cards was also held but that was primarily spent in teaching Anju (my wife) how to play it.

Houseboat in Gods Own Country (Day 3)

Next day after breakfast and packing, we left for much awaited houseboat leg of journey to Allepey.  One hour road journey followed by a small walk took us to our houseboat.  As soon as we entered the boat, I knew that it is going to be once in a lifetime experience.  It was a boat with 2 bedrooms rooms with attached baths, an open dining and sit-out area in the front and kitchen at the back. 

We were welcomed with fresh lime water and our ride through the backwater started.  After settling into comfortable clothes for humid weather, we had a session of photography.  I wanted to capture each and every frame of the scenic view. 

After almost one hour of sailing, anchor was dropped to serve lunch.  They served one of the best fried fish I have ever had.  After the delicious fish and chicken, boat started cruising again.  There were so many houseboats in the backwaters and it was a beautiful sight.  All this while I had almost forgotten about rains in Kerala and suddenly Rain God decided to remind me of His powers and it started pouring heavily.  We had to drop anchor again because of heavy winds but that was only for 10-15 minutes.  Among the chit chat and gossiping, we didn’t realize that it was 5PM, time for boat to drop anchor for the night. 

We were served with tea and pakodas in the evening.  This was followed by feeding kids and putting them to sleep.  We negotiated with houseboat guy to switch on AC earlier than scheduled time and it took us less than expected time to convince him.  After all it was a matter of shelling out few extra bucks. 

We started playing scrabble with drinks but the whole focus was shifted when our friends started singing their favorite songs.  We also joined them  and it turned out to be amazing time.  Our boat was rocking regularly by the waves created by speeding motor boats and other boats.  I must say that feeling of alcohol mixed with rocking boat is an experience in itself.  I was never sure if it was alcohol effect or boat effect J

The singing session was followed by delicious dinner and then we went off to sleep.  Sleeping on not your usual bed coupled with rocking boat didn’t let me sleep for long and eventually I got up at 5.  Boat team was preparing morning tea and breakfast.  I took few more photographs of the view and eventually we started cruising at 7:45. 
After about one hour of cruising in the backwaters among so many houseboats, we reached our destination.  In my opinion except mosquitos, it was one of the best trips I have ever had.  Even though my wife has different opinion, I am going to plan another trip to houseboat in future.

Poovar (Day 4)

Houseboat stay was followed by 4 hour road journey to Poovar.  It is around 40KM from Trivandrum, which is capital of Kerala.  During the whole journey, I was amazed by so much greenery in the state.  We stayed at a resort called Isola Di Cocca, which means Island of Coconut and it was the same in literal sense.  After lunch and little rest, we decided to go and relax near the swimming pool.  We didn’t go for swimming as it was raining heavily.  It was a beautiful sight with river, sea and backwater merging into each other. 

As rain slowed down a bit, we decided to go for the beach across backwater.  Only option was to go through boat and luckily rain stopped by the time we reached there.  Kids enjoyed a lot at beach with sand toys and waves.  I wanted to go further in water but my inability to swim among high waves was a big concern.  We spent 45 minutes at beach and looking at the kids excitement, we decided to visit Kovalam beach next morning.  After clicking lots of photos we came back to our resort and got rid of all the sand J. 

We wrapped the day by couple of drinks followed by dinner.  I could still feel the boat rocking.  Looks like hangover of the boat is stronger than that of any liquor J

Poovar (Day 5)

We had plans to go for swimming next day morning but had to change our plan due to nagging rains.  My friend’s kids still wanted to go for swimming however we decided to relax in our room.  At around 12 noon, we decided to go to Kovalam despite rains.  As they say ‘luck favors the brave’, rain stopped as soon as we reached Kovalam beach.  It was a good weather and beach was shallow as compared to the one we visited previous day.  As luck would have been, Harsh’s love for his papa was at its peak that day and he didn’t let me go to water.
  

Somehow I kept going to water and came back when Harsh started crying.  After not so clean (L) experience with ‘Pay & Use’ baths, we kept roaming around Kovalam area for lunch but our luck had ran out of favor.  Since it was post 3PM, most of the restaurants were closed and we chose not to go to few opened ones as they were serving only vegetarian food J.  Eventually, we reached our resort and had sandwiches at coffee shop.

My friend took his kids for fishing and we relaxed in our room for some more time.  Guess what!!! they were not able to catch any fish J.  This was followed by chit chat, gossiping, round of dance by kids, packing and dinner. 

Home Sweet Home (Day 6)

Next morning we had early breakfast and left for airport.  Check-in process was smooth and flight was also equally smooth.  After bidding good bye to friends (DDLJ style), it took us one hour to reach home from airport as there was very less traffic on road due to Karnataka Rajyotsva. 

This trip definitely left a hangover, which will take its own sweet time to wear off.  I liked the quietness of place, greenery and houseboat stay.  I had such vacation after a long time and last 5 days were well spent.