With the hot summer heat upon us, we continued our tour of India and booked tickets to visit Kerala, a state to the southwest of Bangalore that boasts vasts amounts of tropical rain forests as well as mountains, which are cooler during the hot Indian summer. We flew to Cochin and immediately headed south to a town called Alleppey, which acts as the main port for the backwaters of Kerala. Our route was uneventful, except the traffic on the road was a little slow-moving at times:
Alleppey boasts one of the oldest seaports on the Arabian Sea and has extensive canals originally constructed to ferry goods to and from the seaport. The backwaters, which are comprised of a labyrinth of waterways and canals in southern Kerala, is a unique culture for the area where land and water are inseparable and acts as the Venice of India.
We spent the afternoon and evening relaxing on the Kettuvallam operated by Rainbow Cruises, which served great food (although they had to make an emergency beer stop along the way). Unfortunately, the cruise was not Green Palm certified, which is a certification that means the operators are trying to minimize their environmental impact. We saw only one boat that had the tell-tale solar panels on top.
Besides great cuisine, we enjoyed a bullock cart ride, an elephant ride and a boat ride in the Tiger Reserve (but saw no tigers).
Alleppey boasts one of the oldest seaports on the Arabian Sea and has extensive canals originally constructed to ferry goods to and from the seaport. The backwaters, which are comprised of a labyrinth of waterways and canals in southern Kerala, is a unique culture for the area where land and water are inseparable and acts as the Venice of India.We boarded a Kettuvallam, a houseboat created from a large boat originally designed to act as ferries and barges for carrying rice.
We spent the afternoon and evening relaxing on the Kettuvallam operated by Rainbow Cruises, which served great food (although they had to make an emergency beer stop along the way). Unfortunately, the cruise was not Green Palm certified, which is a certification that means the operators are trying to minimize their environmental impact. We saw only one boat that had the tell-tale solar panels on top.The following day took us on a mountain ride to a place called Spice Village (See Video) in Thekkaty, located near the Periyar Tiger Reserve.
Besides great cuisine, we enjoyed a bullock cart ride, an elephant ride and a boat ride in the Tiger Reserve (but saw no tigers).
From there, our trip took us north to tea country in Munnar. We did a home-stay arrangement (against the advise of our travel agent) and discovered the rustic style of experiencing India (no hot water for showers, really-really hard beds, bugs, and no towels, toilet paper, soap or top sheets). the scenery was fabulous:
Munnar is a picturesque little town located at about 6000 feet above sea level. It consists of sprawling tea estates established by the British in 1878 and was once the summer resort for the British government in South India.
The trip was a great way to escape the heat and, with a little Dramamine, proved to be a very relaxing and picturesque experience.
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