God's own Country

We recently visited God's own country, Kerala, India. It is a state on India's Malabar coast. It is bordered by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Lakshadweep. Kerala is known for its majestic beaches and backwaters, Canals, Mountains and wildlife. Not only that, it also has Coffee, Tea and Spices plantation. Our personal experience was that crime in general seemed low compared to other parts of India and seemed quite safe for tourists.

The locals are respectful and hospitable.

There are many ways to explore Kerala. I am sharing some sample cities below and then will share our actual itinerary:

1. Option 1 - Cover one of the main cities, Coffee/Tea Plantation and the hill district of Kerala (Kochi - Wayanad - Munnar - Thekaddy)

2. Option 2 - Cover one of the main cities, visit spice, Coffee/Tea Plantation and Backwaters (Kochi - Munnar - Thekaddy - Alleppey)

3. Option 3 - Cover one of the main cities, Backwaters and beautiful beaches (Kochi - Alleppey - Kovalam)

These are just a few samples, there are many beautiful places to visit within Kerala. We really wanted to cover backwaters and had only 5 days to visit, option 2 worked best for you.

We covered - Kochi - Munnar - Thekaddy - Alleppey

There is so much to write here that I am actually going to split this article in 2 sections - one for Munnar and one for rest.

We spent 3 nights in Munnar which includes travel time from Kochi to Munnar and Munnar to Thekaddy.

Day 1 - Landed in Kochi from Delhi

The best way to reach Kerala is take a flight. All the major airports offer flights to Kochi, for local deals on flights and tickets, visit - makemytrip.com. Our flight from Delhi to Kochi was about 3 hours. Note, Kerala is in the Southern part of India and Delhi is the center of India so the distance is quite far for any potential road trips but its doable for those who want to explore India by road.

We landed and decided to take a little tea break. My Mom had packed us some delicious stuffed Parathas (Indian stuffed bread) and we enjoyed it with some tea. The weather was so nice, we ended up taking a little longer break than anticipated and then headed straight to Munnar. Munnar is about 4 hours drive from Kochi and the best way to get there.

We had hired a driver with private car who picked us up and stayed with us until the end of our trip.

Important Note:

Drivers sometimes will ask for more money in favor to show you more sightseeing like many waterfalls that Kerala has however you dont have to visit all. We met a group and they mentioned that their driver told them that he will show them 40+ waterfalls for a very high cost, they ended up asking him to show only 3. One of the major ones is on the way from Kochi to Munnar and generally should be included in your itinerary.

Feel free to negotiate and do your research before signing on the final amount.

Munnar

Spice Garden	Beautiful Plants all around the plantation

On our way to Munnar, we stopped by to enjoy the views of waterfall and to take a short tour of the Spice plantation that offers spices and Ayurvedic medicines.

The tour was actually very nice, there is no fee to enter the place however it helps if you buy something from their shop. The local person will give you the tour of the plantation and show you various plants and also talk about various medicines and herbs they use to make local medicines. You should know that Kerala is renowned for its traditional Ayurvedic treatments and has several renowned Ayurvedic institutions and hospitals. We actually did buy a few medicines like - Muscle Pain Oil and treatment for my Mother and hair oil for hair fall.

To report on the medicine :) - My mother said it actually helped her a lot. She has severe back ache and knees pain and it seemed to relieve some of that pain. My hair oil was good though I did not see any drastic improvement.

Important Note:

Feel free to take a look at everything they have to offer and purchase what you like. Don't feel pressurized in any way though. They don't negotiate a lot but try as much as you can.

After the little detour, we reached our hotel and were too tired to step out. We ordered some local delicacies for room service and devoured everything. We ordered - Kerala Malabar style Paratha, Prawns Ularthiyathu cooked with dried Coconut and curry leaves and simple chopped salad of Cucumber, Onion and Carrots.

Do not get me started on Prawns Ularthiyathu, this is the best Prawns curry I have ever eaten, soft, mildly spicy with soft and layered malabar paratha, we were in heaven and slept peacefully.

Next day, we had an early morning, we were booked for a little off-roading trip in a Jeep along with some more sightseeing.

The off-roading part is only about 20mins but fun and the driver took us to see Sunrise and amazing spots for breathtaking views. It took us about 3hours to cover everything but it was worth it.

Hanging Bridge	Views from Off-roading Trip	Waterfall

After the trip, our driver dropped us back to our hotel and we devoured a round of delicious and hot breakfast and washed it down with 2 cups of Tea each :). They had a separate section where they were making made-to-order Dosa and I got a Ghee Roast dosa and it was heaven..

Sweetened Banana Fritter (Gooey from the inside, crispy from the outside)	My delicious plate with yummies	Freshly made Ghee Roast Dosa (Clarified butter Dosa)

After our food trip, we took a little nap. We were back in the car in evening for some shopping

Munnar had some amazing Cotton Handloom shops that sell quality clothing at an amazing price. You can buy Kerala style Sarees, Cotton shirts for men and Muntu or Lungi. It is aa great souvenir for your friends or family.

We bought some Cotton shirts and Muntu/Lungi from here for our friends. You can see how they are weaving it in the picture here.

Munnar is also home to amazing Chocolates. You will see Cocoa trees at almost every corner. We bought a few small boxes for our friends.

Next day, we were due to go for Tea Tasting at a local Tea plantation however unfortunately

the tea estates were closed that day due to a holiday. I would definitely cover this in future. We ended up driving around the Tea estates which is allowed :) and enjoyed a little walk around the tea plantation.

We were looking for Darjeeling style dried Tea leaves and could not find that. The tea leaves powder, we found was actually the powder or as they call it the dust. Nonetheless, the tea powder was actually very good and we enjoyed some traditional Indian tea made with this powder.

We ended up chilling that day with some more shopping, strolls and finally an Ayurvedic Massage.

Note, that a lot of Ayurvedic treatment centers are not the modern Spas you may imagine. They have some basic facilities but provide a very clean room for the treatment. They sometimes may have shower facility which is more like bath from a bucket if you are comfortable with that.

We went for an oil massage with Shirodhara and Potli. This includes - Full body light massage with oil, Shirodhara - a classic Ayurvedic therapy or the practice of slowly and steadily dripping medicated oil or medicated decoctions on the forehead and finally Potli - An herb stuffed cloth is heated and tapped on body. They say a heated potli can help balance a person’s doshas and bring relief from a variety of chronic pain and soreness.

The treatment was wrapped up with steam in a traditional steam wooden box.

They recommend not to take bath immediately after the treatment. The recommended time was at least 60mins +.

We at our final dinner in Munnar and got ready to leave for Thekaddy the next day.

Cheers