that awkward moment when you came back from Kerala on the 31st of January and its taken you this long to write a blog post.
I don't know where the time has gone since I last wrote a blog post! I've been really busy at school but I'm back to write this long overdue post.
On January 21st we landed in Kochi, Kerala, India. Kerala is located on the coast of south India. On the coast it is known for its palm lined beaches and backwaters. Further inland large hills support tea and spice plantations. We left Perth on the 20th of January and came back on the 30th. Because Kerala has many destinations to go to that are quite far away from each other but do not have an airport, we hired a driver through an agency who was with us the whole trip. It did involve a lot of driving which sucks for someone with travel sickness, but the longest leg we did was 5 and a half hours. Although the actual driving part was nauseating, absorbing and admiring the scenery made it worth it.
Munnar was our first destination and we stayed at the Mountain Club Resort. We stayed there for 3 nights.
Munnar has beautiful tea gardens on large hills that you see every time you go somewhere. The only down side is everything was quite far away from the hotel so we had limited choices in food and had to drive everywhere. Some of the notable places we went to were:
The photo points for the tea gardens We just asked our driver to stop anywhere on the road to take photos. Gazing at the landscape is a nice thing to do and it's free!
Eravikulam National Park (With the highest point in Kerala 2695m above sea level) In the national park you get a bus up to a track and then you walk the rest. You can see the goats there as well as the breathtaking views. The highest point in south India, 2695m above sea level, can also be found here.
Rose Gardens which is a botanical garden with vibrant flowers and plants.
Thekkady is known for it's spice plantations and tiger reserve. We stayed at the Mountain Courtyard for 2 nights. Everywhere you drive and go you see spices and plants everywhere; from cardamon and black pepper to bananas and herbal plants. My favourite places that we went to are:
Kadathanadan Kalari centre martial arts show which is just where they perform traditional martial arts with weapons, inner peace and fire.
The spices everywhere Literally everywhere you go there will be spices. Even on the outside of our hotel you could see through the fence all of the cardamon plants.
Jeep safari We booked a jeep that drove us around half on road, half off road. The off road ride was awesome because it was so bumpy and windy.
Alleppey is known for its house boat trips along the tranquil Kerala backwaters. It is very humid and hot. We stayed at the Lemon Tree for 2 nights. The highlight of Alleppey was the boat ride (We didn't stay overnight but that is what the house boats are known for).
Cochin was the last leg of the trip. Cochin is mainly city and is more commercialised. We stayed 1 night at the Dunes hotel. You have more freedom to walk around in Cochin and you can scout around for food. The most tourist-y thing we did was go to Fort Cochin which was cool to see the Dutch streets.
I really enjoyed visiting a part of India which I'm not traditionally from. Kerala was so beautiful and made me value where all of our tea and spices come from. I would defintely recommend paying a visit to Kerala and the rest of south India.
You can watch my video on it which shows our trip in a lot more detail. I also reviewed all of the places we went to so if you want a more detailed review check out my reviews here.