South Kerala

Ok, time to finish posting about my holiday trips. After visiting Thailand, Chris and I flew back to Cochin. The flights were fine, the only notable thing is we had to sit in the Bangalore airport for several hours between flights, which wasn't very exciting, but we survived.

We got to Cochin at around 7 a.m. and our driver for the next 5 days picked us up and drove us to my apartment first. At my apartment I was able to unpack and repack my bag a bit and we explored a little. We went to breakfast over at the Bubble and then went up to see the pool on the roof of my building. Then we took a short nap (seeing as we were both running on next to no sleep from flying all night) and then met our driver again at around noon. We dozed off and on in the car on the way to Munnar. It was a beautiful drive, or at least the parts I saw were. We stopped at a number of waterfalls along the way and also a spice garden, where we were given a very nice tour for only $2 (100 rupees). We made it into Munnar soon after the sun had set and our driver dropped us off at our hotel. We dropped out bags and then headed out to see if we could explore the town a little. We ended up finding a local restaurant and had dinner, then we stopped at a spice shop and bought some handmade chocolate with cashews (very, very good!). Then we went back to the hotel and crashed.

Next morning we had breakfast and met our driver again. He took us up a mountain to a nature reserve area to see the Nilgiri Thar (a rare species of mountain goat) first. The view was beautiful and the goats were very unafraid of humans and therefore very close and easy to take pictures of. Then we headed to a dam nearby to see the lake and we went for a speed boat ride around the lake. It was a beautiful day to be on the water, even if only for a short time. The next stop was a place called Echo Point, which is really just a spot down at the end of the lake where you can yell and hear your echo. In reality it's an excuse for lots of vendors to set up shop and try to sell things. I did find some really cute earrings though. :) Then we went back to the spice shop and bought a few spices and some tea to take home.

That evening was New Year's Eve, so the hotel was hosting a party with a huge buffet, a DJ and some preplanned entertainment. It was outside, which was pretty cold, as Munnar gets down below freezing at night this time of year. But they had a couple bonfires going, so it wasn't too bad. The food was good, the entertainment was entertaining, and the DJ sucked. But it was pretty cool all around. Chris and I left the festivities early due to the cold and instead celebrated the new year from under the comfort of our warm blankets.

The next morning we had to get up reasonably early to grab breakfast and then head farther south and west to Kumarakom on the backwaters. We were a little delayed heading out due to the car not wanting to start in the cold temperature, but that was eventually fixed and we were on our way. We arrived in Kumarakom in time to get on the houseboat at around 2 p.m. The houseboat trip was much like the last one I went on, although the quality of this boat was a bit lower. But it was still very nice and relaxing and Chris and I took lots of photos.

The following morning we had breakfast on the boat and then, once we landed, we had a long drive down to Kanyakumari, the southern tip of India, across the border in the state of Tamil Nadu. Our goal was to get there before sunset so we could watch the sunset from the tip. Poor Chris was starting to not feel too great, presumably from car sickness, although he had done quite well on all the car rides so far. We stopped for a super late lunch and a short break at Kovallam beach and after that Chris started feeling even worse. As we were crossing the border into Tamil Nadu he got really sick, but wanted to press on anyways. Finally we realized it wasn't car sickness so much as it was food poisoning, probably from the food at breakfast on the houseboat. (There was a local dish that he tried and I didn't that we suspect was the culprit.) We eventually made it to the tip, just as the sun was setting, and then we scurried to our hotel so Chris could lay down and relax and get better. He did feel better in the morning, but still not great, and we had another long day in the car to get back up to Cochin so he could catch his flight that afternoon. Before we left we tried to see if we could get a flight for him out of a closer airport, but apparently all the flights were booked, so we had to give up on that idea and just face the long car ride. He survived the ride, despite our driver driving like a maniac trying to get us to the airport on time so Chris wouldn't miss his flight. And somehow, he did make it on his flight, even though we arrived at the airport only 15 minutes before his flight was supposed to takeoff.

It was a crazy end to a trip and I was very glad to get back home and relax a bit. I was also happy to go to the Bubble and have a nice non-indian meal with a nice glass of good, non-indian wine. :)