My stay at God's own country

Lost & Found

Have you ever felt this unwavering urge to disappear, shun all the city noises and listen to the voice within?? There are times when we require to shut down our RAMs and get ourselves out of the rut, and that’s when the buzzer goes off and you know, it’s time to find a solution. For me, the solution is to ‘travel’, cause it’s travel alone that gives you a chance to know various cultures, things, and of course new possibilities. Here, I share my experience about Kerala, the various tourist places, its people, and everything I came in contact with.
Things you’ll need: * Sunscreen * Cotton clothes * Shades * mosquitoes repellent and most important * a sense of wonder and an empty vessel aka your brain.

So, I traveled to Kerala in an offseason i.e in June but still, it was so worth it. Okay let’s begin, I took a flight from Delhi to Kochi, my hotel, Orchid Highlands, was in Munnar which is a 3-hour run from Cochin International Airport by car, I booked a pack in which I got a driver, who would take me to different places and tell me about them. Luckily, for me, my driver was a native of Kerala, he knew a lot about it.
My trip was a short one, was about for 5 days so, I had to make use of every bit of my time. It’s due to this reason that my journey started the minute I landed at the Airport. The first place I visited, was this food court which served delectable Sambhar and Dosa, I gulped all of this while enjoying the pleasant view of lush green tropical forests, as I sipped the ginger tea which felt so cozy, warm, and refreshing all at the same time.
Then I took off to spice garden -’ Hindustan spice and herbs’, it was spread in less than 1-acre area but was so luxuriant that it was heartwarming. I was accompanied by a guide, who taught me about the uses of different spices. From nutmeg to cinnamon everything was present there untouched, free from pesticides and fertilizers, in short- organic. So, on my way out, I bought a couple of products -their handmade chocolates, head oil, spices(of course), face cream, and honey. After this I went straight away to my hotel, my hotel room had a nice view — clouds gliding over mountain tops covered with thick green flora, just what I wanted after a tiring day.

Day-2:

Fully charged, I left the hotel at 9 A.M sharp. 1st option I had, was to visit an amusement park, I chose not to, cause I was more concerned about doing new things, not doing old things at a new place, Nah! period.
I booked my tickets for Kathakali and martial arts show scheduled at 5 p.m and then took off to tea gardens, after which I went to the Ripple tea factory. There we were explained about the types of tea, how it is made, processed, and preserved, they even showed a movie about it all. At that moment, I felt a moment of gratitude, cause I never thought that it takes so much time, labor, and effort to make tea available to us, city-dwellers. And here I thought, it is as simple as pouring hot water over tea bags(#greentealover)… anyhow it’s not, now I know. After this, I had a national park on my to-visit list, which was not that interesting, to be honest, but was compensated enough by the next stop- floral garden. It was refreshing and revitalizing, it had flowers, plants, and shrubs of different sizes, colors, textures, availability, and usage.
It was almost 4:15 when I came out of the garden, and barely made it to the Kathakali show!! The show was dramatic and intriguing, the expressions, makeup, costumes everything was so right on, there, I came to know that Kathakali is the oldest dance form in India. It was nice to see that the hall was packed to its capacity, and still better to see how the people of this state are preserving the essence of their culture. After the dance, there were martial arts where the encounters were so close that it made my hair stand on their ends. The show went on till 7, after which I went to my hotel, it was my last night there.

Day-3:

I checked out from the hotel and headed to the houseboat. On my way, I visited Honey garden where they taught about varieties of honey, from pomegranate to Brahmi, and their individual health benefits. There again, I bought a few products few essential oils, and honey. I was heading towards Alleppey houseboats, the backwaters of Kerala, when I got there, the sight was amusing there were about thousands of boats in the lake that seem to have no end or shore. The stay was made comfortable by the crew members who served delicious lunch consisting of fish curry, rice, curd, sambhar, and chappatis, it was fulfilling. For those who suffer from seasickness, it’s not that bright an option, cause after some time on that boat I started to feel dizzy and delirious. That boat had two stops- one at the local market and the other near one of the shore, at night. At the local market, I bought freshly cut Naariyals(coconuts). This stop was great, in the sense that many boats stopped there so one could interact with the people, on the other boats, they all were very kind and amiable. Then the boat moved to its next stop where it stayed for the night. When you are in a boat on a sea-like lake, you don’t have much to do so I started fishing while sitting on the boat’s deck, couldn’t catch any, that’s a different story but, for experience sake, it was enjoyable. After eating dinner I retired to bed, wasn’t as comfortable as my hotel room but given the fact it was on a boat, it was fine.

Day-4:

The next morning I checked out, off to the next place, Thekkady. There I booked Hotel Treetop, where we got bungalows to live in, the architecture was colonial and rustic. I was welcomed with a face towel soaked in essential oils along with a mango drink, was quite relieving after a 2-hour long road trip. The hotel also had an infinity pool, where I placed my swimming lessons to a test and I failed! After this embarrassing failure, I headed towards a full body massage with Shirodhara in a nearby massage center. I won’t lie, that 1-hour massage left my skin supple and head lighter which was much needed! I came back, had dinner, and booked for a jungle safari for the next morning.

Day-5:

The safari started at 5 a.m and it took approximately 1-hour to reach the site on the jeep. There were no tigers or any carnivores but I did see elephants through a distance cause, the instructor said that they can be quite destructive at times. After that, we went to a couple more spots including a hilltop, the view was simply breathtaking and gave me this weird sensation of hope and possibilities. That much tranquillity was hard to handle, it was so empowering.
On my way back to the hotel I was filled with positivity and waved at every kid that I saw and they waved back, such an enriching experience was worth every penny. Time was not the luxury I had at that moment otherwise, I would have certainly enrolled in 23 other thrilling activities including- elephant rides, night safari et cetera. Before leaving for Bengaluru there were a couple more places I needed to visit to conclude my stay in Kerala, yes I missed out on Kanyakumari and a few other places due to lack of time but, whatever places I visited I wanted to make sure it was thorough and through visit or at least I tried to.
Next stop- Ambalavayal Heritage Museum near Wayanad hills. The absolutely stunning museum, had ancient collections, artifacts, and the story behind them, their maintenance everything was just superb and quite knowledgeable. Then I headed towards Karnataka Emporium to buy some souvenirs, the place was good but personally, I felt the prices were a little outside my budget so I didn’t buy much.
The next stop had historical relevance, it was where Vasco da Gama was buried after which he was taken to his homeland Portugal, St.Francis Church, the oldest European Church in India. After visiting the Church, I went to visit the Arabian sea, I have to say the power of the tides was tremendous almost scary as they roared in an otherwise peaceful environment, the Arabian sea was my last stop at Kerala after which I ferried from Kochi port, as that was the quickest way to reach Cochin International Airport. There I was again, still battling against time, this time it was very close I swear, I could have missed my flight if I hadn’t taken the ferry route.

On my way to Bengaluru, I just recollected all my thoughts and visuals that were inside my head, it made me realize that ‘city-people’ love to complicate life, make it complex, while, the real joy is experienced in small, little things or if I may say, in a pause.

Kerala, on a whole, was an amazing choice right from the spell bounding places and scenes, to the people, from my driver to the school children all were amazing. It’s a place which I’ll visit again soon, but with a little more time. Here, I lost an arrogant and selfish viewpoint and found a more holistic approach towards life and myself. Sometimes, all we need is a change of place to know ourselves even better, to love ourselves even more, and to count our blessings more often.