Love is Everything

Pic from Shikara

Alappuzha – still more romantically known as Alleppey – is the hub of Kerala's backwaters, home to a vast network of waterways and more than 1000 houseboats. Wandering around the small but chaotic city centre, with its modest grid of canals, you'd be hard-pressed to agree with the 'Venice of the East' tag.

We started the day trying to find the best houseboat or a Shikara. Let me tell you the difference between them, if you really want to enjoy the cool breeze, water and everything that the natural backwaters has to offer, you should go for a Shikara. Its an open boat. In case you want to enjoy the romantic time with your pair, you know what I mean, go for a houseboat. 

Over 100kms of Tree Plantation in Kerala

You can rent a houseboat for a day or for day and night as well, depending on the time you like to spend. As we didn’t had much time and our plan was to enjoy nature, we booked a Shikara for 2 hour journey. He took us inside the backwaters, at one point of time, it looks like its an ocean, but its not. There were Lotus plants all over the water without any flowers as it was not a flowery time. I remember that we too had Lotus plants at our place, but they never gave any flowers, God knows why. I thought of taking some seeds with me, but the seed would have died when parents will reach home.

House Boat

It was a nice boatride, one of the best or we can say only event in Allepey. The ride consists of peace, just don’t think anything, sit light, relax and enjoy the nature. They even have beds inside the boats, if you want to take a nice nap and music systems in case you wanna dance.

As per my thinking, you have not done anything in Kerala, if you have not drink Coconut water. So we stopped our boat for a drink, it was really cool. They may cut coconut right in front of you from trees and give a fresh one to you. In this small Kerala trip, all I ever think is about Love. Keralas a lovely place where people generally go for a honeymoon or with friends. But I was there with my folks, it was my love for them that made us to visit Gods Own Country. In the end, whats matter is Love and Love is everything.

Next we headed for lunch where we had the special red colored medicinal water of Kerala and then finally came back to Chennai.

Thekkady-Periyar National Park

Warriror Pose

On the 2^nd day of my family trip, we started from Munnar early morning to cover few side scenes and finally reached Thekkady-Periyar wildlife sanctuary. It is known as one of the world's most fascinating natural wildlife reserves. The main adventure inside sanctuary is to take a boat ride in the Periyar lake. It is conducted by the forest department and Kerala Tourism. It takes us inside the jungle and we may witness animals roaming around in the wild without any boundations. Deer, wild elephants, Incredible birds are common but what it difficult is to get a good view of Tiger, Lion and other wildies. They are generally hidden in the jungles and if you are going in rainy season, there are even less chances that they may come to the lake to drink water. We were lucky enough to spot one Lion and few wild elephants. People went crazy when they saw them, I was feeling weird. I understand that its lucky to spot the Lion but whats the point of going crazy over it, we can always see them in Zoo, but later I think that’s the point of going in the Jungle instead of Zoo. All of them started capturing them in their high fi cameras, but you cannot capture nature, you have to feel it.

Shahrukh Pose

There are other attractions in Thekkady like Elephant ride in jungle, spice garden visit, but they were too costly and not of much worth, so we can say that the only thing important is Periyar Wildlife sanctuary, its kind of a full day picnic with a group. Adventourous activities also include boat ride i.e. night camping, staying in jungle for 2-3 days but it has to be planned in advance with the officials. It is only possible if you have lot of time to spend in Thekkady. The very same day we started our journey to Allepey, so that we can spend more time exploring it rather than travelling again in morning. 

Kerala: Gods Own Country

Mom Dad

Kerala is also known as Gods own country and I had an opportunity to show this beautiful green place to my parents. Mom, Dad always wanted to visit Chennai and have a look at the place where I am staying and if anything good nearby. I thought its best to go for Kerala instead showing few time pass locations in TN Kerala has a lot of things to offer in addition to greenery. I applied for leaves in my company and fortunately everything was settled up, again there is always one reason for things to turn your side or otherwise. Next day, parents booked one way flight ticket and I booked train tickets from here, else it would have been very costly.

Kathakkali

Finally the day arrived and mom dad came to Chennai, we booked a cab from airport to my room. We had a special dinner not just because they brought different types of pickles, sweets and namkeen but because they were here, the very first time. Soon we headed for railway station to catch our train for Aluva (Kerala). It’s the nearest station to Munnar (a Hill station). We had our cab booked in advance to pick us up from Aluva, so that we don’t have to waste any time after reaching there in looking for cab.

Different expressions in Kathakkali

Journey from Aluva to Munnar is full of greenery. We stopped at few places on the way to had lunch and side scenery. For a traveler like me, it was not much but still worth watching. There were two waterfalls on the way, they provided quite a view, one side waterfall from mountain and valley on the other end-perfect place to hangout.

Later in the evening we stopped for a cultural dance known as Katthakkali, it was quite good. There were clouds entering from the roof side and Kathakkali was being performed on the stage, at one point of time you may feel like, you are on seventh cloud. That’s the beauty of nature and hill station. In addition to it, there was Martial arts the old fighting thing, it was awesome, and they were showing fight as if they were actually fighting-awesome. Both the shows were bit costly but a must watch, also note that the shows are performed at 5 P.M. So be there at the right time.

Martial Arts

We were quite exhausted and planned to go for sleep. As it was drizzling and I was with my parents, I also slipped in bed else I would have gone out to enjoy the cold breeze that the nature has to offer. That we can enjoy now, now is the time to enjoy. This time is never gonna come back, do whatever you have to do today, else you will never be able to do it. Remember tomorrow never comes.

Enjoyyyyyy your life to the fullest.