PUTHUVYPE BEACH, KOCHI

One of the less visited but yet very beautiful beach is the Puthuvype beach which is the nearest (if you could discount the Fort Kochi) beach to Kochi (around 20 kms). We visited the place just out of curiousity since there was a tourism mela going on there, but found it as good if not better than Cherai. But this place has not been developed for tourism and the local administration is making a lot of efforts to promote this place as an alternative to Cherai, being closer to the city of Kochi. The Tourism mela was organised as part of this programme.

The route is the same as Kochi-Cherai which i had mentioned in one of my earlier posts. On the Cherai route, you will come across a sign board on the left showing the way to the Light house. Take a turn left here and after a km, turn right for the light house. The beach is immediately after the light house. The entry to the light house closes at 5 pm and we reached there exactly at 5. The guard told us to come back again as he had closed for the day. There are tickets to be bought (Rs.10 I think) and you could see the lighthouse from the inside.

The approach road is under repairs and it was a rough ride. The beach and its surroundings are almost virgin territory and we could see only a few local visitors and some foreign tourists who must have been let in on this information by some helpful tour guide. The beach is serene, quiet and picture perfect.

The mela had a giant wheel and other rides for children. There were food stalls and shops selling toys. There was a podium erected for cultural programmes, but was scheduled for a day later. The organisers had planned beach bike races and other exciting events during this period. I only hope that these endeavours brings this unexplored beauty to the attention of the tourists and gives it the recognition it deserves.

However, there are no restaurants or resorts near the beach, like in Cherai. In the absence of melas like these, to get to a restaurant, you have to leave the beach area and drive on. I only wish all these facilities are soon set up so that it is possible to spend an entire day on this lovely beach. The place is also safe for swimming and provides a vast area to engage in beach games.

ALLEPPEY IN A DAY

These day trips, have suddenly caught my fancy. No more planning journeys in advance, looking for accommodation in each place and then worrying about your budget. I found that it is better to drive on to a new place and touch back base by night. We decided to do Alleppey this time. Since Alleppey was just 70 kms from kochi, we took it easy and didnt start very early. We had a lazy breakfast on a holiday and hit the road by11am. Reached Chertala in under half and hour and from Chertala the toll road starts. This is an excellent drive and with the median in place, you could zip through without worrying about the vehicles coming from the opposite direction (this is one of the most dangerous aspects of driving in Kerala)

Reached Alleppey in one hour flat. And then headed straight to the jetty road. We took the first left turn as we reached the jetty and were soon mobbed by the private boat operators, each one claiming that all the boats were booked and that he just happened to have one spare and if we were interested. We spoke to a couple of these agents and being the peak tourist season, the rates were as high as 1200 for an hour whereas the normal rates would be in the range of 350 to 700 ( I am not talking about the house boats which are more expensive). You can see the houseboats lined up waiting for the next ride.

We found the rates extremely high, but having come all this way, didnt want to go back without experiencing the famed back waters ride. While we were haggling, we saw a group of people boarding a boat on the other side of the canal and on enquiring found out that it was the government boats which operated from the other side. We then turned around, crossed the bridge and landed on the other side of the jetty. You can see the government ferry and the jetty in the pic below.

I had a very useful chat with the boat operators who were relaxing in their cabins. They advised us to take the government ferries that follow the same route as the private boats and you could soak in the same sights at a miniscule price. And since we were not honeymooning, we were not very particular about our privacy. And so, though a bit skeptical, we decided to give it a try.

There are two routes. You could take a boat going towards Kottayam and see the Vembanad Lake or take a boat going towards Chambakulam and see the Kuttanad region. We homed on to the latter for the simple reason that there was a boat waiting to leave in that route. We boarded the boat and bought tickets to a place called Nedumudi( Rs.4 per head).

The boat stops at every jetty and picks up passengers on the way. You can see the passengers waiting to board the boat as it is approaching the jetty.

This was a minor irritant but nothing compared to the elation when we saw the 1200 rupee boat chugging along with us.(and us alongside in a 4 rupee boat).

The ride to Nedumudi takes around one and half hours. We motored along enjoying the beautiful countryside and the canals. No wonder this place is known as the Venice of the East. But having had visited Venice earlier, I found Alleppey much more beautiful than Venice.

We passed the small branch lanes spanned by concrete bridges, a traffic bylane in the maze of waterways.

After spending around an hour in the boat, we saw another one coming in the opposite direction and heading towards Alleppey. We immeditely got down though we had not reached our destination and boarded the other boat. The channel was packed with house boats and it was almost like Rush Hour on the waterways.

We were now heading back to Alleppey. We reached Alleppey in the next one hour and at the end of it, had gone boatriding in the backwaters of Alleppey for two hours in 8 Rs which otherwise would have cost us 2400 Rs.

You can now take a similar boat in the other direction (towards Kottayam), hop and jump and return to Alleppey for a ridiculously low sum. We realised that this was the best way to see the sights of Alleppey. Ofcourse if the intention is to stay on a houseboat and enjoy a vacation, then it is a different story. We saw a lot of houseboats parked randomly and the guests enjoying their afternoon lunch sitting on the deck.

The entrance to the Alleppey jetty is filled with weeds and though in a wierd way it looks beautiful, i hope that somebody puts in the effort to clean it up to avoid choking up the waterways.

I have a couple of phone numbers if anyone is interested in booking the houseboats in advance. We had spoken to these people, and they had admitted that due to the tourist rush, the prices have been hiked and we could hire the same boats at half the price after the rush season. It is better to speak to these people and find out the rates before reaching there to avoid being hardpressed to decide.

AKG House Boats - 09249738840

Love Shore Cruises - 09847743183, 09388050054

The latter one we found was more reasonable and was being marketed by the local headloaders union, who have their office very close to the Tourist Information Office on the Government jetty road.


So, I would strongly recommend the day trippers who are on a tight budget and not on their honeymoon, to make use of the government ferries for enjoying a couple of hours of boat ride through the waterways. You could also have a feel of the daily life of the people staying here fully dependent on the boat for their small errands. You can hop off at any point of your choice, explore the region hop on to the next boat back sweeping Alleppey in a day!

MUNNAR IN A DAY

We decided to do the Kochi-Munnar trip in a day. Many people advised us against it, saying that if you are driving upto Munnar, you should spend the night there. And when we asked the reason, the answer was to stay there to experience the chill and the mist. But having stayed in Delhi for six years and enjoyed the biting cold and driving to work in the blinding fog, (when even the aircrafts stay away), the chill was not a very enticing feature. The idea was to soak in the beauty of the hills and cover the scenic spots and this we truly believed was possible in a day. And since I couldn’t take a day off from work, we decided to do this seemingly strenuous trip in a day on a Sunday.
We started from Kochi sharp at six. We took the Kochi-Edapally-Alwaye-Perumbavoor-Kothamangalam route. Reached Kothamangalam at 7.30am and stopped to have breakfast at the by-now-our-favourite restaurant Maria International. Another reason for using this as our morning stop was that the bathrooms are clean and we could use them before we embarked on the longer leg of our journey. Had hot Idiyappam (steamed rice noodle cake – a coarse translation) and egg roast (a splendid combination). Started for Munnar at 8.45 through the High Range Junction via Neriamangalam and through to Adimaly.

We stopped at the Cheeyappara and Valara waterfalls on the way to take pictures. The shops here sell salted gooseberries, lemons and mangoes in sealed plastic pouches. This is extremely good for people suffering from travel and altitude sickness. It is highly recommended for someone with a dizzy head to buy one pack from here because the serpentine road ahead is steep and full of hairpin bends.

We crossed the Adimaly Panchayat and drove towards Munnar. I was pretty impressed with myself for clocking an average of 60 kmph on this road. We reached Munnar by 11am after around 4 to 6 short stops on the way. There are ideal trekking spots just before entering Munnar, (Brackell forest) where you could walk through the tall trees of Munnar. The name Munnar for newbies literally means moonu (three) aaru (rivers) and is a confluence of the three water bodies Mudrapuzha, Nallathanni and Kundalay and is at a height of 4000 ft.We decided not to stop at Munnar, and continue ahead to Mattupetty Dam. On the way again we stopped at the Kerala Horticulture garden (for about 20 minutes) which has an impressive collection of roses and other beautiful flowers.

On the way ahead is the Karamelagiri Elephant Park in Korandikad, where you can go for elephant rides. But it is better to drive on to Mattupetty, for the elephant ride.

Mattupetty dam is 18 kms from Munnar and we reached there by 12 noon. This area was crowded with tourists and the lake is quite beautiful.

We spent around an hour here taking pictures, throwing pebbles into the lake (you can see where the pebble landed in the pic above) and also managed a horse ride. There are elephant rides also, but we found that we had to wait a long time for this and decided against it. The rates are between Rs.300 to 500 depending on the crowd.

Speed Boating is very popular here and the rates are Rs.300 for 15 minutes. The boat takes you through breathtakingly beautiful locales. After crossing the dam and moving towards Echo point, you come to the vantage point overlooking the lake and the view is striking.

We started at 1pm from Mattupetty and the next tourist spot on the way is the Echo Point. Well, you can drive past it. Nothing interesting, (you could hear your own echo if you shout from this point- and hence the name) so better to give it a miss. As you keep driving, you pass the famed Indo-Swiss cattle farm, which is actually out of bounds for tourists. We drove further on and our next stop was for lunch near the Kundalay lake. Kundalay is considered as the jewel of the Munnar ranges and is located at an altitude of 6000 ft. This lake is extremely beautiful and is a nice place to go pedal boating.

There is a nice resort here by the name Noor giri, which has got around seven cottages. The rates are Rs.1500 per day excluding food. The food here is home cooked, though on the expensive side. There is a garden path which leads up to a vantage point, from where you get a nice view of the Kundalay dam and lake. The rooms are small, cosy with attached bathrooms but old furniture, and we checked them out for future stay, as they are ideally located midway between Mattupetty Dam and Top Station. Their website is http://www.noorgiriresort.com/ and contact mobile no. 09447125370 (caretaker by the name Omanakuttan)

On the way to the Top Station, the hill sides are painted green with the beautiful tea estates and visually very appealing. It is strongly recommended to stop on the way, squeeze into the gaps which you see below, and have a pic taken amidst this greenery. The results are really amazing.

As you near the Top Station, the condition of the road starts deteriorating, and soon turns into a rickety cobbled non asphalted path. We finally experienced chill at the Top station, while until then, we had found the heat in Munnar the same as in Kochi. The Top station got its name because during the British Raj, there was a rope car which linked the top peak to the middle station and the lower staion. The entire area was covered in mist when we reached there, and the visibility had reduced considerably (upto 10 mts).

The place was choc-a-bloc with cars and it was difficult to find a parking space. In addition the space available for turning the car is limited and this also leads to further traffic mess. There is a tea stall right at the top where you can sip hot tea while enjoying the chill. The Pampadum Shola National Park is located here, where you can trek in the wilderness and camp in log houses. The forests around are infested with wild life - Elephants, Bisons, spotted Deers, mountain squirrels, foxes, different varieties of monkeys and an abundant species of colourful tropical birds.

We started our trip back from the top at 1600 hrs and reached Munnar at 1630. There is nothing much to see in Munnar town as such and if you have the inclination, you could drive to Devikulam as well which is around 8 kms from the town. Then there is Rajamali Hills which is 10 kms from Munnar and home to the nearly extinct species of Neel Giri Thar (mountain goats). As we were not very keen to see Devikulam and the mountain goats, we stopped at the Munnar Inn in the town for refreshments. Munnar Inn is located right in the middle of the town and is a popular place to stay for the tourists in Munnar. It is advisable to book accommodation in advance if you intend to stay here.

We started our drive back to Kochi at 1700 hrs and on the way saw a rare sight of two king cobras engaged in a mating dance. I tried to capture this beautiful scene on my camera, after slowing down the car, and succeeded in getting a shot. We heard that the tea estates are infested with these killer cobras, and there are a lot of cases of snake bites.

We managed to cross Adimaly before dusk and finally reached our destination by 2100 hrs – a total duration of 17 hours in all. I drove all the way and didnt find the driving strenous at all. So if you have only a day for Munnar in your itinerary or do not want to stay in Muunar, you could still enjoy Munnar in a day!