For me, india’s West Coast offers the perfect travelling experience as the big city of Mumbai contrasts to the relaxing vibes of Goa and the stunning scenery of Kerala.
Our first destination in Kerala was Kochi. We opted to stay in Ernakulum as it was closer to the train station and we had planned to explore the national parks and their stunning waterfalls, tea and spice plantations and great trekking opportunities. Sadly we didn’t end up going as time was running out for us and could not find a cost effective way of getting there.
Instead we visited the beautiful Fort Kochi. There are lots of sight seeing opportunities and again as the sun was so hot we opted to have a tour via tuk tuk which if you can tolerate looking in 1 or 2 jewellery shops was a bargain at just £1.
He even took us to some of the lesser known spots such as the floating temple and the large outside laundrette that takes just 2hours to wash, dry and fold.
We also enjoyed seeing the old spice market selling tea coffee and spices at reasonable prices. They even had packets with a selection of different powders and spices with cooking instructions attached to make a variety of traditional curries.
It is very easy to reach fort kochi by car/tuk tuk from the train station but a cheaper and more enjoyable option is to take the ferry. You get to see the Chinese fishing nets which line the coast better too from the boat.
There are other islands within a ferry trip such as Vypin that has a lovely lighthouse and small beach although not the best we had been on and quite crowded for its size.
We found the people in Kerala to be very friendly and helpful which luckily for us was the same experience we had at our next destination… I was so excited about taking a houseboat on the back waters of Alleppy in Kerala for a night. A picture had popped up on my Facebook page of one of the boats serving a couple a beautiful looking seafood platter and it went straight down on my itinary when I first began to plan this world trip.
We arrived by train to the sleepy village without booking a boat before hand as we haven’t had any problems yet finding accommodation at last minute. We jumped in a tuk tuk and asked him to take us to the dock to book our houseboat. All very straight forward so far.
I had read up on costings and that meals were included on board so knew roughly what to expect from a midweek booking. Unfortunately I hadn’t banked that although we had arrived on a Thursday, it was the last day of an Indian festival and so prices had doubled. We couldn’t book for the following day as there was to be a strike in the whole of Kerala due to the political parties increasing violence and killings of party leaders. That then took us to the weekend where again prices were way out of our budget.
I have to admit I was upset at the time due to building my hopes up so high. We crashed in a hotel on the dock and watched all the boats at sunset which was still lovely. The fun came the next day when during the strike the only way to the train station was to flag down 2 young Indian boys on motorbikes to give us a lift!
So on to the last stop in kerela, Trivandrum. We were catching our flight from there to Sri Lanka so didn’t explore the city in too much depth though we managed to find some great places to eat and shop.
We visited the Tourist Village one morning which had a garden, park, restaurant and attached beach with crashing, high waves.
The highlight for us though was our trip to Kovalam beach. A tuk tuk ride away from the Tourist Village, it boasted its own lighthouse, great seafood and beautiful sunset. We certainly wasn’t disappointed.
Kovalam was stunning and surprisingly quiet. We even started as extras in an Indian soap drama by chance we were eating in the same restaurant they were shooting in!
So our last night in India was spent watching the sunset on the beach listening to waves on the shore. For us it was certainly a perfect moment and one that made our whole bodies smile inside knowing that this trip was the right choice for us to take ❤️
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