Bandipur -> Wayanad -> Kozhikode -> Guruvayur -> Cochin -> Periyar
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Thekkady was our next stop after Fort Kochi. We left Fort Kochi on a late evening and had our dinner at Ernakulam. The place where we had dinner – Gokulam Restaurant – was decorated like a village in Kerala and served local food.
Our plan for the journey was to drive to Kottayam which is two hours away, stay there for the night and continue driving towards Thekkady in the morning. It took some time for us to figure out how to get to Kottayam and then we were on our way quickly.
All along the way for the past few days, Kerala was good to us. We saw good places and the people we interacted with us were nice. But Kottayam changed all that. Hotels were priced unreasonably and in some places, we had bad experiences. My guidebook had warned earlier that finding a hotel of any level is difficult in Kottayam, and it did turn out true. In some hotels, the person at the security would question us in detail as if we were criminals, only to send us away saying that they have no rooms free! And at places where we made it till reception, we met rude front-desk people, or were quoted some unreasonable prices and even some strange conditions to be given a room. We spent nearly an hour looking for a friendly place and were only greeted with ugly frowns! After getting through all of them, we became like one of them – frowning about all that we had to go through.
Having a car puts you in an advantage in such situations. We did not want to succumb to bad treatment and decided to continue driving towards Thekkady till we could find a place to sleep for the night. It turned out be a long drive, and we went on for almost two hours without much luck. At the end we just pulled over the car by the road and succumbed to sleep. We were somewhere in the middle of the jungle – we had no idea where we were – and it was pouring heavily outside and visibility was minimal. We were so tired that we slept heavily in the car, ignoring all that was outside.
We woke up in the morning to realize that we were in the edge of small town somewhere high in the mountains. We continued driving through the road that took us through some amazing vistas and many tea estates(Read my earlier post on tea estates). We reached Kumily – the town head to Thekkady at around 8am. It was cold and foggy at Kumily and it looked like 6am even when the clock moved to 9. After looking around for a place to stay, we settled down at the beautiful Coffee Inn built on the edge of Periyar Tiger Reserve.
To be continued..
Bandipur -> Wayanad -> Kozhikode -> Guruvayur -> Cochin -> Periyar
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When you enter Kerala via Mysore-Bandipur–Wayanad road, you are stuck by the beauty of the thickly forested path swarming with widlife in Bandipur, and set high expectations for the road ahead. Chances are you will not be disappointed. Kerala has the ability to charm the traveller with a variety of options that draw him back to it again and again. I am no exception – Wayanad has been my favorite region in Kerala and I have already visited it thrice.
But Wayanad by itself is much different from rest of the state. It is more spacious, has good forest cover and open spaces. Its population density is sparse compared to rest of Kerala. But for the fact the people speak different language and have different way of living, it seems like an extension of Coorg. The less exploited Wayanad is a pleasant region and is a great attraction for wildlife lovers and also for laid back travellers who want to spend a few days in the wilderness.
On crossing Bandipur and hitting Wayanad, the contrast between the way of life becomes quickly visible. People on either side of the forest don’t speak the language of the other side(Kannada – Malayalam). It seems as though the forest in the middle has made these people completely apart. Food habits are different too – you don’t get Masala Dosas once you are in Kerala. And people in Karnataka don’t eat Puttu and are not as fond as coconuts as are Keralites. The way tea is made it different too and so is the way water is served in a hotel. Dressing habits of local farmers change too, but not a great deal.
Leave Wayanad and descend to the plains and you are once again in a different world. Population density increases remarkably and you hardly see some free space anywhere around. Drive on the coastal highway for hours and hours and you will see unbroken stretch of towns and villages extending as long as the highway does. There is never a moment on the highway when you are a good 100 meters away from human settlements. We saw many plush houses, buildings and shopping complexes even in smaller towns, and the guess is that most of the money comes in from the gulf. And Keralites in the plains love to show off. Highway is littered with large hoardings all along – at a frequency I have never seen elsewhere. And most of them are about jewelery or expensive silk saris – mostly the stuff you can use to display your wealth.
Tourism can take off well in a region only if people are friendly, and Keralites do seem to be friendly people – at least those in the tourism business we interacted with. When I walked around in Fort Kochi asking for things to do, I was answered by friendly people in tourism industry who explained things clearly with courtesy – a simple, necessary behaviour we often don’t see in rest of India. Also add to that, a lot of Keralites in tourism business seem to be well trained and would have gone through some coaching. I also found that a lot of youngsters are taking up hotel management to work with booming hospitality business.
Unlike most of India where you see plenty of budget travellers, Kerala seems to cater primarily to the travellers at the higher end. The backwaters and the beaches are littered with hundreds of upmarket hotels and resorts and a lot of them can cost Rs.10,000 or more a night. Some activities like staying in a houseboat do not have budget options at all, and prices start only from as much as Rs.2,000 a night. Other activities like Ayurvedic massages can be expensive too. To enjoy a complete Kerala experience, it is probably advisable to head there only after you accumulate some extra money. A wildlife journey can be expensive too, and a short customized trip in Periayr(other than the rides on big boats) can set you back by at least a thousand rupees.
The primary attractions of Kerala are backwaters, ayurvedic massages and the mountains. The backwaters area is huge and is littered by hundreds of hotels and resorts, distributed around Kumarakon, Aleppey and Fort Kochi. Beaches at Varkala and Kovalam also seem to be popular. Mountain region constitutes Munnar, Thekkady and Wayanad. While Wayanad is relatively more peaceful Munnar and Thekkady, like backwaters, are swarming with resorts, hotels and guesthouses. Tourism is a booming business and probably brings more income than any other profession in Kerala.
To be continued..