Allepey to Kollam to Varkala

After visiting the upper half of Kerala (from Kozhikode to Alleppey) last week, I wanted to travel further south.

DAY 1 : September 25.

We woke up after boarding the train from KJM to QLN just before Alappuzha. We got down at Alappuzha, freshened up and walked till the beach. The beach was good, but it was sunny and we had rucksacks on our backs.

Alapuzzha Beach

We roamed for a while and took a bus to the bus stand. We enquired for public waterways timings there . Public transport waterways ferry had left for Kollam already at 10:30. 

I called Manoj (9048569581) from my last visit here and we went to the backwaters. His price was hiked up now that we were two.  He did let us drive his boat this time. We did not drive all the way because it wasn't that fun either.

Driving the Ferry in the Backwaters :-)

I wasn' t feeling well due to the heat, so I slept about 2/3rd of the journey. Later, Mishraji and I swam in the backwaters. The swim in the Kerala Backwaters! Can you imagine that!

We Swam in the Open Kerala Backwaters near Kainakary :-)

The Alleppey Backwaters were amazing. I saw them a week ago, but couldn't stop admiring its beauty like I was visiting it for the first time.

Beautiful Kerala Backwaters

Later, we went to Kollam in a KSRTC bus. We gave ourselves a sumptuous treat, went to the ocean side later and enjoyed the ocean in full moon night.

DAY 2 : September 26

We woke up at Kollam and checked out at the Kollam Beach Retreat Hotel by 12pm, roamed around the beach a little.

That ship was stuck in the traffic throughout the night. :-/ The pic was clicked in the morning. @Kollam Beach

Blue Water and White Sand. It was beautiful but sunny and we stood in the shade.

Time for Varkala!
In that heat, we found an AC bus from Kollam to Varkala. :-) All kinds of songs were played in the bus. It was evening when we reached Varkala and night by the time we got on the cliff. The cliff had great ambiance and trippy music, food, drinks, rain and ocean. What more does one want with life? Aaahh, I felt blessed and lucky to be there at that time.

There are hundreds of cafes there, we enjoyed ourselves at Rock and Roll Music Cafe till late night. 

DAY 3 :September 27

We had our breakfast at Trattorias, smoked there and I sat there shirtless, feeling the amazing weather while it was sitting in the shade. Weather turned rainy and I prayed for the drizzle and it rained!

Varkala Beach as captured from the cliff.

After having breakfast. Mishraji returned to the room to have a nap while i walked further towards Aaliyirakkm Beach.

The pleasant walk, a little further from Varkala Beach towards Aaliyirakkm Beach.

While returning, I went to the Coffee Temple and had some food there. We freshened up again because of the humid weather and went to Varkala railway station, boarded a train to Kollam railway station from where the return train to Bangalore was booked. That was the end of our little trip.

Kozhikode to Cochin, Vypin and Alappuzha

4 holidays.  Well, Friday technically was not, but I took an off to travel.

DAY 1 : 17th September, 2015

I took the train from Bangalore to Kozhikode. It was raining when I woke up at the station, rather luckily woke up only to ask the next person in my sleep, "last station kozhikode?" He said something else. I asked, "Kozhikode?" He said, "this one".

I stopped at the beach, after walking on a long stone path, and sat there experiencing  silence, peace and ocean.

The Long Stone path going into the ocean away from the honks of the city.

On my way back, it was sunny and it won't be an exaggeration to say that diamonds were sparkling on the black stones, so much that it was all sparkly.

From Kozhikode, I travelled to Beypore Fishing Harbour and further towards the light house and later to Ponnani. The beaches in these areas are nice, but usually travelled by local people and dirty. Ponnani beach was particularly beautiful, but dirty and stinked in some places.

Beypore

I enjoyed the sunset at Ponnani and had no clue where I was going to stay for the night. It was just beginning to get dark, when I met a wonderful, jolly person Asan (who spoke Malayalam and sang a Hindi Song). He helped me find an ATM and introduced me to ICICI bank folks who advised me to go to Kochi. Asan dropped me at the bus stand from where I boarded the bus to Kochi.

Sunset at Ponnani beach

Ponnani Beach

Ponnani Beach

I must say, Kerala people are rather nice just like the Kannads. I was offered 2 juices for the price of 1 at the shop near the bus stand. Anyways, I took the bus to Kochi which dropped me at Ernakulam South Junction KSRTC bus stand at 11. I ate some food and befriended that person, who advised me  the location of some cheap lodges near the station. I spent my night at a lodge nearby.

DAY 2 : 18th September, 2015

Santa Cruz Cathedral Basilica Church

I went to travel around Fort Kochi in the morning. It was a hot noon, so I rested in the famous Basilica Church for a while and later, took a ferry to Vypin and then a bus to Kuzhupilly Beach (not sure how is it pronounced).

Fort Kochi shore; you get a ferry to Vypin from here.

On the way to Kuzhupilly Beach

I walked on the beach for a long time (~5kms) and reached Cherai beach. It was a peaceful, heavenly beach. Gosh, I missed a puff of hash, the place was so beautiful.

The Beautiful Peaceful Cherai Beach

I took a bus further towards Munambam. There were fishing boats there, but not much else to see. Around 4pm, I took a bus back to Ernakulam. 

I packed from the night's lodge, rocked and rolled to Fort Kochi, reached Vedanta Wake Up and checked into a rather good Rs.350 per night AC Hostel. Awesome ! :-)

DAY 3 : 19th September, 2015
I woke up at 8:30 the next day, undecided as to whether I should rest or go out. It was sunny. I am glad I went  to Alappuzha. I took the yellow and black bus from Thoppumpady bridge. Local people, especially the conductors helped and landed at Alappuzha bus stand. The boat houses caught my eye and I negotiated with them a little for a tour of the backwaters. The guy was good at negotiating and advised me not to go to the beach at noon, but to instead go to the backwaters. I finally fell prey to Rs. 300 per hour, Rs. 500 for two, and Rs. 750 for three hours of backwater travel.

Kerala Backwaters were amazingly beautiful. India is beautiful. :-)

I went to check out the backwaters. Although I had thought that I'd be done in an hour, I ended up staying three hours on the water. The backwaters of Kerala were huge and amazingly beautiful. It started raining mid way, so I took my t shirt off and stood there enjoying the rain on my personal boat in middle of the backwaters. It felt really good!

The boat owner, Manoj (9048569581), took me to a local person who offered us local tasty fish meals thali. I was hungry since morning and it was delicious. I loved it! Manoj took me till Kainakary only and not till Kumarakom, but there were very less ferries which took people till Kainakary. He dropped me near the start point from where I took the bus to beach. I bid adieu to Manoj at the end of our 3-hour deal. :-)

The Alleppey Beach was nice but Cherai was better. So, I didn't stay long and came back to Fort Kochi where it was pouring heavily. I checked out another Hostel in that area - The Happy Camper (450 per night). It looked better than Vedanta. I was tired and slept nicely.

DAY 4 : 20th September, 2015

An Indian Navy Ship

The last day of my trip. Four days ago, I didn't know what would I do for four days and today, it is the last day and I am still amazed by the peace and travel friendliness Kochi has to offer.
 
I took a ferry and  then a bus to Cherai Beach. I walked on the stone wall by the beach to enter the only restaurant that had its entrance from the sea and not from the road. I think the name was ChillOut Cafe. I sat there for a while, ordered my breakfast and before leaving, how could I not, how could I not go into the water?

Cherai Beach from ChillOut Cafe; Click to See Original image

Ohh man, I Love India !! The rest can not be explained in words, one has to experience that bath in the ocean.

I checked out from Vedanta Wake Up later, and took my train to Bangalore from Ernakulam South Juntion. The 4d/5n trip costed me around 4300 bucks, though I could have saved some more money.

Solo Sharavathi Backwaters - Siganduru and Honnemaradu

Jog Falls and Sharavathi Backwaters. This is where I want to visit this time!  

Friday night, September 4th, it was heavily pouring in Bangalore. I left home about 8:30 and reached Majestic at about 10:40. Train left about 40 minutes late.. i watched The Avengers: Age of Ultron on the way to Majestic and beyond. 

I slept properly during the way and when I woke up in the morning, train was standing empty at Talgappa station. I had my bag under my legs and everything packed in there, including the chappal except the shoes.

I walked out, had a v cheap healthy breakfast and talked with the shop owners, and taxi owners for quite some time. They were nice and asked me why I didn't bring my girlfriend. They understood my problem that I didn't have a lot of money to spend. So, told me about Sharavathi backwaters and Jog falls and even Yana, bus routes in the city and places are  not covered by buses. That was very helpful as I travelled by buses across the route they told me.

I took the bus towards Jog Falls.

Jog Falls was not as I had expected before starting. It looked miserable with very less water and no mist. The people near the Station had told me about very less rainfall and less water this year. It wasn't allowed to visit the step trail downstairs (due to an accident that happened there) where it wasn't that sunny and was leading somewhere near to the fall of the waterfalls. I should have visited Jog Falls very early morning to climb across that. I met some guys in the bus later who told me that it is usually allowed.

At Jog Falls, there were some beautiful lodges at very good locations. It will be bliss to stay in any of those 5 homestays, one of which was located exactly opposite to me (Jog Falls view point) next to the top fall of the  waterfalls in middle of dense forest. located near the top fall of those waterfalls amidst rainfall and lightening, located just before the waterfalls ... aanndd have a joint full of marijuana and no tobacco in your hand. I did not take any pic as I will do so one day later when I happen to visit the place exactly as I imagined. 

1pm : The weather is getting better as I think the bus was travelling uphill, Or is it the high that I got from the joint that I smoked at Talgappa railway station. 

While going from Sagar to Siganduru, I met some young Biharis who called themselves Delhites , who told me about how to reach Honnemaradu from Siganduru and that the bus was going to travel through a ferry across the backwaters. I dismissed that, though I partially believed them and that I can get down from the bus into the ferry. 

1:30 pm : And now I am waiting for the bus to be loaded into the ferry. This is exciting, something new that you see and learn while travelling. I never thought that there was going to be any up after India's second largest waterfall disappointed.

The ferry that transported buses, cars, passengers across.

Ferry Terminal. Place is marked as HoleBagilu in Google Maps.

I climbed up to driver's cabin up and one of the persons pointed me to go down. I politely asked the other person and he said it is okay. Just be quiet and careful. Then they chained that place and disallowed the other girl who came later. I was alone along with the drivers in the cabin except that they allowed the lady  later but no one else. That lady was from Bangalore and came to visit Siganduru temple and asked me what was i exactly doing?  I told I am travelling solo! 

Sharavathi Backwaters @ Siganduru

Sharavathi Backwaters @ Siganduru

Luckily i got in the bus just in time (not on the Ferry but on the land) which i thought would still be empty as i was literally lying on the back seat before, was jam packed after it landed on the other side. This place is cold. It is 2pm.

I was taken by the bus to that temple. I immediately took an another bus back. What was I to do in a temple ?  Had I known that there was that temple across the river ferry, I would have never come that far. But the backwaters wad amazing. I took an another bus back to reach the river ferry place and it starting raining.

I figured out by the time I reached the ferry that to go to Honnemaradu, I need to go back to Sagar. I still got down at the river ferry in spite of the rain and smoked a joint and right now, I am waiting. It is 2:53 pm.  This place is beautiful. 

The ferry transporting bus across Siganduru Backwaters

Rain made my evening. I had a coffee and took some puffs at a stall there enjoying the rain, while talking to the locals there. All the people were very nice and helpful everywhere and were going out of their way to help me.

Rain, Coffee and Joint @Siganduru Backwaters.

But after the rain stopped,  I  walked away from the crowd near the bank into the nature. It was peaceful and serene. There are 100s of such peaceful places one can explore and find in that area.

Panoramic View of the place where I rested and took a puff after the rain.

From Siganduru, I went back to Talguppa from where I was to get an auto. I tried hard for the bus or shared jeep, ate food in between, came back and inquired and finally took an auto to Honnemaradu for 200 one way. Hmmm..  second highest expenditure after train journey. :-( . It led me through a 'kind-of' not-immensely dense jungle. I got down a little before the destination as the auto couldn't go further due to the rainy muddy road and gave him 230 for that journey. I understood why obviously there was no bus on the route, because it led no where. 

 

I stood alone at Honnemaradu with not even a sight of a person and crisp constant sound from the forest. I was a little unsure about the location, but this definitely was not a place with crocs or elephants, the forest and place wasn't that large. 

 

Amazed by the beauty of the place where I was standing and considering that I won't get a vehicle back, I pitched my tent at Honnemarudu for the night.

Dusk and soon it was all black.

 Night grew darker and I had a peaceful sleep except around 2 when it got colder and I slipped under the sleeping bag. Snakes can be a danger in that area and it is advisable not to stay out of tent after dark and sleep in sleeping bags.

Morning View to wake up to and smoke to !

I woke up with first daylight as if I was just waiting to see it in my sleep. The morning was beautiful. I smoked a joint that I rolled last night, packed my stuff, bid adieu to the place and started walking towards Hiramane.

I reached Hiramane in no time after trekking for some time and taking a lift for second half of the way. From there, I took a bus to Sagar and sat in a bus to Shimoga, which was going till Bengaluru.

Sitting in the bus on the front seat, two hands with an elbow out of the bus blogging, head rested against the window, foot on the seat and cold breeze amongst the green trying to put me to sleep. I am planning to come back to Bengaluru.

It rained heavily after Arsikere and I loved the rain and the Govt bus. It costed me 330 bucks only to reach Bengaluru from Sagar and I think my trip was under 1200 bucks.