Kumarakom and Munnar, Kerala
More of the same beautiful state, yet different!
Kumarakom, near the bird sanctuary
The rainy season is here and so it was time to see more of Kerala. I have a feeling I will keep going back there atleast for one long weekend every year. It offers more than a lot of places in the form of things to see of both nature and people. The last few trips out there I planned myself and bugged a friend of mine for help. This long weekend trip was to be quite simple so I thought I would trust a travel agent to do it. I can’t remember how and where I got the name of these people, but boy, they managed to screw up the vacation, which is quite hard to do when it is Kerala!!
What I wanted to do this time was quite simple: Kumarakom is connected to Allappey, or is a part of it, and this area is known to have several wonderful species of birds and also a bird sanctuary. The tourism book I read said one can take early morning boat rides into the bird sanctuary, early enough to hear the chirps and feel the clear morning air. That day we would stay on a boat house and cruise through the backwaters of Kumarakom. Then Munnar for some scenic beauty and greenery, relax at the tree house and back to Hyderabad on day four.
The only stretch we went down in Kumarakom
That was the plan, this is what went down: The drive from Cochin airport to Kumarakom was 2.5hrs. We stayed on the crappiest house boat ever, whose windows were so small my neck and back eventually hurt from straining to crouch down and out to look outside and at birds and take pictures. Though I had said in emails that the most important thing was the ride in the boat sanctuary, every body starting with the travel agent seemed on a mission not to let me go in a country boat into the sanctuary. They tried lying and said it didn’t open until 9am, then (because I’m nerdy) when I showed them the India tourism book that says otherwise, they said they would figure it out.
You can’t win against a conspiracy when you don’t know their language and they pretend not to know English. So the morning came and went, rain came and went, they said nothing about a boat. They did take us down a small water way for a short distance where we saw a glimpse of what we had come to see: gorgeous cranes and other birds with lotus flowers and other water plants around them. By then, our breakfast was served and the fact they couldn’t get bread, butter and jam right pissed me off so bad, I was ready to jump out of the boat and cry. Yes, I get emotional when my vacations are bad. It’s more the time and effort that have gone to shit than money. Worse because I know how fantastic a house boat experience can be so I know this is as bad as it can get.
That's the best shot of an eagle I got!
So bad boat, bad food, no bird sanctuary and no back water cruise later, it was time to get off the boat. If you read the Kerala Houseboat blog, I wrote about asking for a certain kind of boat with a sitting deck. Well, I’m not sure how stupid and gullible I am, but I bought the story from this guy “Biju” from Kairali Holidays, the name of the travel agency, that I can’t have a deck cause the boat’s height won’t accommodate the waters ways. What the??? We never went any where but a large mass of water cause the guys were too lazy to show us anything. At which point the deck would have been nice to stare far at the views, but that didn’t happen either. Really, it was a total waste of a house boat, money and a vacation day.
So, we are in the car and off to Munnar with our “multilingual” driver from Kairali Holidays; I forgot to ask if one of his languages was English, I guess! The drive from Kumarakom to Munnar is at least 4.5hrs. We started at 9:30am, so we had to break for lunch which took at least an hour and stopped to see some sights on the way to Munnar including some waterfalls. With heavy rains coming down, everything was clean, glistening and the waterfalls robust with fresh water.
Tree house, quite literally so
Again in Munnar, I had to fight and beg to stay at the tree house that I had made reservations before hand. I could not understand what the deal was, and why the well spoken man wouldn’t explain it if it really was a big deal and something was wrong, like maybe the thing was going to fall down if it kept raining, or maybe there were leaches all over it, maybe a hidden ghost of the rain… I don’t know, but I wasn’t seeing the point of not wanting me to stay where I wanted to. So long as it’s an argument in English, I can win, so I did.
The tree house itself is a short steep drive into the mountains about three floors up, build between the trunk and a large branch of a strong old tree. Getting up there in the rain was a little scary on small metal stairs, but adrenaline is part of the thrill. There it over looked beautiful mountains covered with tea plantations, landscaped with rocks between them, waterfalls flowing through, clouds passing by below, the lights of the small town on the hill across were foggy, as if it were all designed to make it picture perfect. It couldn’t have been any more romantic with no power and no one around where we were.
From the walk over the dam
The caretaker at the tree house was a nice man, and though he could not speak English, all we needed to communicate was coffee, tea, water and food, and he showed up on time for each to take our order. The order for dinner was placed over the phone with a restaurant close by and he went and got it for us. The prices were fine, and the food was quite good so no complaints there. He was unaware or uninformed that our price included the breakfast, but that is neither here not there at that point, and in continuation with the bad service theme of Kairali Holidays, we decided to go ahead and pay it instead of worrying him in such a remote area. Again, it was bread and jam without butter, same as the boathouse, and I started wondering if maybe that’s how they ate in Kerala; I can’t bring myself to believe that though. It’s hard to get as upset about the same thing twice though.
It pretty much rained cats and dogs the whole time we were there. I was telling my travel buddies that Kerala was known for its leeches in the monsoons, so expect to get one or two not to be scary but also to inform them the proper way to get rid of the leeches. You don’t smack them off of you, don’t force them off because they will leave something behind that causes a rash and irritation for about three months later. You carry salt and put the salt directly on them so they voluntarily let go. Well, that was a lesson in case of leeches; none so far though.
Munnar is mostly the hills and the drive through them. A visit to the spice garden is good and the spices are pure and fresh so I usually buy them when I go to such places. There are a couple of places that offer elephant rides but I don’t find riding an elephant that is being probed by a sharp object too appealing or safe, so I passed on that. We drove to the Mattupetty dam which is quite nice to walk around, then we drove down to Gundala Lake. That was quite a pretty sight and it would have been great to go in a peddling boat but they weren’t operational because of the heavy rains. Understandably so, I guess. But the drive let me float into my utopian dreams of a perfect place with perfect trees and weather and clouds to add to what could have been a perfect place for love to bloom had I found some one to share it with. No, no tears please. That wasn’t for empathy or sympathy. It was truly just a very romantic setting. And that’s what dreams are for.
Tea estates of Munnar
Back to reality, then. It is actually quite cold during the rains in Munnar. So be prepared to carry a couple of sweaters and a few extra pairs of socks. There is nothing more miserable than being wet and cold at the same time! Not much is available that is very nice for winter clothing there so don’t wait to go buy it. If you are stuck in the forest like I was, it is even cooler with nothing to do but enjoy nature, maybe a drink will help keep you warm and some chips to pass time. All that shopping can be done in Munnar itself
The drive back from Munnar to Cochin airport is about 120km and took us three hours flat. That is my Kerala trip this year. A few lessons learnt, new corners discovered, still love the state, but do stay away from Kairali Holidays. It wasn’t cheap, I paid a month ahead of the vacation with no argument to their quote, spoke to the guy a few times to let him know I had been to Kerala several times so please don’t disappoint me, called after the house boat to tell him how and why it sucked, wrote a formal email to him asking him to please explain why his services turned out to be piss poor, then decided to go ahead and do what the blog is supposed to do, which is inform people.
They also seem to run under these three banners, though I am not sure. It appears at the bottom of every email they send out. Hope I am not wrong, but check it out: www.kairaliholidays.com, www.dreamkeralatourism.com, www.keralatourisms.com
Please don’t let all this deter you from the subject, which is Kerala. It is still a “God’s Country”, and I will go back for more.
