20.02.2017 Kochi

After our visit to the Golden Triangle and experiencing an Indian wedding, we continued our India adventure with a flight from Pune to Kochi. Kochi (or better: Fort Kochi) is a tranquil little town – a nice change from all the big cities in the North. However, the highlights of Kochi are explored within an hour or so: Fishing nets, beach promenade next to an unfortunately very dirty beach, little alleys with some street art.

21.02.-22.02.2017 Munnar

Hence we just stayed one night and took the bus to Munnar next morning, high into the mountains to see the tea plantations. The trip to get there was a little exhausting, but nothing compared to the trip back to the coast later (luckily we didn’t know that back then 😉 ). We went higher and higher into the mountains with the bus
– and after about 5 h we finally arrived. For the last couple of kilometers we were already driving through tea plantations and able to enjoy the beautiful views. The next 1,5 days were spent trekking through tea plantations and driving around by rental scooter up to the highest point of the region – of course interrupted by many, many photo stops because nature here is amazing!! All the Green everywhere… Tea, tea, and more tea – wherever you look… Simply awesome! 🙂 We were also able to take some pics of the tea plantation workers who were not shy at all, but happy about our visit and the pictures (at least that’s what it seemed like). There’s still not thaaat many tourists coming to Munnar and as soon as you take some side roads, you’re all by yourself.

One evening, we went to a dance/fight show called Kathakali which was quite nice too. Not a must, but a good way to spend a couple of hours in the evening (not much else to do around Munnar).

23.02.-24.02.2017 Alleppey

As mentioned previously, our trip then continued with a horror bus ride back to sea level, to Kottayam. I’m calling it a horror trip because we were stuck in a completely closed, dark bus without windows (thick roller blinds were covering them since there was no glass) and therefore did not see anything of the road. Also, our driver seemed to want to be the new Michael Schumacher. I have been through many crazy bus rides in my backpacking life, but this was the first time I was really, really scared that we would crash any time! 😦 I was so relieved when we arrived safe and sound in Kottayam and transferred to the ferry to Alleppey – a wayyyyy nicer way of transportation! The boat trip took around 2,5 h through the backwaters during which we got a first impression of the canal and lake system. Thousands of palm trees, canals fully overgrown with plants, the whole life happening next to or on the water,… simply beautiful!

In Alleppey we first walked to the beach which is really nice and could definitely do with some beach tourism. In hindsight I liked this beach best of all the beaches we saw in Kerala and we maybe should have spent a full day here, relaxing on the beach.

The following day we took a small private boat trough the smaller canals for a couple of hours. Especially the atmosphere in the early morning was amazing!! We were able to watch everything and everyone waking up slowly… As a big fan of palm trees I of course couldn’t stop taking photos! Every corner just seemed to look even better than the one before! 🙂

25.02.-28.02. Varkala

A little bit too early we moved on to Varkala. Too early because we had miscalculated our time a little and therefore were stuck in Varkala with a bit too much time on our hands – and as mentioned, I actually liked the beach of Alleppey better in hindsight! But what do you do!? 😉 Varkala was also nice, especially its impressive cliff-side location. Steep stairs were leading down to a nice beach where we spent quite some hours in the next few days soaking up the sun. Wearing a bikini is no problem here, only during weekends there are quite some Indians from the cities visiting which results in some stares. But I had expected worse! Part of the beach is reserved for religious ceremonies. We didn’t really quite find out the procedure and reasons behind them, but it was interesting to watch anyways…

One day we rented a scooter and drove around the nearby beaches. Some quite pretty – but without shade and infrastructure. Also no other tourists – in other countries appreciated, in India not that great for me as a woman since by myself I did not feel so comfortable in a bikini. Still – a beautiful day!

We also joined a cooking course, but unfortunately forgot to take a camera for pictures (plus it would have been too stressful anyways 😉 ). In case I haven’t mentioned this clearly enough yet: We looooove Indian food!! It’s just super delicious and we tried a different new curry almost every night. We also love dosas, especially as breakfast or snack in between. In Kerala, food was definitely spicier than in the North, so we had to start asking for „not spicy“! 😉

01.03.2017 Trivandrum

After a few days of relaxing and sun bathing we took the train further South to Trivandrum. We had a day there to have a look around the little town. A couple of hours would have been enough though – nice, but not super much to see.

02.03.-04.03.2017 Mumbai

As last point of our India itinerary, we took a flight from Trivandrum to Mumbai. We had 2,5 days to see the city with all its highlights (and lowlights) – and that was just fine. For me, visiting Mumbai was especially interesting since I was reading the book Shantaram during our trip through India (which I really recommend!!) and which plays in Mumbai for a big part. On our first day in the city, we went straight into the chaos of the Mumbai markets and strolled through the chaotic streets all the way to Chowpatty beach.

Next day, we took a walk along the different colonial buildings to the harbour with the famous Taj Mahal Palace Hotel and the Gateway of India. Here is where the ferries to Elephanta Island are leaving from – our plan for the afternoon. Unfortunately the boat trip turned out to be rather long and boring and we wouldn’t rate the caves on Elephanta Island as a „must see“ either. Interesting, if you have time for it, but not impressing. We liked the colonial buildings better which we had seen before!

On our last ( 😦 ) day we wanted to see some more sights which were spread out all over Mumbai. Unfortunately Mumbai does not have a metro network relevant to tourists yet (being worked on at the moment), so we needed to do a big part of the sightseeing by taxi. We drove to the „Babu Amichand Panalal Adishwarji Jai Temple“ (yes… that is really the name), to the Banganga tank (a water reservoir), as well as to a viewpoint on Malabar Hill from where you could look over the Chowpatty beach and part of the city.

Then we continued to the Mahalaxmi Tempel and the Haji Ali Dargah Mosque – two important religious buildings which however are not too impressive for tourists without relevant background 😉 What impressed us more was the Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat – a small settlement which is said to be the biggest washing machine of Mumbai. Hotels, schools but also private individuals get their laundry hand washed here – and apparently (almost) nothing ever gets lost. Quite fascinating!! A good viewpoint is the bridge of Mahalaxmi station.

We took the train back to the center of the city to the Chharapati Shivaji Terminus – kind of the main station of Mumbai. This is how we say goodbye to India – with a few pictures of trains and the station…

India – we will definitely be back! Such a big country and we really only saw a tiny slice of it, but already got a good impression which leaves us wanting to see more – much more… Here are some more pics!