A visit to the "Gods own country"

I have always wanted to visit this wonderful state in south-western most part of India.Hafis (my colleague at cisco) created this opportunity for me, by way of fixing his marriage right in time;). Given the popularity of rail transport in India, we booked the tickets well in advance of 2 months. Our boarding point was at 7.10 from Banglore(K.R.Puram) to Ernakulam on 5/6 Friday night. Had to WFH as I had to catch the evening train. As is the usual case, train arrived late of about 30 mins to K.R. Puram station.

We six ( Sanu, Sourabh, Venkat, Sunil, Ajith and myself) had reached the station well in time. TO train journey was not that great as our berths were split among different coaches. Reached Ernakulam by around 7am. We had lodging in Karthika Residency. Freshened up in about an Hour and got a scorpio booked to take us to Allepey backwaters. This place was around 80 Kms from our hotel. Reached here at around 11am and straight away got into the houseboat that we had booked in advance. We spent around 5 hours in the boat. The climate, the place its been, the ambience, the beverages, the company, were just ideal setting for a perfect weekend chillout. Intermittent drizzles are characteristic of this place and that just adds to the pleasant climate. After having savoured the aura of backwaters for more than 5 hours,we headed straight to cochin beach. Here the cleanliness was not upto mark. Nevertheless, the roaring water bringing with them enormous energy was a pleasant view. Spent sometime here and headed to marine drive at the Naval zone of Cochin. Got into a mini boat which took us around to view the ships of Indian Navy. The ride was dissapointing as it was raining heavily outside and the sun had already set, leaving us very less chance to enjoy the outside view of ships and ocean.Headed straight back to our hotel by about 8pm. Freshend up and left to Grooms house for dinner. Once back, enjoyed watching Ind/Bang T20 worldcup match in the hotel with the gang.Thus ended our first day of Kerala visit.

Had to wake up early as the bus to Kollam(place of marriage) would leave at 7.30 am from Hafis's place. The journey to Kollam was around 3-4 hrs. Raingods were showering all through the route. Reached the marriage choultry by around 11.30 am. It was a nice experience to attend marriage of other religion. Enjoyed the typical Kerala food. Got our train back to Bangalore from kollam at 2.00 pm. Spent the FRO journey playing cards, dumb charades and with some friendly badinages. The visit to as they say "Gods own country" remains one to cherish.

Snaps:

Gods own country