Travel Diary
This is my personal account of the trip Alain, Josiane, Sonia and myself have done in January 2025. We were anticipating it for a long time and our expectations were not disappointed. This diary could fill many more pages but these contributions are the anchors of our 4 weeks long journey.
START OF THE JOURNEY - KOCHI, Kerala
After many years we decided to embark for a South-India journey again along with a couple of dear friends, Alain and his wife Josiane, who already joined us last year for a trip thru Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
Starting our journey in Kochi, we got a glimpse of what to expect in regard to development and modernity in an increasingly urbanised country. Some 25 to 30 years ago Kochi and Ernakulam formed a small city in Kerala full reminiscent of colonial times and offering a relaxed pace of life. It is still the same in the old city of Kochi, but this changes as soon as you cross to Ernakulam where the city has developed to a business and commercial centre with international outreach. We stayed at the Hotel Fragrant Nature near the Kochi Fort which we only can recommend for its cleanliness, comfort and proximity to the main touristic points of interest. We took a Tuk-Tuk to visit the old Fort and the old town, which is the best way to drive through the small and crowded streets.
ALLEPEY, Backwaters, Kerala
The next day we made a one-day boat-trip onto the backwaters of Allepey. If you have more time, you can spend a few nights on the large house boats. Years ago, the boats were smaller and you could ask to be dropped near one of the farms and try some of the locally brewed palm wine called Toddy.
Organizing our road trip, we dealed with the Kochi based travel agent « Le Tourister ». Mr Benoy, the company owner, was very helpful, so we booked two 'Toyota Innova Crysta' cars for our tour lasting 17 days going from Kerala to the Karnataka and the Tamil Nadu states. Shaheer and Vishnu, the drivers, embarked for one of their longest continuous car journey with two elderly couples of tourists.
THEKKADY, Peryiar National Park, Kerala
We began our tour from Kochi to Thekkady, in the mountain range of the Western Ghats, for a two day visit of the Periyar National Park. We had booked the Lake Palace, a lodge on an island of the Periyar lake within the Nature Sanctuary. There is no better start for this trip than to experience the pristine nature and the original landscape of the South-Indian lands away from the noise, the crowd and the Internet. We booked a jungle trek and a lake boat tour to discover the pristine jungle and its wild life, herds of elephants, deers, antelopes, Gaur Bisons, birds and of course the invisible tigers... Compared with our previous visit we must acknowledge the good preservation of the forest areas and the thriving animal life despite the pressure of human activity around. Kudos for the local and federal governments for this and respect for the rangers in charge of protecting this treasure.
OOTY, Nilgiri Hill Station, Tamil Nadu
We are heading to the Nilgiri hills between Kerala and Tamil Nadu states, a long distance but nowadays manageable in one leg thanks to six-lane highways in the lowlands. Before picking these highways, we did drive the small hill roads and enjoy the view of forests and plantation areas (tea, pineapple, coconut, mango, cashew-trees, and many more). On the way, before arriving, we caught the small mountain railway from Coonoor to finally reach the railway station of Ooty. The mountains there are quite high, in the two thousand meters range, and everywhere on the slopes you see endless tea plantations. We paid a visit to a tea and to a chocolate factory and to the Doddabetta peak. Our Hotel 'The Welcome Heritage Ayatana' was located farther away, immersed in the hills within the tea plantations next to a picturesque village. It has very nice modern chalets with all amenities and a fireplace in the spacious rooms which can be very useful as the nights can become fairly cold. Here I could have stayed a bit longer, for a week or even more. It is just a peaceful place with fresh air to breathe.
MYSORE - Karnatka
Next up to Mysore, Karnataka state. A short distance but one of the most beautiful hill roads stretching through pine forests with huge trees, wonderful Eucalyptus forests and stunning panoramas. We were crossing the famous Bandipur Tiger Reserve. We just missed the tiger, who showed up somewhere else, but again we could observe large herds of antelopes and spotted deer and of course some families of wild elephants. Beware of them! They are not tame at all! If you have more time, spend one more day there and book one of the gypsy jeep to search for the tiger; some lucky people did see tigers and even leopards.
We were lucky to arrive in Mysore on a Sunday evening , as the palace was illuminated with thousands of light bulbs, not LEDs. I tried to figure out the electricity bill the Maharaja has to foot for such a weekly show. The next we visited the interior of the palace also the huge gothic style St. Philomena cathedral, and we didn immerse in the most crowded market called Devaraja. You can't imagine how much of everything is sold there. Mysore is a pleasant city with spacious streets and a distinguishable 'European' flair. We stayed at the Hotel «Southern Star». Very pleasant, clean and offering very nice local food.
BANGALORE - Karnataka
Our next stage in Karnataka led us to Bangalore, now called Bangaluru, the Silicon Valley of India, mostly inhabited by young geeks who basically work hard and live in the digital modernity amid inextricable traffic jams. We were happy to meet our dear friends Padmakar and Usha with their family who hosted us so well and prepared us an authentic and delicious Indian dinner. Even if deprived of spectacular things, one has to visit such big cities in India to grasp the huge societal divide and contradictions of the Indian Society, but also its potential in a globalised world. We went to visit some nice places, the Lalbagh Botanical Garden, the museums next to the Cubbon Park, and we planned a chillout evening in one of the downtown pubs with their own beer breweries. We checked in at the ITC Windsor near the Golf course, a truly luxurious experience leaving nothing to be desired; just enjoy the place. Before entering Bangalore, we stopped at the SULA Winery Domain where you can taste wine varieties and appreciate the quality of the locally produced Indian wines.
CHENNAI (Madras) - Tamil Nadu
On the way to Chennai we made a stop in Kanchipuram to visit the famous temple sites. Chennai despite an important urban and industrial development, has many parts of the city still at a human scale, each Nagar is set up like a village with greenery and trees between the houses and the buildings. The Marina Beach is a must see, and more nice beachfront are in vicinity. Next the Madras University you can visit the Vivekananda House and the Government Museum. There you can learn about the origins of this city. Township visits included the St. Thomas Basilica and other churches, the great Kapaleeshwarar Temple and of course the many shopping centres where you can spend your money on sarees, silk and jewellery. Many thanks to my dear long-time friend Ramesh who welcomed us and drove us around in the city and introduced us to the new parts of the city which have mushroomed in the past ten years. We stayed at Taj Coromandel, one of the most renowned hotels in Chennai, where you can enjoy the most refined service and the most elaborate South Indian cuisine. We also tried the local and popular restaurants where you get served Thali and curries on a banana leaf. On the outskirts of Chennai, we visited the snake park and the crocodile farm where you can admire the endangered Gavial crocodile.
PONDICHERRY - Tamil Nadu
After spending 3 days in Chennai, we continued to Pondicherry and on the way we stopped in Mahabalipuram to visit the shore temples, a very old and unique hinduistic site right on the beach front. There are also many tourist hotels for beach goers and many small beach restaurants where you can enjoy fresh sea food recipes. After this stop we continued to finally reach Pondicherry before sunset and we checked in the Raddison Blue Hotel next to the Eden beach. Pondicherry is the old colonial French town where policemen still wear the kepi, and the cafés serve real croissants and other french pastry. The old tfrench own is kept as an open-air museum, and you can walk the shadowy avenues bearing French names. We also visited nice and colorful churches. Finally, we also paid a visit to Auroville, the futuristic and rather odd and strange settlement founded by the “Mother” and the sage Sri Aurobindo for the spiritual benefit of all Humanity. Returning to our hotel we went to enjoy the sunset at Eden Beach.
TIRUCHIRAPPALLI - Tamil Nadu
The next leg of our trip was the city Tiruchirappalli, the journey itself being the interesting part, passing by endless rice fields, plantations and many small villages and farms of these central lands of Tamil Nadu. On the way we met endless queues of Hindu pilgrims wearing the black and golden dress for the men and the red and golden sarees for the women. The many hundred miles we did in our comfortable Toyota, were covered by those people walking barefoot on the roadside under the burning sun. This region is renowned for the many Hindu sanctuaries and huge Dravidian style temples along the roads. One can see from far away those colourful gopurams raising to the sky in the endless horizon. We stopped by one of the most ancient and beautiful temples in Thanjavur. Great Dravidian architecture and with wonderful sculptures gives you a glimpse of the power of those ancient dynasties, the Chola and the Nayak, that were the summum of culture in South India before the advent of the Europeans. We also paid a visit to the palace in Thanjavur worth an extra hour to visit. By sunset we arrived in Trichy and checked in at the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel. Excellent choice if you stop in Trichy!
MADURAI - Tamil Nadu
The next day we visited the Sri Ranganatha Swamy Temple in Tiruchirapalli, a huge and very crowded temple city with 4 gates, the southern gate sporting the highest Gopuram in India. Incredible sight and we couldn't understand how anyone can build such an architectural wonder with thousands and thousands of colourful sculptures staring at you. Impressive and I now firmly believe that faith not only can move mountains but creates them. We continued to Madurai to visit the renowned Menakshi Temple which is a big pilgrimage site and where you meet people from all corners of India. To our dismay the temple and the wonderful Gopurams at the gates were in works for renovation and were covered with a web of bamboo poles scaffoldings used by the workers to climb on dizzying heights. Of course, no one wears shoes or a helmet. We checked in at the Gateway Madurai (a Taj Hotel) on the Hilltop overviewing Madurai. The hotel is an old colonial English style mansion build in 1890. The rooms are in individual villas situated in a wonderful English garden populated by birds and peacocks that roam around freely. Exceptional experience worth some more nights for a stay.
KANYAKUMARI - Tamil Nadu
On our last leg of this memorable road trip went from Madurai to Kanyakumari and then taking a picturesque small road along the southern seaside towards Kovalam Beach. The landscape spanning from Madurai to Kanyakumari is flat as a pancake and mostly covered with rice fields, palm plantations and moors as wide your eyes can see. This open space is nowadays the land of giant electricity pylons criss-crossing the skies and of tens of thousands of electrical wind turbines which I guess made the fortune of some billionaire entrepreneur. Kanyakumari is a small city on the southernmost tip of the subcontinent facing the converging 3 waters, the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Bengal Sea. It is also a converging point of the 3 most widespread religions in South-India: Hindus, Christians and Muslims. It's a big fishing city and many colourful fishing boats are lined up along the shore. If you have the time and patience to queue up you can visit the Vivekananda memorial temple on the island next to the tall Thiruvalluvar statue.
TAMIL NADU - KERALA
From there we continued for another ninety kilometres through the palm forests along the sea to reach Kovalam, a popular beach resort area akin Goa. This is one of the most beautiful countrysides with the posh villas in the palm groves and the many orchards. On the way we stopped at Poovar and booked a boat ride on the backwaters where we had nice sightings of birds and nearly untouched mangrove vegetation. Some nice beaches and Holiday resorts are also there.
KOVALAM Beach - Kerala
Kovalam offers many luxury hotels (and small pensions for the less fortunate tourists too). There are many beach pubs and restaurants offering fresh caught seafood. You can find many tourist shopping areas, ayurveda massage salons and everything you expect for a relaxed holiday.
We booked in the Leela Kovalam (a Raviz Hotel) which is magnificently lodged on the top of a hill overlooking the nice beaches and the palm groves of Kovalam.
Well, what can we say: it's the ultimate experience for this kind of holidays, and the team, from gardener to manager, were all very friendly and welcoming. We did stay in that Hotel in 1992 when it was still a Kerala government run
luxury Hotel called the Ashok.
THANKS !
Arriving in Kovalam we took leave of our drivers and companions Shaheer and Vishnu in this long road trip. They were always very helpful and caring for us and they showed us places we didn't know before. We thank them very much for this.
We also thank all the many youthful personnel in the hotels where we stayed, alas too many to be cited by name, but special thanks to Prasanth and Nithin from the Leela Kovalam who were most helpful to solve some airplane issue for us. Last but not least many thanks to Mr Benoy from 'Le Tourister travel agency' and to his partner Mr Vikas of the Delhi based travel agency 'Bhavya Holidays'.
Many thanks for the warm welcome to all our friends we met during this trip and to all the friendly people we met on the road .