A couple of weeks with just the routine work are sufficient to make you look out for an opportunity to get away from the concrete jungle. And it’s a boon to have likeminded people at your office itself. Great, now with the people ready, the next question that popped up was, where are we gonna go? My colleague/team mate’s home town is Kollam. So it was an unanimous decision to head to Kollam. The dates were fixed 30th October 2010 to 4th November 2010.
Now everybody wanted to travel by train. I thought why not, because it is the cheapest mode of transport available in India. However, we did not get a direct train to Kollam. Instead we had a stopover at Jolarpet to board the train from Chennai to Trivandrum.
So the Journey was planned as departing from Bangalore on the 30th October 2010 in Brindavan Express (Train No – 2640) to Jolarpet and then board Trivandrum Express (Train No 2695) from Jolarpet to Kollam. Return journey would be in Kochuveli Bangalore Express (Train No 6315) on 4th November 2010.
Day 1: 30th October 2010
As usual, after all the last minute hiccups in packing the required things, we finally reached the station with only 15 mins in hand to the Departure of the Brindavan Express. Brindavan Express being its usual stopover at platform no 1, it was life very easy for everybody.
The journey was pretty usual with just a little over couple of hours to be seated to reach Jolarpet. Had masala dosa served by the IRCTC Catering service, but the masala dosa did not have masala in it ;-) (Tamil Nadu style masala dosa). Reached Jolarpet about 5 mins late.
Not many photos for day 1. Just a shot from the moving train.
Had a good couple of hours to spend until our next train arrives from Chennai. In the meanwhile, explored the Jolarpet Junction Railway Station and shifted our entire luggage to Platform no 2 (proposed platform as per the station master for Train no – 6295). The announcement was made on the arrival of the Trivandrum express with about 15 mins before the actual arrival, but the train would not arrive on platform no 2, instead it will arrive in platform no 1. All the luggage shifting exercise again, we’re ready to board the train.
Had the IRCTC dinner (read Veg Biryani), oops forgot to mention that all the members of the group are pure veggies. Then it was time to hit the bed, sorry berth this time. It started to rain somewhere near Erode and it was raining all the way till Tiruvalla.
Day 2: 31st October 2010
With the alarm ringing, I woke up everybody to be ready to get down at Kollam. Something in my mind was telling, something is wrong somewhere. That something was nothing but the usual delay of the Indian Railways by 45 mins.
Some shots from the train.
Astamudi Lake
Got down at Kollam, hired couple autos and loaded them with the luggage and the group headed straight to my colleague’s house.
Some shots from the garden at Mahesh’s house.
The day’s plan was to visit places near Kollam, later reach the beach by afternoon and stay there till sunset. However, this changed for a very valid reason, somebody had come home with a marriage proposal for Mahesh. We had a blast teasing Mahesh all day.
We headed to Paravoor lake/lagoon. It was time to get ourselves wet. So we did just what was needed but not before clicking a few snaps.
We returned home and the plan of refreshing up before we reach the Kollam beach for sunset actually ensured we missed the sunset. With the darkness setting in, I had nothing much to click apart from the few shots.
Day 3: 1st November 2010
One of our friends was to join us early in the day. He joined us bang on the scheduled time. Now we had planned to hire a self driven innova for ourselves. The plan was to drive to Kumarakom near Kottayam. But we actually added another place, that is the Koratakkara temple, then afternoon we would spend in the boat house and then head to Vagamon for the night.
Our innova arrived at around 8 am (at least an hour later than we had planned). Packed the things that were required and off we went towards Koratakkara.
With the visit to the temple and our first mission accomplished we went ahead with our plan but not before clicking this good bit of work.
The Elephant statue outside the Temple.
We reached Kottayam and my colleague hired a house boat for a couple of hours. We decided to pack our lunch from outside and have lunch in the house boat. Not a bad idea after all. We reached the house boat place. Parked the innova and headed to the house boat. While the lunch was being served, I had the chance to click away to glory on the DSLR. A few snaps
The resting bird
The flying one
Another one
A painting inside the house boat
Yours Truly
The passage in the house boat
Church at the lake resort
Random shots
Our steed for the next 3 days
We drove back to Kottayam and stopped at the Indian Coffee house for a coffee. We lost almost 45 mins with the coffee break. It was already dark and we drove towards Vagamon via Pala. We packed dinner on the way as it was too late for us to place the request dinner at the place we would stay at Vagamon. Almost we lost an hour here. Reached the place at around 9:45 pm. It was time to get the camp fire on and get the dinner done.
The camp fire, a different view
It was snooze time and we hit the bed on a pretty cold night.
Day 4: 2nd November 2010
Late night camp fire and dinner the previous day ensured it was equal to laziness for the morning. We had decided to have an early morning walk in the tea plantations nearby. This did happen but at around 8 am, may not be the right time to call it as early. As usual a bit of photography here and there, a nice hot cup of tea, we’re back the home stay where the breakfast (Idly and Dosa) was ready. With the breakfast finished, it took some time for everybody to get ready and leave. Finally we’re out very close to noon.
Our home stay
A plot for sale
Distant windmill
A month old calf
Panorama
Headed to the elephant ride nearby. The elephant that would give rides to people was named “Sundari”. Though a 26 year old elephant looked pretty out of shape. May be poor diet fed to the elephant, read as only palm leaves. Also they charge like 250-300 bucks for the hair on the elephant’s tail, though only if you need one.
Elephant on ice cream/candy diet
Elephant’s eye
We headed to the pine forest as it was our next stop. We had a good multi-cuisine restaurant and it was resort as well, Summer Sand Hill Resort. After our visit to the pine forest, we decided to have lunch at this restaurant, as it was already 2:30 pm.
Pine Forest
At the place where we stopped for lunch
After lunch we drove back to Kollam, stopping at a few places for photos.
It started to rain heavily near Mundakkayam. So the click happy hour opportunity was lost. Drove back taking the route via Mundakkayam – Erumeli – Ranni – Pathanamthitta – Kotarakka – Kollam.
Day 5: 3rd November 2010
The day’s plan was to visit the Padmanabha Swamy temple in Trivandrum, visit a few places around Trivandrum and then head to Kovalam for the evening. Dinner was planned at another colleague’s house and then head back to Kollam.
We started off by 8:45 am towards Trivandrum. It took a good 2 and half hours for us to reach the temple. Since the closing time for the temple was nearing, we rushed to visit the temple deity (Sri Ranganatha Swamy alias Padmanabha Swamy). There is a rule in the temple that the ladies should be wearing sarees and the gents should be wearing Dhotis. It was good to see the ladies in the traditional attire. After the temple visit, we headed to the Palace very close to the temple. The guide who took us around the palace was good at explaining things. As expected we were not supposed to click photos at the temple and the palace, so excuse me for the absence of any pictures.
Veli was our next stop for the boating. We moved around the park and then finally headed for the pedal boats for half an hour.
Done with the boating, I was very eager to head to Kovalam. Drove off to Kovalam and it was merry hour clicking for some time and then it was merry time playing in the water. The photos will do the talking.
Day 6: 4th November 2010
The day started off by handing over the Innova back to their owners and spend some time near the light house and the break water in Kollam.
We started off after a heavy breakfast around 10 am and headed to the light house.
Near the Light house
What next, shopping spree till the late afternoon. Sarees, handicrafts, all sorts of chips bought and we headed home. With the lunch being very delicious which was a routine now, had a real stomach full.
Packed the things and off we rushed to the railway station to board the Kochuveli Bangalore Express which did arrive bang on time. We bid good bye to our colleague and his family and the journey was nothing unusual except for the usual delays of the Indian Railways.
After a long gap, a vacation which we can relive for quite some time.
