In the long independence day weekend we decided to give ourselves a little freedom from the city hussle bussle ā¦ the intial idea was to just get out of the city somewhere and then the wish to see Kerala backwaters in monsoon clubbed with our close friends daughterās baptism in Cochin we headed towards Godās own Countryā¦
The group this time was myself, hubby, ojas my 9-month old son, my sister Aparna and a couple friend Manish and Shivani, owing to the fact that we both had new cars (ours cedia and their city) and our craze for driving it was not a surprise that we decided to drive ā¦ We left Bangalore on Thursday i.e 14th August evening around 6:30 pm in the eveningā¦ It was one of those Bangalore monsoon days when there was a sudden crazy downpour and if u have been to Bangalore in the recent past you will now what becomes of it roads when it rainsā¦. We got terribly stuck in city traffic and could step out the city only by 9:00 or so and that when we took some internal routes and came out on Hosur Road after Electronic Cityā¦ and then all of us were hungry and hence began the search for a good place to eat, fortunately due to our previous travels on this road towards Yelagiri, towards Yercaud, Chennai etc we knew of quite some places to eat in Hosurā¦. We decided to stop at Hotel Renaissance and had a good dinner or Dal tadka, aalo jeera and some good tandoori rotisā¦. Ojas also had his milk there and then slept offā¦.
Other important thing we did there was book a hotel in Salem for the night haltā¦ and then we started the journey towards itā¦ It was still pouring cats and dogs and the roads looked lovely, both me and hubby love rains and were enjoying the drive but Manish was not really happy with the night driveā¦. Nonetheless we reached Salem at about 01:00 in night and started searching for the hotel that we had booked and on the way we saw this very nice and huge hotel called Salem Castle and we decided that rather than going further and finding the other hotel to be not good lets checkin here if they have roomsā¦. Fortunately they hadā¦ā¦. And we were all off to bed at 1:45ā¦. Me and hubby took turns sleeping as the bed was small and Ojas was getting up and starting to crawl as soon as his eyes opened a littleā¦ā¦ but still it was a nice rest
We started from there the next morning after breakfast around 9:00 am or so i.e after we had our breakfast and we attempted to giving Ojas his breakfast which he refused to eatā¦ it was my birthday that day and hence I was in a happy happy mood you nowā¦. I was also at the wheel and thought I am going to freak out todayā¦. Little did I know what laid aheadā¦ the roads from Salem to Coimbatore were in a really bad shapeā¦ there was construction going on to make it a four-lane highway and there were so many criss cross, so many diversions, so many pot holes that you could hardly pick up any speedā¦ after 2 hours we had barely gone for about 80kms and we were all getting exteremly frustrated and thus decided to take a tea breakā¦ we had a tea somewhere and attempted to give Ojas something to eat again which is refused again and thus I gave him milkā¦ and from here Naren took back the wheel and started the frustrating journey againā¦ The journey went on , Ojas was either sleeping or playing in his car seat happily in between eating his biscuits and playing with massiā¦ The road became good after the Coimbatore bypass and we were finally able to pick up speedā¦ We stopped for lunch somewhere at about 15:30 and there was hardly anything available there till thenā¦ we somehow managed to stuff something in usā¦ the sambhar and the brown rice were edible so bas kaam chal gaya, this time to I tried to feed Ojas his lunch but he refused to eat anything at allā¦ not even one bite to taste whether he likes it or not, I was sure if he has a bite he will eat as it was his favorite Oats but he simply refused and had milk again after sometime in the carā¦ This was getting me worried because he had eaten only 1.5 biscuits since morning and was wondering if he will behave this way in the whole tripā¦.
We started from there and the road became much better but my son decided to play havocā¦. He started screaming at the top of his voice and just wouldnāt stop specially in hi car seatā¦. We had to stop 5 times in the next 1 hour to pacify him and then he finally fell asleep in my arms and then I put him back in his car seatā¦
Post that we soon reached the by pass to cochin rather Alwa just before alwa and we took a left from there and headed through the mild slopes towards the backwaters in Kumarakom ā¦ the road up there kept getting curvier and thinner as we approached aheadā¦ it was a lovely stretch but because of the frustrating first half the journey felt like never ending to usā¦ And finally we saw the first backwater canalā¦ it was an amazing feeling actuallyā¦ there was a sudden gush of happiness and then started the search for our resort The Backwater Resort at about 20:00 in the nightā¦ the first look at it we were happy and satisfiedā¦. They were nice cottages and the resort was on the Vembanad Lakeā¦ā¦.. nice small swimming pool tooā¦ā¦ā¦
We then decided to get fresh and put Ojas to sleep and meet outside our cottage in about an hourās timeā¦ Ojas went to sleep without any difficult, I guess he was as tired as us ā¦ we put him in his sleeping back to be tension freeā¦ afterall he cant crawl and fall down the bed in his sleeping bedā¦ I give credit of this idea to my hubby which saved us fro 3 sleepless nights
And when I came back I was pretty surprised to see a nice cake kept on the chair with a knife and allā¦ I cut the cake etc and then we chilled out with some drinks and foodā¦ actually all of us desperately wanted some chilled beer specially Manishā¦. He went to the extent of saying that his motivation for the drive was the chilled beer in the endā¦ but 15th August being a dry day we had to do with some Absolut vodka that we had got along with usā¦ All in all it was a very different birthday for me this time, birthday on the roadā¦ not to mention that I enjoyed it the amount I love travel and drivingā¦ā¦.
In parallel we called multiple people and try to figure out a alternate route to go back as I was so sure I am not driving 16hrs back at a stretch having Ojas with me and we figured out a route too through which it takes about 10-12 hrs to reach Bangaloreā¦ and we cursed ourselves to have done this research before starting normally me and Naren make sure we talk to people, get enough info on the best route to take before we head out this time owing to Ojas we hadnāt got into it at allā¦
The next morning was our houseboat dayā¦. We had booked a morning to evening houseboat as we were not sure how will Ojas behave on it and hence didnāt take it for the nightā¦ so after a leisurely and nice breakfast we went on the houseboatā¦ Manish had in the meanwhile gone for the traditional Kerala massage in the resort and had a Ok Ok feedback regarding the sameā¦ even I wanted to go but decided for the evening as Ojas had to be made ready etcā¦
The house boat was the highlight of the trip and was truly amazingā¦. I had never imagined that the houseboat will be so modernā¦ it had all the comforts and was fun to be inā¦.. the backwaters view was amazing and we all loved every minute of itā¦.. including Ojas who was in a happiness spell seeing so much water around himā¦ I thin
k he belonged thereā¦
And then suddenly we saw lots of small small boats coming near our houseboat and we started the guess work, they would be coming to sell fish etc etc and then we suddenly saw them all getting tied to our baot and then we realized what it isā¦ they are all fishermen going back to the villages after fishing and saving their rowing energy, truly working in tandem, in a team isnāt itā¦. These people know it so well and we have to teach this so much back in officeā¦ā¦. I guess great lesson here
And then there was a brilliant truly kerala style lunch served on the boatā¦.. and we had a truly amazing chilled out day on the boatā¦ā¦ā¦.
After we came back from the houseboat I went for a massageā¦. And it was a a mixed kind of experienceā¦ā¦. Read abt it here and then night again was a chilled out chat cum booze session, today we actually decided to try the Gujrati and the marathi cuisine that was listed in the menuā¦ we had seen it the first day but were not in the mood to experiment so much but today the mood was upbeat and also we had come to know that the head chef is from Maharashtraā¦. And the food was a pleasant surpriseā¦ we had ordered dal methi, khichdi and some other items and all were goodā¦
The next morning was the day to start back and head towards Cochin for our friends daughters baptism and we started from the resort at about 9:30 in the morning and the route we took this time was really neat and fast we made it to Cochin in exactly 2 hours as compared to 3.5 hrs we had taken on the way upā¦. The baptism was in a nice hotel and ojas enjoyed himself crawling all over in the lobby of the hotel and we also had a chilled out time but it the weather was really bad thereā¦ from there we headed towards the place our friend had arranged for us to stay and it was a nice home and then we had what is called a long afternoon siesta ruining all our plans to go see Cochin fortā¦. By the time we left home it was about 4:30 pm already and then by the time we reached the port road it was about 5:30pm and then there was a whole lot of commotion as there was some festival going on and hence we decided to ditch the fort plan and went towards the Bolgaty Palace and from there we took an hourās boat ride around the Indian navy boats and then came back chilled out the palace with some chilled beer finally and nice buffet dinnerā¦.
Next day morning we went for breakfast at our friends house and had nice aappams an curry and the kerala bananaā¦ we started from there around 9:00 am in the morning and started driving on the new discovered route unfortunately I have lost the log that kept on what exactly is the route we took but I remember we took a diversion somewhere from NH57 on to SH17 and then got on to another SH (me is trying to search for the log, if I get it then I will update the same)ā¦ In between we stopped at naren and manishās common friends house for lunch at Pallghatā¦ these guys were meeting each other after some 8-9 years and it was nice to watch the reunion and watching them getting into comfort zone in a instant even after so longā¦ thatās what friends are isnāt it
By taking the modified route we reached Hosur at about 20:00 and that was really good as compared to what we had done in the updward journey though post that the law of averages caught up and we got stuck in a jam and reached home only by about 21:45 but nonetheless it was brilliantā¦.
And all through the trip the darling was my dear Cheetahā¦ the Cediaā¦. It would just rip the minute u press the pedalā¦ be so steady even on very high speedsā¦ I actually did my frist 170kmph in the tripā¦ my highest speed everā¦ it was really thrilling and the car was rock steady at that timeā¦ā¦.. but still after all this I would say the comforts of a SUV are brilliant for a long drive, I did miss my elephant the safariā¦ā¦ā¦
PS: as usual check out the snaps at Kerala Pics
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