Escape to Kerala

Last weekend, my friends and I went to Kochi in another state called Kerala. There are a few main towns/city in this state like Kochi, Calicut (Vasco Da Gama sounds familiar?) and Thiruvanathapuram (Tivandrum). We had a colleague who was kind enough to bring us around Kerala (his hometown). We took the sleeper train for an 11hour ride from Chennai central to Alwaye. This was my first experience being on a 'real train'. The train was freaking long. The toilets in the train are interesting because one can see the tracks....so...what goes down the bowl, goes onto the track. I think I can easily write a long essay on this trip but I shall resist and only note the key events.

Kerala
This is a very beautiful state. Quite untouched by industrial development. Chennai is definitely overcrowded and heavily polluted (although many say is still very much cleaner than Mumbai). In addition to this, the city - Kochi is 'spacious' in the sense that the buildings are properly arranged with spacious sidewalks. Chennai has roads that suddenly 'shrinks' because a building is in the way. Many people don't use the sidewalk in Chennai as well because of obstacles like sh*t (both human and animals), trees, homeless people, etc. Anyway, back to Kerala - full of coconut and palm trees. Roads are very small in the 'ulu' areas but good enough. Air is very fresh (except for a few areas where villagers still pratise open air burning)

Athirapalli Falls
This waterfall is amazing. At the base of the falls, we could feel the force of the water gushing down. No picture could do justice for what we have experienced there. It felt like rain although we were several meters away from the waterfall and the 'wind' generated by it was marvelous. In this picture, you can see me (guy in white shirt getting down the rocks). This picture was taken by our colleague's camera. I took many pictures with my camera as well but as I've mentioned before, I can't upload it to the net....
Oh ya, the visit to this waterfall was tiring because we had to 'climb' down the hill to reach the base and then climb up again. My thighs were sore after this trip but we had many place left to visit.

Elephant Ride
Dumbo? Unfortunately, this elephant does not fly. I never knew elephants are so hairy and that their hairs are super rough. It is quite uncomfortable for me to sit there because I wore shorts. It felt like I was getting my legs scrubbed by the plastic brush.
My friends and I paid about S$8 for a short ride on this elephant. In order to sit on the elephant's back, we had to get up on a ladder similar to the ones that you find at open airports. It was a scary ride. Every time the elephant moved, it felt as if we were going to fall off. (note to mom: I still have no idea why I was crying 15years ago at S'pore zoo on the pony... aih~ paiseh...other people would be so happy to ride on pony)

Fort Kochi
Fort Kochi was actually the Portugese Fort which was then taken over by the Dutch and later by the British. We are actually facing the Arabian Sea and the waters are really deep. We saw a cruise ship setting sail off the port at Fort Kochi - most probably to the Gulf.
Here is a picture of Chinese Fishing Nets with the sunset in the background. Quite a beautiful shot thanks to the 7megapixels of my friend's camera. We had our dinner at Fort Kochi where we could buy fresh fish from the fishermen and get it cooked at the stalls set up next to the beach. However, there was a catch - prices are very high because it is a tourist area. The people who come here are willing to pay for the premium cost to enjoy. We however, tried hard to bargain with them - end up our food was not properly cooked and still have to pay as much. It was quite unfortunate that it had happened but this experience teaches "Be prepared to spend, don't think about the money else suffer the consequence". The other tourist there seem to be quite comfortable as the staffs were super friendly with them.

Oklah, would've loved to write more and post more pictures but I shall stop here. I'll also try to upload pictures from my camera if possible. In the mean time, to know more about Kerala - click here