The Spectaluar South

In Munnar

A View from the hotel in Munnar

Waterfall

Father and Son!

Waterfall

A view of the hills

The lakes

Hills and lakes in Munnar

The hillsides

A view of the hills

Up in the clouds!!

Way up there!!

Going for a ride!!

The Elephant!!

A view from the hotel in Thekkady

Pretty Smiles!!

Brother and Sister!!!

Kumarkom Hotel Pool!!

Chillin in Kumarakom

A view of Kumarakom Lake

Kumarakom Hotel Pool!  It was Fantastic!!

Some friends that we made!!

On the House Boat!!

The Skipper, Gilligan and Mary Ann!!

A view from the house boat

Cheers!!

Villagers from the house boat!

Sunset off the houseboat

House Boat all covered for nightfall

Fisherman

Cheese!!!

All Smiles!!

Our welcome home thanks to Manjula - house was all decorated for Diwali

This post will detail our trip to Kerala.

It started on Monday with a flight into Cochin. We were quickly greeted our travel agent who had our driver, Oswald waiting for us. We loaded up the car and we were on our way. Our first stop, Munnar.

Munnar has the highest peaks in south India. The mountains were more like rolling hills, with lush green all around. There were tea plantations covering the hills, it was beautiful. We stayed 2 nights there. The hotel had a great view of the hillsides. It was great.

After the 2 nights there, we headed to Thekkady. Again this was another hill town, just as beautiful. In addition to being so picturesque, there was also a wildlife jungle. This was a national park that had animals in their natural habitat. There were supposedly 40 tigers still living there but we did not see any of them. We did see elephants, buffalo's, and wart hogs. Very cool. While in Thekkady we stayed one night at a beautiful hotel. It was set in the mountain/hillside. While in Thekkady we were able to go on an elephant ride. We also were able to visit the spice plantations. We saw how cardamom, black pepper, cinnamon, all-spice, cloves and vanilla were grown. Most of these spices are grown in abundance in the hills of Munnar and Thekkady. We also were able to visit a tea factory where they process the tea.

The last stop on the trip was Kumarakom. Here we stayed one night at the resort, and one night on the house boat. The resort was the best place we stayed at during the entire trip. It was really amazing. The best part, they had a meandering pool that was attached to some of the villas. Basically the pool was right outside our back door. The kids loved this!! The second night we stayed on a house boat. It was really nice.

All in all a great trip. Below are the top 10 things that were good about the trip, and the things that were not so good.

Not-So-Good
10. The long drives to get to the different destinations. 3-4 hours in the car for each leg of the trip.
9. The elephant ride.... it was good to say we did it and crossed it off the list.
8. Having to sit in the back seat on the winding roads going up the hills/mountains.
7. Having idli sambar for breakfast.... everyday!
6. Mosquitoes on the house boat...
5. The shower on the house boat...
4. Sleeping on the house boat...
3. The winding, narrow roads combined with the stick shift car... made for splitting headaches and borderline-motion-sickness.
2. That we only had one night at the Lake resort... it was so beautiful, we will definitely be going back
1. The it had to come to an end....

Good
10. The kids ate Indian food everyday!! They were troopers with the food...
9. The views.....Spectacular
8. Our driver Oswald... he was swift and safe. Even on the very narrow roads...
7. Shopping for antiques in Kochin
6. Lake Kumarkom Resort... 5 star in my book!
5. Seeing how all the spices were grown
4. Seeing endless fields of tea plantations
3. Eating fresh passion fruit... yummy!!
2. The weather... warm and sunny during the day... cool at night!
1. We made it through 6 days of 'togetherness' just the 4 of us, and Oswald, and puppy too!

We definitely recommend this trip to anyone traveling to India!! Check out the pics...