Kerala & around in 2 weeks: New Traveller - where to go?

Indizen

If you cut one night from Kovalam and one from Kochi, I suggest you spend a couple of nights at Varkala beach. Its located north of Kovalam, on the way to Kochi. I find it much nicer and more scenic than Kovalam, and you can see both.

Lord Average

The options that I know of for the Periyar Wildlife Park are:

The boat trip - notorious for seeing zero wildlife
One day jeep safari - we did this one, had a great time and saw loads of wildlife
Three day trek - for the adventurous, increases your possibilities for seeing a tiger.

__________________
Live your life. Be Free

htid

It would definitely be either the jeep safari or the trek. WHat does the trek involve? Just going out for 3 whole days and camping out in the park? I'd love to do that but I'm not quite sure my girlfriend would agree

Also, how do you go about booking these things? I read somewhere it's best to ask the forrestry department for a guide or something, is that right?

Lord Average

The trek involves exactly that. You will need a moderate degree of intrepidness, but they are well organised. It should be fairly quiet at that time of year - but pretty hot.

I'm getting the impression that "intrepid" may not be your girlfriends middle name! Therefore you may want to go for the path of least resistance and the jeep safari. That involves a few hours jeep travel either way, and around 4 hours trekking.

Most of the hotels in the area will be able to book you on to the safari or trek. Another contact is Mickey Cottage Homestay, where they will be only too glad to arrange things. They are on bypass road, also check out Chrissies Hotel for good food that I am sure will meet with your girlfriends approval.

Two other(non-intrepid) but highly enjoyable excursions you can do in Periyar is the bullock cart tour down in the plains of Tamil Nadu, and elephant riding in the jungle / spice plantations at the place with the baby elephant (Chrissies hotel can advise on these).

Definately different to Nice!

htid

Following on from my thread here, I've attached the planned Itinerary. The places won't be changing now, and probably not the lengths of time. Just looking for advice on if I've been too lenient/given too much time for journey or staying in certain places. I guessed the journeys (all of which will be by car) so I'd just like some conformation of times we should allow between the different places. You can ignore the prices, they are my own working out.

Anyway I've attached the file, it's just a standard txt file.

Cheers!

Attached Files

India itinerary.txt (681 Bytes, 50 views)

htid

Oh well the trip is off :/

She decided the risk of getting ill is too great. The thing is she is doing her A-levels (or rather the German equivilant, Abitur). She's coming to the UK (she's German, lives there) to a top uni and needs good grades in Biology. If she is ill for the exam (highly unlikely), the retake is 28th May. We would be arrving back 24th May, so she says if she's ill for the exam then IF she's ill for the retake (because there's more chance of getting ill over there) she's basically stuck. No uni, no future, no us living together. She's being sensible but still I'm so disappointed and annoyed :/

Oh well, I don't know what we'll do instead. Thanks for all the help people gave anyway. If we can go in a few years instead (won't be the next 3 as she'll be a poor student) I'll come back here and get some more help!

Cya.

machadinha

Wow. That is a great shame. (I don't think we ever interacted all that much, but I'd been following your posts here and there.)

What can one say; Be sure to keep it in the agenda, indeed. Maybe this is just what luck throws your way this time. That would certainly be one Indian way of looking at it

And don't be a stranger; being on this site is the next-best thing to being there

(btw One can't help but thinking but what if she catches a severe flu at home, but I'm sure you've been over this plenty of times. Rest assured most people don't return ill, but whatever really. It's up to both you guys, and I guess it's understandable. The constant agonizing alone over what might conceivably happen could ruin your holiday anyway. Besides it all seemed fairly rushed and you're fairly young. Maybe it's a good sign to retry at some point in the future, but better prepared and with more time to do it. Now that your mind has been set on this, you're unlikely to lose it any time soon.)

__________________
Reading tips, all picked up at IndiaMike : INDAX's A Comprehensive Guide To India / Dinoj Surendran's Desi Humor / ITHVC on Culture Shock & Travel Health / JetLag Travel Guides For the Undiscerning Traveller / India Travel Links

htid

Yeah, I can understand where she's coming from, but she could have said that from the start before we made such detailed plans, I mean I've even been to the doctors to see which vaccinations I need!

I see your point about the flu at home, but she thinks because she's not used to Indian life or whatever, she could easily get some illness (even such as a cold) which Indians wouldn't get as they are used to it. It's just stupid now though, where else can we go, everything else pales in comparison, I don't want anywhere else!

machadinha

Yes well, that's not the way it works, of course not (Indians are no more immune to either the flu or food poisoning or malaria than you or I), but most important right now is don't let us add fuel to any discontent between you over this, far more important to keep it together at this stage, despite this little set-back.

There are so many other destinations to consider, close to home or further away.* Take a breath and put India off your mind for a bit, the country is unlikely to run off to anywhere. That vaccinations info alone for instance will likewise come in handy on a future trip, or even to somewhere else, now that at least you've figured out yourself where and how and who to ask

* Southern Spain is another personal favorite. Suggest 3-4 weeks at least for a first reconnaissance trip Oh, you were thinking summer right? Gets awfully hot again! Maybe hopping around the Canaries a bit? Should be good I hear for a week or two, provided you manage to avoid the tourist crowds. Anyway and again: Just teasing of course, and just one of a zillion options.

htid

The thing is, India is changing. It's becoming more Westernised and Industrial as I've read from posts on here. It will be at LEAST 3 years until we can come now. More likely 10 because we'll live in London meaning not much chance to save and if we have a mortgage etc. saving enough will be a problem.

I'm worried that we'll not get to experience it as it is now. I don't want to go to Munnar or somewhere equally small and nice only to be greeted by high rise apartment blocks and McDonalds on every street corner. I want to experience the culture as it is, not a Westernised one, but whatever, nothing to be done about it.

machadinha

Hm yes, gets discussed quite a bit here. All I know is:

When I visited over a decade ago, I would run into people who'd been a decade or longer before and were shocked by all the modernization. Even friends and I have observed this in a shorter timespan. Needless to say, to me the experience at the time was every bit as exotic as it must have been to those people back then.

I imagine next time I'll be the one to complain about it, whereas the average youngster (and most likely newbie IM'er, I mean where else would one end up looking for information on it ) will be standing in my shoes back then, finding it every bit as exotic etc.

So I don't know. It's all highly relative, that's for sure, and as you will know. You're 23 or something; I wouldn't worry about it too much (nor lament what the world might look like when you're 26, or even 33. That's really not very long by the time you get there.) The world changes, and so does India. What's nice about India is she's good at preserving something of an undercurrent that she won't easily let go of, and as has been proven over thousands of years of interaction with numerous other cultures, that themselves again form no small part of what she is today. As with any culture, of course, however if there's one thing that makes India unique it must be her special way of maintaining a certain, well, uniqueness in all of this.

There'll always be an unseen and unmapped and un-guidebook'ed sidestreet next to the McDonald's where life goes on pretty much as usual, just like where you live. Or let's just hope so.

(I usually keep editing posts to add later thoughts btw & you're currently responding very quickly, maybe read back some of my above posts if you care for further nuances. Nothing overly intelligent mind, just some regular down-to-earth-ness.)

And as a final ps then, you'll find many members here who have been going for decades and still seem to enjoy themselves. As with that first time, it's a matter of personal input and the ability to adapt more than anything else I think. Which India -- again apparently unchangingly -- will certainly call on. Then again most countries, and travel in general, will, or so I find. The gains over time of course will be that you may gain the greater insight, whether expressed in repeated visits or in general life experience.

htid

Haha yes, I did just come back and think "eh, he replied a while ago, how is it still top of the new posts list and marked as unread when I've read it".

Also only just noticed something extra on your other post which I'll now read

vandy

Sorry to hear about your cancellation, I too had
to cancel my proposed trip this month, I would have been in Kerala right now if I DIDN'T CANCEL.

Now hoping to go in October,fingers crossed.

Is it possible your girlfriend will allow you to go on your own for a couple of weeks.

have heard Mauritius is pretty good, there's a lot of Indian culture there.

My other half appreciates my Love of travelling to
India and allows me to go on my own,in saying this I also hope to take her to Phuket for a completely relaxing holiday,She Deserves it.!!!!

She's been to India with me a couple of times and
enjoyed it but was taken aback by the culture shock
which some travellers to India find difficult to
accept.like they say you either Love it or hate it.

I absolutely Love the Diversity of the place and its People.

All the Best

vandy

pundabee

I can't help thinking that this was a wise decision. From what you have described, I don't think she was ready for India.

For some therapy you should read the thread linked below. It may put your decision into perspective (even though Kerala doesn't compare with Mumbai). It really is a shocking thread:

First time in India

htid

Weeeell, after all that, the trip could be back on!

Looking at Qatar Airways flights, it seems that they don't really increase closer to the date of travel (well, if it's 2 days or so, they do) so if the price is £420 in May when we want to go, it's £420 1 week from now. I rang up and they confirmed it, meaning we can book the flight once she knows she won't have to take the retake (2 weeks before travel).

I'm going to contact the places we'll stay to ask about their cancellation policy. Hopefully since May is a quiet month they will be OK if we book now then have to cancel, as they maybe won't have any other people wanting the rooms anyway. If this isn't the case and they don't accept cancellations, fine, we'll just lose the money, after all it's not that much since accomodation is so cheap.

And pundabee, if she doesn't like it, well, lesson learned, but we'd rather take the risk.