Tour de Kollam

We had a yet another long ride trip on bike to Kollam. As usual the catalyst to the trip was Amit. He carried out all the plan, road maps and even waking up duties to perfection.

The trip took us on a long ride on NH-47 covering more than 150 kms in the day and a major portion on road running parallel to sea after Alleppey always gave a lease of fresh air and sometimes stench of fish. The heavy breakfast at outskirts Alleppey helped the lot to kick into 5th gear. A beautiful view of sea ahead of Haripad enchanted our bikes into a stop and some real good snaps pepped the mood.
We were once more help hostage at Chavara near Kollam at another fishing beach. With freshly caught to take photograph with and some wonderful and many not so wonderful snaps the caravan reached Kollam. The search for night bunk ended in posh and plush KTDC hotel. After paying a hefty rent and a late lunch people just rushed to bathrooms to freshen up and make their move in the evening.  Evening went in frenzy with a nice trip to Light House and Kollam Beach. Come night and guys had a little chill and few emotional moments. But in the everything settled.

Come Sunday and four guys and gal took over the trip to Jatayupara. As the photos suggest a nice trekking place and may soon be commercialized and will loose all its beauty. Unfortunately, I could not go for the trek as I already had a too busy schedule for Monday which I couldn’t overlook. Anyways, the return journey took us to Sasthamkotta, a breathtaking, exhilarating fresh water lake ( a rare in Kerala). Experience of another boat ride made us wiser and also wet (only the feet). The journey took break at Haripad and outskirts of Alleppey for lunch and tea. Finally, we reached back to our comfort zone, but all was not over till a nice and refreshing dinner left us tired, drowsy but  contended both by heart and by stomach for a good night sleep.

If you are in my friend list of orkut, you can also see some of snaps of the journey.

Kumarakom Revisited

Situated around 60 kilometres from city of Kochi and lying in the district of Kottayam is one of the most beautiful backwater lake of India known as as Kumarakom. Kumarakom also boasts a beautiful bird sanctuary which spreads over land and sea where various migratory birds flock during winter from north. Though I am no expert on birds but various types of water birds can be found sitting in flocks and enjoying the sun.

The journey to Kumarakom from Kochi originated at 0830 morning with 5 peoples on 3 bikes. Bikes are in many ways better to cover short distances. It is easier to manoeuvre, can simply glide through traffic blocks and provides ease of taking breaks at will. Anyways, Google maps working like an expert guide provided the details of the route to the best possible description both pictorially as well as in words.  With a break for breakfast and travelling for few kilometres on a wrong roads, everything went well and we were at Kumarakom in little more than 2 and half hours.

Unlike other tourists with fat wallets, we can’t think of hiring a houseboat so we went for a boat ride through canals of Kumarakom village with houses lined on the both sides of the canal and low height bridges connecting both sides of the canal providing lots of scenic feast for eyes. About 45 minutes through the canals we finally reached the lake which provided another level of scenic beauty. Long spread lightly visible lake banks, Flocks of birds swimming in lake and napping in hedges and low lying trees on the banks, lines of palm and coconut trees make a ideal ride in the lake. And enjoying these sceneries we came back in an hour and half back to our starting point.

The return journey was spontaneously planned through a road which runs very near to Arabian sea coast en-route Alleppey ( Alappuzha ) to Fort Kochi. We tried to follow the route from Chertala and finally ended up on a beach which welcomed us with stinking smell of drying fishing nets and rotting fishes but once get across the road and come to the beach, the smell disappears. The spectacular view of the virgin unspoiled beach with no tourists, no shops for tourists and no disturbance in natures creation took away all the tiredness and invigorated all with a warmth and contentment to  the heart. Spending sometime enjoying this beauty and again clicking photos we moved back to Kochi and the ride of 40+ kilometres through the narrow but well made road connecting Chertala and Fort Kochi.

The journey ended by 1800 hours totally almost 10 hours including getting stuck in traffic block and search for correct way to destination but a  journey worth 10 hours of life.

In the end, what I like most in the journey? It is the unknown beach which provides all the natural beauty, unspoiled by man, neither flocked by tourists nor by vendors and shopkeepers but only true beauty.

 

If you are a friend of mine, I will soon put few snaps of the journey and the destinations in my orkut account . Well that is all for now, will try to write soon another blog entry on some thing else.

New role in life

On 11th Dec 2009, the world for me underwent a sea change when I became a father. Usually, we find that mothers are the one who really care about these type of stuffs and fathers are outgoing and don’t feel much change in the life. Well, not so for me. I was able to see my kid only on 14th Dec and after some time of initial awe and shock I was finally able to accept the fact having a child is and will make lots of changes in the life.

As my wife was not with me (at her hometown), I only got few days to spend with them . After returning from hospital, the life as a parent really started and I could find myself and  my wife awake for many nights consecutively when finally sleep engulfed my on 4th day and I was asleep for more than 18 hours on that day.