We have been heartbroken since the day we left India in 2017. It’s a country that we fell in love with immediately- the colour, the chaos, the food… everything about it!
Ever since we left, we knew we’d return and this year we finally managed to do this. We booked onto the Great Rail Journeys ‘Discover Southern India and Kerala’ tour.
Long time readers will remember that GRJ is a company we have now travelled 9 previous times with. We adore their itinerries, their tour managers, their local guides, their hotels. It’s a great way to travel, have some adventures but also have a bit of a relax in the knowledge that you can just follow the leader and someone else is worrying about the logistics for you.
Day 1
Along with the rest of our group, we left Dubai (although we had had 24 hours exploring Dubai first!) on our flight to Bangalore in the depths of the night. We were greeted by our local guide Biju at Mysore, along with a driver and assistant (the team of three then stayed with us for 2 whole weeks) and we made the 4 hour journey to Mysore smoothly. On arrival to our lovely hotel in Mysore we had some free time.
We managed a sleep and a swim, before heading off on our first optional extra to a light show at the palace of Mysore. This was stunning lit up, and only happens every Sunday for an hour, so we were lucky to have seen it. It was wonderful being back in India and we couldnt wait for what the days ahead had in store for us.
Day 2
The next day, we visited Chamundeshwari Temple which is in the Chamundi Hills on the outskirts of Mysore. The colours around the temple were striking and beautiful and the street was full of people (we were almost at Diwali so it was busy) along with the token cow. It was mad, but we loved it.
We continued on to Mysore Palace, this time in daylight and enjoyed a great tour around the Palace which is the second most visited place in India (below the Taj Mahal).
After lunch we visited Tipu Sultan Summer Palace, which with its wonderful wooden paneling and balconies was another great place to visit.
Can you believe this was just day 1!
Day 3
From here, our journey continued South through Rural India. It was a long journey but absolutely outstanding – full of variation and not a second to get bored! We passed through the agricultural land growing Cotton, Tumeric, Bananas, Coconuts, coffee, Tea, Eucalyptus and more. Our guide kept jumping off the coach to bring us various items to see. Cotton, Tumeric and Coffee plants were so interesting as we’ve not seen these up close before.
We tried Masala Tea, Red Bananas, Handmade chocolate, Southern Indian Coffee. We also passed through 2 National Parks and saw 3 types of Monkeys, spotted Deer, Elephants, and some beautiful scenery. When we arrived at our next hotel we had climbed up to 7000 feet, at the small town of Ooty. It had been a great day on the coach, and we enjoyed some free time at the hotel that afternoon and evening to relax.
Day 4
The next day we explored Southern India’s highest Peak. We travelled on small buses up a steep and bumpy road to the peak and were lucky that the weather gods behaved and gave us wonderful views over the Nigiri Hills. The views were great.
Following this, we had some time exploring the Botanical Gardens in Ooty, established in 1848 by the British who were here. We made our way from here on foot through the town, with Biju pointing out interesting fruit and beg on the market stalls as we walked. We visited St Stephen’s which is a wooden Anglican Church built by the Brits. Whilst here we ended up having some pictures taken by the local newspaper and an interview with the local news channel too! They were fascinated by our visit and we ended up on their news channels- much to our group’s amusement!!
After such an exciting morning, it felt only natural that our lunch was to be taken in a Palace. Yes thats right! Fernhills Royal Palace was the residence of quondam king of Mysore. Built in 1844, the palace resembles a Swiss chalet, and is superbly finished with Burmese teak and features a magnificent ballroom with a high vaulted ornamental Papier-mâché ceiling. The lobby of the palace has beautiful artifacts and handmade paintings of all the yesteryear rulers. Interestingly, all the rooms of the palace are addressed as suites due to its opulence and grandeur. Standing against the beautiful Nilgiri Hills, enveloped with the tea gardens and cardamom plantation, the palace was once stamping ground for the British elites. To escape the scorching summers of South India, high rank Britishers undertook Fernhills as their retreat. This quaint scenery of Ooty was widely enjoyed by the Indian and British nonpareils. It also once served as the earliest club hotels during the times of British Raj.
Day 5
Was a lovely day exploring the Nilgiri hills. Sadly a landslide overnight prevented our trip on the second programmed train journey of the day, the UNESCO mountain railway, but we did manage journey number 1 from Ooty to Coonoor. The carriages were smaller than Keith and I anticipated, and sadly the views were missing due to some foggy weather. But it was an experience non the less and nice to be on the train for sure.
We visited a tea plantation in the hills and ate a delicious lunch,
before a hair raising but spectacular journey back down the mountain and to our overnight stop at a very luxurious hotel in Coimbatore.
The Masala cocktails really hit the spot! (- vodka, curry leaves, spices, cranberry juice)
The hotel here was particularly nice and the food exceptional. Breakfast consisted of
Masala Dosa for breakfast- an indian pancake stuffed with masala.
Poori also served with Masala
Indian Chai Tea
Southern Indian coffee
(western options were available)
Day 6
We had a later start from Coimbatore, and some went shopping, some swam – we went for a walk around the pedestrian loop which was interesting and we stumbled upon a colourful shrine too.
We travelled from Coimbatore to Kochi in Kerala by public train which was lots of fun. You really get to mingle with the locals and the scenery was fab.
Day 7
Our explorations of Kochi included Dhobi Khan, a traditional public laundry, St Francis’ Church which was the first European church in India built in the early 1500s. The waterfront area was particularly exciting, full of hawker sellers along with fishermen selling their wares. We saw the traditional fishermen nets, plus brought some souvenirs! We visited a ladies Coop, which King Charles and Queen Camilla visited in 2016 and they had some beautiful and reasonably priced items there. We also visited the tremendous Kochi Palace, with its teak wood roof and stunning wall paintings that were 600 years old.
After a chill at the hotel, including a swim, we went out with some of the group and our guide, to watch the local dance performance. Its specialist to the area of Kerala and involves physical theatre and and emotion using the eyes and eyebrows particularly., The two actors wore make up from natural colours such as spices, coconut shell etc, mixed with coconut oil, and the performance was accompanied by a live drummer who also sang. We really enjoyed the evening.
Day 8 – Diwali
Before leaving Kochi, we explored the Jewish area of town, with its interesting synagogue and terrific quirky shops. The whole group were in our element shopping til we dropped!
Biju got us some lovely Diwali sweets to try- they were gorgeous!
From Kochi, we had the most exceptional 24 hours of the trip, exploring the backwaters of Kerala.
We enjoyed a long houseboat journey with delicious fish lunch, and spent hours on the deck spotting kingfishers, and many other wonderful birds. We even saw a family of otters. The houseboat was lovely and I’m sure it would have been a great experience staying overnight on it.
We however, got dropped off by boat to the AMAZING Coconut Lagoon, which I’m not going to lie, has TOTALLY stolen my heart. It was WONDERFUL! Set amongst the backwaters and with little streams passing through the hotel complex, it was wonderfully relaxing. The pool area particularly was a favourite of ours, as was the butterfly garden. You could visit here for 5 days and it wouldn’t be enough so our <24hrs just wasn’t enough in my opinion!
Day 9 and 10
Our journey from Coconut Lagoon to the mountains of Kerala – the Tekkady region, began by boat. Coconut Lagoon isn’t on a road, so it’s a boat in and a boat out!
We then met our coach and team, before making our way by road to Tekkady.
This is the spice area of the region and we enjoyed massively learning about the different spices grown in the region. It was so interesting learning how these spices are grown – ie Cardammon on bushes low to the ground.
On route, we stopped off to experience a very tradional market which was super fun! The sights, sounds and smells will stay with us for ever and absolutely epitomise our sheer love for India. It’s chaos, but it’s irresistible!
At Spice Village Hotel, we enjoyed some traditional ladies dancing which was amazing, along with cooking demos- also fascinating and some great indian cocktails too! It was walkable to Tekkady which many of us did in our free time.
Day 11
We travelled to Madurai, back in Tamil Nadu and our first stop, via a HILARIOUS tuk tuk journey, was the STAGGERINGLY beautiful Meenakshi Temple
.How this isn’t UNESCO or a wonder of the world is beyond me, but the visit captured our hearts in a similar way to Angkor Watt. It literally blew us away. The Meenakshi Temple dated back to the 13th Century. It’s a Hindu temple, and we were lucky enough to receive a blessing by an elephant. Yes thats right- an elephant! We also watched some blessings inside including with some music being played on the Shenai. Magical!
No photos were allowed inside, so we grabbed some off google to show off! We particularly enjoyed the view from the roof of the carpet shop where we left our shoes and cameras!
Day 12
Stared with a visit to the Thirumalai Kayak Palace – a 17th Century palace erected in 1636AD by King Thirumalai Nayak. The building, was the main Palace in which the King lived. The original Palace complex was 4 times the size of what we see now. It was a very impressed area thats for sure!
We enjoyed our cycle rick shaw journey around the city. There is such a lot to see here and we loved the chaos of the city!
After this we visited the Gandhi museum and after lunch we visited a traditional village which makes hand painted clay dolls and we met the locals too.
Day 13
It was an early departure as we had a flight to catch to Chennai. Our cases and bulky luggage travelled with the coach team to overnight so we only had to sail through with hand luggage which was great. On arrival, we had an amazing lunch (on our own – not with the group) in the posh restauarant in the hotel – a Keralan Fish curry which we’d come to adore. It really was an outstanding meal!
After lunch, we took a coach tour of Chennai, which included a feet dip into the Bay of Bengal. We saw the fisherman’s area and also lots of colonial buildings and Fort George. Did you know that Marina Beach in Chennai is the longest beach in Asia and the second longest urban beach in the world!
Happy Hour in the hotel was lots of fun – it was our last night so the group came out in force and we had a great evening!
Day 14
Before our evening flight home, we took an optional extra trip to Mahaballipuram – which became one of the highlights of the entire trip. It’s’ 1.5 hours south of Chennai and dates from the 6th Century. It’s a UNESCO world heritage and we can see why. There are 3 main sights we went through – our favourite was the freesia and the temples made out of sandstone. If you are in the area, it’s absolutely ESSENTIAL that you visit!
Our trip came to an end this evening and I cried my eyes out. The whole way from the hotel to Chennai airport actually! Like our first trip to India, this trip has completely stolen our hearts. Our love affair with India was stronger than ever. So much so, that we came home and booked a further trip to the North and Bhutan next year!
Once again Great Rail Journeys had provided us with a holiday of a lifetime. We’d been looked after terrifically and we cannot wait to be back out on trip number 10 next October!
Until then – we’ve got a free more trips to get through before we return to India-
Take Care
Lx
