My Lifestyle

First things first, my brother arrived and decided a complete change in the itinerary was in order, and as organised as he is this occurred at the airport on the day of flying out of Mumbai as opposed to the previous days when he was in Mumbai. If you could meet my brother this is not an odd occurrence.

Flying into Trivandrum, flying low over the coast prior to landing and seeing the thousands of trawlers and smaller fishing vessels along the strip of incredible, yet polluted, strip of pristine white beach was my introduction to the fishing community of Kerala.

Arriving at the airport caught a taxi for 20 Rs to the town centre of Trivandrum. Stayed at a lovely run down establishment at a undisclosed location, it was clean and simple and cost us 675 Rs for the unconditioned room. The hotel had a roof top bar which we sat, had drinks, discussed politics and ate dinner as the sun set over the main MG Road.

The next morning after a getting over the mild hangover and attempting to find breakfast (epic fail) we caught a train, through dumb luck, down to Kanyakumari the southern most tip of India. There was 3 train departures a day, and we managed to rock up 10 minutes before the first of the day. The train journey was awesome, saw so much of the scenery and spoke to a local family and their son Milish.
A conversation I will never forget for all the wrong reasons.

The train ride was on the coastal side of the Western Ghats which provided incredible scenery. I stood at the open door and just experienced India.

After arriving in Kanyakumari I stayed at the Hotel Seaface for 800 Rs a night which did have AC and provided a little extra comfort for the night. Headed down to the beach to touch the water of the southern most tip of India which is the joining of three seas - the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean, and by morning headed out to Thiruvalluvar Statue which is a famous Tamil poet Saint Tiruvalluvar, which was opened on 1st Jan 2000.

Later in the evening we took a local bus journey up to Varkala Beach back into Kerala, it took approximately 4 hours and was an incredible hot and uncomfortable journey. I had my bag on my lap with people standing everywhere in the bus, but it was every person for themselves.

The final rickshaw into Varkala was worth the journey, on our way to Varkala I was ready for a bit of relaxing, i was looking forward to the end of the travel day. As the richshaw turned on Varkala Cliff, the view out to sea was incredible. Immediately I knew the right decision was made to head here. It was virtually deserted, as it was off season, but there was a handful of other tourists around and a half dozen restaurants.

We quickly found a place to stay before the decision was made to extend our stay for three nights to see what was around, relax, do some reading and swimming.

In the process of planning the trip down to southern India, extensive logistical planning is taking place due to time constraints. Here is a rough plan:

Day 1 - Fly into Trivandrum, spend a couple of hours looking around before boarding a train down to Nagercoil Junction Station. Arrive at 10PM and head for Hotel Sangam in Kanyakumari.
Uncertainty in getting a cab/rickshaw for this 20km distance.

Day 2 - See Kanyakumari sites before catching a 6PM train up to Madurai. Booking in for 2 nights at Madurai Residency, right near the train station.

Day 3 - Madurai

Day 4 - Organise car from Madurai to Munnar through the hotel, expecting around 2000+ Rs departing early morning. Accommodation booked for 2 nights in Munnar at Ambady's Falling Waters.

Day 5 - Munnar. Trekking or cycling perhaps.

Day 6 - Mid morning car down to Cochin. Will look into Backwater tour for the next day. Afternoon in Cochin, accommodation unknown. It will require a bit more work but something will be booked beforehand.

Day 7 - Backwater tour during the day before catching the overnight train from Cochin to Goa, departs at 10:45 PM.

Day 8 - Arrive Goa around 11 am and find a hotel to stay, should be cheap and easy to find for the night.

Day 9 - Evening flight booked form Goa to home. Depart on the 2:50 am flight for training in Germany.

This is the plan, let's see how well this goes....

Hi, my name is michael and this is my new travel blog.

I am creating this blog for two reasons, to provide myself with memories of my travels around the world. To record the adventures I take and capture the friends I make. I wish not to forget any of the details which I will look back on and smile.

In the few holidays I have had, i have had some amazing times and met amazing people.
Here is me hoping that no one else will be forgotten.

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I sit here on a stormy afternoon in Mumbai, the monsoon in full swing and as i look out the window the whole city is starting to turn into a beautiful green. This is a picture I took from my room.

Mumbai Monsoon Rains