Ladies Day Out - 6

This is the last one in the series ;-)

After lots of traveling, confusions, some non-sense but mostly great great adventure in the south of India which basically consisted of typical interior tourist places to explore; we were finally back to a city. We reached here late night by bus (some 5 hours of journey!). We took a hotel near station and went into a deep sleep. 

Day 6: Cochin 

Next day was all planned to be a lazy shopping day. We had our train in afternoon. We got dressed and asked the auto-wallah to take us to the biggest shopping mall in Cochin. i.e. Lulu Mall. We shopped! We ate, we randomly roamed and had fun! We went to another local market but had to be back soon to catch our train. We quickly packed our stuff and reached station that was at a walkable distance. We literally ran to get our train coach... phew!!  We were off to Chennai. I had to help with my sister's textile exhibition and my friend would be off to our Hometown. :-)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Still can't believe I actually made this journey possible. I feel good, confidant and just more good about myself. A good thing would be to take along a friend who is like minded and copes well with situations :-)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Below are things I shopped from the whole Kerala trip! Many things were already distributed before I could think of taking pictures. Enjoy!

The Lulu Mall

Our local ride ..

The place

Ate!

Shopped!

Roamed!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shopped
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The pretty packed lavender soap and chocolates! Had got many chocolates and varieties of soaps like rose, neem, sandalwood etc for all girl friends. And these were really good! This was from Munnar.

 

Lots of Tea and Coffee! Again from Munnar.

The Kathakali face mask! Just had to get this one; even if it was difficult to pack. (Munnar)

An awesome Almond pack! This is in a water base already and is a wonderful soothing facepack.  Got from Thekkady local store.

From the Tiger reserve! Had got 2 men's tees too for friends but better ones with animal paw prints. 

Worn here!

Bangles! Pretty aren't they. A set for mom, another for sister. Got from Cochin.

A Jumpsuit. Fits well and looks great. From Westside, Lulu Mall, Cochin. This was my 1st jumpsuit and I'm loving it.

Worn Here! :-)

A Kerala Saree was a must to bring! A beautiful creme color and pale gold. I love sheer sarees. :-) From Lulu Mall, Cochin. 

---------------------------------------------------------

Phew! My trip ends here with lots of memories to cherish. Feeling good to share it on the blog! :-)

Love
Tanuja

Ladies Day Out- 5

Day 5 : Thekkady

 

Early morning by 5.30 we were up and ready to rush to our next holiday destination! 

Periyar National Park!

I had forgotten what messy things happened yesterday and was determined to enjoy this day. Because you never know if you'll get a second chance of anything. So enjoy the present to the fullest. Specially the place was something I like to visit! Wildlife, bird and nature I love!

We were supposed to take a boat ride and it had it's timing. 6.30am I guess. We were running late. Got a quick auto, did tickets and all and rushed to the spot. Literally ran to catch up the boat. Once seated I had sighed ... 

The place was so so beautiful. I did not regret reaching here. Water everywhere and jungles on the side. The guide showed us many mammals and birds. My excitement knew no bound. Around two hours we enjoyed the ride and were back in land. I shopped there some tees and a cap from me and friends! I can't help taking gifts back home. I again paid a good guide there and we walked to spot more birds of Kerala there. He spotted and showed me a great lot many! Woah, thankful to him. Always.

My friend wasn't overall interested in all these but she had no choice so she was struck to phone while I enjoyed my walk. Finally we paid him and were back to our hotel. We had a hefty local lunch and took a bus to the city Cochin!!!!! 

The National Park

We were running here!

Finally ..

Three boats were on water.. these two behind us.

Beauty !!!

Sambar deer - females

Sambar deer- male with antlers

Paradise for me

Probably 'Ashy Woodswallow'

That's an  'osprey' bird

Nilgiri langur and Malabar giant squirrel

From L-R: Brown Fish Owl, White-Bellied Treepie, Indian Grey Hornbill, Malabar Parakeet-female

The roads inside the reserve!

Common Bluebottle and ID unknown

Me, her, we, me with the guide clicking and me again :-)

Ahhh the food then! Delicious. The room.

After lots of adventures, were were happy to reach a city. We had to shop too!


To be continued...


Love
Tanuja

Ladies Day Out - 4

Day 4: Munnar

The next day was very unplanned and got troubled when a fight erupted on where to go next. She said East, I said West. We were already in East because of her interest; I insisted to go west! I.e. a wildlife sanctuary. We had to take a bus in the afternoon, so we went for some local shopping that morning. Of course after a typical South Indian breakfast!

I shopped some Munnar tea and coffee that's a specialty of the place. Some hand-made soaps and lots of hand-made assorted chocolates for my friends!

After taking a bus and traveling a painful journey of 6 hours in bus we got a rude shock in the evening! Read after the photos ...

Yum! Masala Dosa and vada

slurpy filter coffee

Common city-scape of Munnar

We shopped from here! The old man gave us good discounts :)

Selfie!

Beautiful weather !

Traveling there, one again goes through these scenic place ...

ahh... I don't know if I'll ever be able to see these views again!

Pretty homes

Sometimes we got bored watching these, after all we were in the bus for 6 hours!

Love !

So here it is; the shocking part -

Because of our mistake... we reached at the wrong place! Instead of 'Thattekkad' which is a bird sanctuary we reached 'Thekkeday' which is a wildlife sanctuary (Periyar Tiger Reserve!)

A mere communication problem in the south and our travel for so long put us into mess. We were in kind of a remote area and we got damn scared! It was almost late evening and we had no other option to go anywhere else. I later convinced her that Kerala is a tourist friendly place and this place too we can stay overnight and go to the wildlife sanctuary in the morning BUT she refused to listen and was furious. Anyways... after a while we both cooled down because people actually were tourist friendly. A guide helped us to get a good night halting place and made a plan for the next day morning! The manager of the hotel was a good man, helped us understand the place and the sanctuary we'll be visiting! Had a bitter night because of my friend. 


to be continued ...

Love
Tanuja

Ladies Day Out - 3

Day 3: March 9

We reached Ernakulam. Thats in the south of India. It was pitch dark and we couldn't travel anywhere. We waited at ladies restroom till 6am. It was quite a strange feeling in the unknown land. We half slept there and taking a pre-paid auto went to the bus stand. From there we took our bus to 'Munnar', our destinated place. Munnar is a place of tea plantations on hills and spice gardens and lakes and all the scenic views one can imagine in a green land! 

It was a long journey of 5 hrs. We were again half sleepy BUT when the tea plantation scenery arrived, we came back to out senses. We were thrilled to experience the view. The bus went round and round around the mountains giving us a visual treat of the place.

There with a local tour operator we booked a hotel for a night and arranged sight seeing. We were scared to trust somebody but we just had to take the risk. We quickly got ready and were off in our cab for sightseeing tour. The place is amazingly beautiful. Very peaceful and soothing. We had a nice time roaming, checking on the places the tour guide showed us, had snacks in between and enjoyed ourselves a lot! Rest let the pictures speak! A new place; new experiences! The kind of freedom one feels when you know you are at a place where no one knows you, no one's going to bother you and you are not going to witness all those regular life's routines but a fresh start, a good feeling, a different air to smell and experience all those as never before.

The bus ride towards our destination ...

The view caught our eyes!

  

The paradise ... <3

Our cab ride and sweet little homes on the way

A garden visit

strange plants

Heart warming view !

In love with the nature there :-)

Pretty yellows

Some spiced up mangoes for snacks? yum

Towards 'View Point' the highest point in the Munnar hills.

Lot of stairs to cover. Men in traditional lungi everywhere!

That's the point where we couldn't cover. Too high and scary!

Ahh... we were at such a height! It was getting chilly there.

Some signboards

Kind off lunch there! Maggie

Cardamom Tea... slurp!

Local things to buy, strange little fruits and herb oils!

I tried a chilli-tomato kinda fruit too. One had to suck the insides only. It was good :-)

And my friend tried some :-)

You get horses for local rides !

That's one gorgeous Indian Coral tree!

And an Oriental White-Eye bird on it. Love love

The snake roads all around the hills !

The most serene view! .... Echo-point.

The land of greens!

We had some fresh little carrots! Felt like a rabbit :-P

More fruits :-)

Me :-)

:-)

Some movie shooting was going on!

Posed with the amazing Munnar tea-plantations! :-)

The day ends and we slept like a log :-)

To be continued..

Love
Tanuja