Travel Diary

My brother emailed to remind me that I hadn’t written in the blog for ten days so I though that I would put together a brief diary.

 

12- 5 through 12-7 Goa

When we decided to avoid Mumbai, we elected to head a little further south to Goa and stay at the Taj resort.  It was fantastic.  There was a children’s activity center where Nora was the first child to show up and the last to leave.  It was “paradisical” enough for Nicholas.  And Lisa and I relaxed in a setting that was a lot closer to the Bahamas than the rest of India.  After five weeks of schlepping, mixed quality food and dodgy hotels, it was an unimaginable pleasure to sink in the tropical luxury of the Taj Holiday Village.  I’m not sure what was the greater pleasure: the swim up bar in the pool, New York quality pizza, Indian food that had been toned down to American tastes or other people taking care of my children but we enjoyed them all thoroughly. 

 

Lisa adds:  There comes a time in every long trip when you have to take the Am Ex option: Where’s the nicest place I can go and how fast can I get there?  And, by the way, the pedicure was the greatest pleasure.  You all should have had one.

 

12-8 Flew into Kochi

While we were able to spend the morning hanging out by the pool in Goa, we wound up spending the rest of the day traveling to Kochi. 

 

12-9 Munnar

The better part of today was spent driving up to Munnar which is up in the mountains and is the gateway to the Periyar wilderness.  We saw a couple of waterfalls and acres of tea plantations.  Theoretically there are beautiful overlooks into the valley but the clouds and the rain put the kibosh on that. 

 

12-11 and 12-10 Periyar

There was a short drive from Munnar to Periyar this morning before we went to the highly recommended and extremely yummy Chrissie’s Café for lunch.  We saw a small spice plantation that was shown in the BBC series around the world in 80 gardens.  They grew everything from cocoa beans to vanilla to the ubiquitous cardamom.  Plus there were tons of different flowers, orchids and other plants.  The following morning we went on a three-hour hike through the park.  We saw otters, wild boar, monkeys, malabar squirrels and a tiger track.  There was evidence of the incredibly stealthy elephants but naturally we didn’t see any.  Quite possibly the highlight of the hike was at the end when we took off our shoes and saw why were wearing anti-leech footwear.  There were easily two dozen leeches between us and Lisa actually found one clinging to her shin later (which is entirely harmless other than the creep factor).  We returned to Chrissie’s for lunch as once we find a good restaurant, we are incredibly loyal.  That afternoon we went on a boat ride around the park, which was relaxing but seeing any interesting wild animals was a pipe dream given how loud the boats were.  That evening we saw a pretty cool demonstration of the local martial arts. 

 

12-12 Kumarkom

We spent the morning driving down off the mountain to our hotel at the edge of the backwaters.  It was nice in that you had to take a boat to get to the hotel and there was a nice pool which was appreciated in the mid day heat.  We went on a small boat ride around the nature preserve seeing herons, cranes, kingfisher and the not very exotic ducks. 

 

Lisa adds: We went to the local Taj resort (there’s one everywhere) for dinner, yet again, and had a really nice bottle of chardonnay (of all things) from a region of France I’d never heard of.  When the sun when down, the women came out and lit oil lamps around the lake.  Stunning and peaceful.

 

12-13 Houseboat through the backwaters

The houseboat ride through the backwaters was one of the highlights of the trip for me.  We were picked up at our hotel by a houseboat—a 90-foot long barge that has been converted, then cruised down the canals and lakes that make up the backwaters.  It was supremely relaxing as I was able to sprawl out on the cushion in the bow of the boat and read for hours while the kids did their homework.  The passing scenery was beautiful with rice paddies stretching for miles around and there were untold quantities of birds flying around.  The staff of three people took care of all the meals so we could just sit back and enjoy.  After dinner we crowded around the computer and watched Ratatouille and then sat in the dark so we could see the bats flying around the boat. 

 

12-14 through 12-18 Varkala Beach

We originally planned our longish trip to Varkala Beach before we knew that we were going to spend a couple of days in Goa so initially we were concerned that our stay here was going to be overly long.   Particularly since there isn’t all that much to do here besides go to the beach.  Our hotel wasn’t luxurious but was clean.  In addition, this was the first hotel to look at our foursome and realize that they could up-sell us to a two bedroom suite.  Which cost an additional 400 rupees a day (approximately $8) and was money well spent.   We quickly found a lunch place called the Juice Shack which was appropriately named because it really was just a shack with a couple of juicers.  But they made good sandwiches and excellent smoothies so we ate there four days in a row. 

 

Our typical day was spent relaxing at the beach where Nora would spend hours and hours playing in the surf along with her new friend Eloise.  Nicholas chillaxed while reading the “Hitchikers Guide to the Universe” and laughed incessantly at what he describes as “the best book ever”.  At night, we would wander along the beach path where the restaurants have their fresh fish displayed.  We’d pick one of the similar restaurants and have a meal which generally consisted of a whole grilled red snapper for five dollars, pizza, coconut curry with chicken, kingfisher beer and a couple of fresh lime sodas.  Even on our final day here when Nora had developed a rash where her bathing suit had rubbed her legs raw, we were able to have a fun day shopping for presents.  Despite our concerns about boredom, we had a wonderful time.