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Kerala

The end of a blast trip through India.

By Javi Lorbada

April 30^th, 2018

Probably you have read it already, but if you haven't go and checked the previous story about how we arrived in here.

Although I was supposed to share this long time ago, I haven't had the time to write in the last month, I don't think I will have much time in the coming 2 months, traveling gets me exhausted and even though I do edit pictures on a daily basis, I have barely any time to share what we do, which is a pity, but on the other hand I want to enjoy to the fullest, and later share much more with you guys.

First, thanks to The Travel Planners for trusting me and let me collaborate with them during our days in Kerala, and special thanks to our guide and driver, by now friend, Joy, who made our last days in India memorable.

So, if you are looking for a lifetime trip to the south of India, do not doubt about it and contact The Travel Planners for your next trip to India, you can do so here.

Let's get into the story details, as usual, keep reading or just scroll slowly and checkout the pictures.

Kerala

This is how we kickstarted our trip, a few vouchers, a map and very comfortable bed, plus a swimming pool for just the two of us.

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Mangalore - Kochi

Our last train in India, at least this time, I’m sure we will come back and take more trains. This train was rather early in the morning, 4:35 am, so we woke up at 3:00 am, as you can imagine no much sleep, and the train, as usual, run delayed for an hour. The train ride was good though, we had a berth were to sleep a few hours and the rest of the morning to enjoy the train ride.

As soon as we enter in the Kerala region the landscape had subtle changes, palm trees, higher temperatures and very humid, but I like that while taking pictures from the train doors. I really enjoyed this ride, and, maybe because it was the last one, I step outside a bit more.

On arrival to Kochi, our guide, Joy, picked us up, and then we arrived at The Villa Romantica, a cozy 4 room villa with a beautiful swimming pool. We stayed here the whole afternoon and evening. We were supposed to go to a couple waterfalls, however since we arrived a couple hours late and the falls were closing soon we couldn't do that on the first day.

No problem, we had a terrific sunset from our balcony.

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Kochi - Munnar

The second day in Kerala I remember it very well. I woke up a bit later than sunrise and I headed out of the room to see if there was a nice picture but instead I’ve got all the birds and other animals singing for a great morning, I couldn’t ask for a better way to wake up, and those companioned us for breakfast too. Then, around 8:30 am we moved on, we headed onto Munnar.

On the way we stop by different viewpoints and interesting sites, Periyar River, a couple waterfalls and the Munnar Tea Museum, along the way we were going up to this hill town, and the landscape got better and better, everything is green here, from coconut and cashew trees to cardamon and tea plantations, the road is getting wicked too, but I don’t care.

Joy knew about our preferences for capture moments at sunset, so, he prepared, I believe, the best route possible for that, and he nailed it. We stop several times on the roadside, until 17:30 where he just dropped us at the viewpoint, a bit crowded though, but! He also told us not to stay there and walked a bit downhill. Well, that was it, the spot waiting for us.

If you ask me, Kerala couldn’t have started in a better way.

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And then the sunset.

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Munnar

Kerala was getting better by the days. Joy was 6:45 am sharp at our hotel to get us for a sunrise at the viewpoint. There was a beautiful light, although I didn’t find the right place, also the drone started giving me problems with the Gimbal and something about motor overload, didn’t figure out what it is, and I got frustrated.

During the day, our activity was just to go to hill station, also known as one of the highest points in Munnar, it was all foggy around, so we couldn’t see the amazing valley towards Tamil Nadu state, but we had some monkey encounters, and on our way back we found a pretty awesome spot, mountain curves full of tea plantations very contrasty between the wonderful green and the fog coming in and out.

As we wanted to do sunset at the hotel we kind of rushed back. I had spent too much time taking pictures apparently, but it was our lucky day and we encountered Wild Squirrels and Elephants! OMG! Such an amazing afternoon! Never before had I seen these squirrels, they are amazing but difficult to capture, and then when I thought we were just going to check in, we found a 3 family member Elephants, mind blown with these too, so close, so wild.

Day finished with swimming pool bath and a campfire.

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Munnar - Thekkady

We woke up early again, this time to fly the drone around the hotel, the area was outstanding, all green, it really looked amazing. Finished that, time for packing again, breakfast and hit the road.

We were in the car for almost the whole day, it took us longer than 4 hours to arrive at Thekkady, the road was amazing though, this was much more tropical climate and we could see very tall coconut trees along the way.

At the arrival we had another of those amazing resorts, Greenwoods, we are received with a ginger black coffee and a juice, but no much time due to a couple of shows to see in the afternoon starting at 5 pm.

The two shows were amazing! First, the typical Kerala gesture and dance performance, Kathakali, and then the martial arts show Kalari, both incredibly good, but if you ask me which one better, I was impressed but the guys doing the martial arts.

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Thekkady - Periyar National Park

These days in Kerala are a bit long to me, waking up early again, but not for sunrise, instead, for a boat ride through Periyar National Park. 6:30 am we were in the car heading towards the park. The boat departed at 7:30, until then we already saw some monkeys, Indian bison and a lot of birds.

The boat was a bit touristy, these vessels are huge with loads of people and they do just one up and down the route, back and forward along the same river. We were unlucky too, and we didn’t see much besides Otters, a Mongoose, and many birds, honestly, my expectations were higher.

Then we had breakfast, and some time to relax before the spices tour, that was, on the other hand, very insightful, we both really like the explanations and the lady doing it was very funny. For lunch, we went to Hills and Hues. Here we were invited for those non-existing skills on food photography, and honestly, we loved it! This hotel on top of a hill it’s gorgeous, the detail of the rooms is incredibly good, and the view unbeatable. Lunch was the most delicious of our trip, especially the prawns wrapped in a banana leaf.

The afternoon and evening were boring, but I had to spend the whole time trying to fix my drone, and without success, I ended up sending an email to DJI for support.

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Thekkady - Alappuzha - Houseboat

The morning went away in the car, driving from Thekkady to the backwaters of Alleppey (Alappuzha) took as about 4h with some stops on the way. More tea plantations and some really nice churches.

We arrived at lunchtime and straight we jumped onto the boat, our captain was waiting with the motor on and ready to go through the backwaters, this lunch was terrific including the view of the other houseboats and the lake.

It was too early, in my opinion, the light was very harsh, and it was very hot, but we enjoyed the ride. After a few hours, we came back to the port, aka resort where we could enjoy a bath in the swimming pool.

I totally had in mind we would sleep somewhere in the lake, instead, we did next to the hotel, it was good to sleep on the boat, but not as authentic as I thought. Apparently only the fisherman can go to the lake at night.

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Alappuzha

The sunrise was gorgeous, every fisherman was out for the fresh catch of the day and birds were trying to get that too, so I thought to capture birds. It’s actually pretty difficult, they are constantly flying and changing directions, very challenging. The morning houseboat ride was great too, we could saw more and more fisherman coming back with some fish.

From this lake we went towards another surprise of The Travel Planners, a boat ride through narrow canals covered but a green plant, this was spectacular, navigating through a green field instead of water, unbelievable. During the boat ride, we made several stops to get into the local community and learn more about coir making, coconut tree climbing, bed mat from palm tree leave and more, this was without a doubt a very inspiring experience.

Before heading for sunset to the next resort, we stopped for a massage, Ayurvedic massage. I don’t like this type of massage, I know now, it doesn’t look like a massage to me, it’s painful and to me it’s just scrubbing my skin with Ayurveda oils, not relaxing in my opinion. Clara seemed to love hers.

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Alappuzha - Kochi

The routine of morning workout seemed to be working, I got up at 6:30 sharp, went out and my camera lens got super so condensed from the temperature change so I couldn’t take pictures until an hour later. We forgot the AC on the whole night 🤦🏽♀️. Did some edits in the morning instead.

Afterwards breakfast, packing and to the car, Joy, our driver, took us to this boat ride in Kochi, I didn’t really like it, the water was full of trash and there were no many birds to see, on top of that it was too hot and expensive, so we were re not very happy with.

The afternoon we visited the touristy sites of Kochi and spent the sunset at the beach, before that, we saw some fisherman coming to the shore to sell what they catch, and that was very interesting, they do auction for every fish they bring and the one who bets the highest is the one who gets it.

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Last day in India and we were on a roll, waking up at 5:30 to see the last site in Kerala, Athirapally waterfalls. We drove for about two hours, pretty nice road and very less traffic, although we are tired and fall asleep multiple times. In the end, we arrived 10 minutes earlier than expected.

As soon as they opened, we get in, and the monkeys went straight to take Clara's coffee, so she threw it away. First to the high part of the waterfalls, beautiful area full of small waterfalls, pretty nice reflections too, soon all the Indians start to get a bath here and reflections are gone 😅.

At this time some Indian movie was being filmed here, we saw a few scenes, always funny to see how they film movies and more in India!

Then we went down the path to have the full view of the waterfall, the falls are starting to be a bit crowded but this place is so beautiful, so powerful, reminds me of a mixture of the Canadian Niagara Falls and the Brazil side of Iguazú.

After these we visited another falls, these were totally different, much more like a river flowing through the rocky part, wonderful too.

The rest of the day was back at The Villa Romantica, packing everything to leave the country.

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Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Even though I'm not writing much while traveling, I received many comments and tokens of appreciation. I want to let you know how much I love hearing from you and happy to hear either you like what I share or inspire you to travel a bit more.

Thank you ❤️

Edit:

As you may know Kerala has suffered from heavy rains and devastating floods in August 2018, in all the efforts to show the beauty of the state you can help by donating in here: https://donation.cmdrf.kerala.gov.in/#donation

Please share your thoughts in the comments, or contact me at my email for any question.

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Footnotes

Fujifilm X-T2 + 16mm F1.4 + 18-55mm F2.8-4 + 55-200mm F3,5-4,8 + DJI Mavic Pro

FootNotes

Fujifilm X-T2 + 16mm F1.4 + 18-55mm F2.8-4 + 55-200mm F3,5-4,8 + DJI Mavic Pro

© 2026 Javi Lorbada

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