Kerala Trip - Iddukki Dam

I visited Kerala during the Dassara holidays with my family. We first stopped at Kochi, where we stayed for two days. On the second day of our trip, we went to old Kochi and saw the famous Chinese fishing nets. We had also planned to visit Vasco Da Gama’s house in Fort Kochi, which is located close to the fishing nets. However we missed the place and we realised we had seen it only after we returned to the hotel! (Did you know that the Chinese fishing nets are found only in Kochi and China?)

The next day we left for a place near Thekkady, on the way we visited a small historical town called Kalady. It is historical, as Adi Shankracharya, the great Advaita philosopher, was born here. The house that he lived in, now the Mutt, is on the banks of river Poorna (also known as Periyar). Shankracharya left home at a very young age to become a sanyasi. He travelled around India to spread knowledge about Advaita philosophy. His mother Aryammba also died in Kalady. He established mutts all over India and he died in Kedarnath. Some of the other places in which mutts are located are in Sringeri, Kedarnath, and Puri.

From Kalady we drove to a place called Ramakkalmedu, which is a hamlet near Thekkady. We stayed in a resort called Wind Haven. It was a very nice place and we stayed in a tree house. The place was cosy, except that I encountered some unexpected friends like a snake and a scorpion in the tree house that we stayed in!

We went to the Perriyar Forest reserve located in Thekkady, where we took a boat ride in the river Perriyar. Although we did not see any tigers we saw a few sambar grazing on the river banks.

We also visited the Cheruthoni Dam, which has a large hydroelectricity project. The same evening we went for hiking into a sandalwood forest located near our hotel and also climbed the Ramakkalmedu Top Station to get a wonderful view of the plains of Tamil Nadu.

We left for Bangalore the next day after a short but enjoyable trip.

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