Veegaland Amusement Park, Kochi

It was almost one year back that I visited Veegaland with family. It is the most popular amusement park in Kerala. It is almost 15kms from Kochi (Ernakulam) city. Find the location of Veegaland in Google map here.

Thenmala Ecotourism - Deer Park

We had lunch at the near by restaurant of Facilitation centre. Then we headed to the Deer Park. It is one km away from Facilitation centre. We took ticket for the park and entered, we didn't see too many deers there. We were able to find only one inside the forest.

There is a children park inside the Deer park. The small park was completely occupied by a school team. Then we saw a Tree hut. We all got inside the tree hut. There is a room and a sit out in the hut. It is the only one thing which we found that there was no entry ticket.

After visiting these many places we planned to visit the Leisure zone. But it was raining heavily, so we were not able to visit the Leisure zone. We missed the Butterfly Safari park in the Leisure zone. We were ready to leave from Thenmala. Altogether we had some great time at Thenmala. But it didn't meet our expectation, there are few things in which we think there is room for improvement,

Thenmala Ecotourism - Adventure Zone

Its a Vishu morning. We all got ready for the trip. The destination is 73kms from Thiruvananthapuram. It is a eco tourism destination. We are a family of six, 4 adults and two kids. We started the journey in the early morning. The route is as follows:

East Fort -> Kowdiar -> Peroorkada -> Vazhayila -> Azhikode -> Valicode -> Nedumangad -> Pazhakutty -> Anad -> Chullimanoor -> Nanniyode -> Palode -> Irimpupalam -> Madathara -> Kulathupuzha -> Thenmala 

On the way to Thenamala we can see lots of trees. Below is a snap taken on the way to Thenmala.

On reaching Thenmala we can see mountains and trees on either side of the road. The road to Thenmala is great. Its a pleasure to drive on these kinds of roads, perfect for a tourist destination.

We reached Thenmala at 10:45am. Lesisure zone is the first destination that we see on reaching Thenmala. We enquired at Leisure zone and came to know that we need to take ticket from the facilitation center. We decided to visit the Leisure zone in the after noon.

We took ticket for the Adventure zone. One guy was waiting for the tourist at the Adventure zone. He was checking the ticket and giving instructions to the tourists. He shown some photos and explained about the activities in the Adventure zone. Rock climbing, Mountain biking, boating are some of the activities explained. We were excited to hear all these things.

We entered the Adventure zone, there was a bridge which leads us to the heart of the forest. It is a great experience, walking inside the forest through the bridge. We can see lots of monkeys on the way.

   

Inside the forest we can see lots of boards giving some useful tips. We continued to walk through the forest, we saw the board for Rock Climbing, we were eager to see that, but to the surprise nothing was available there except for the board.

Those who love the nature will get excited to see the natural beauty of the forest. Apart from the natural beauty nothing seemed to be good. 

After walking for some time we saw the pond. Near the pond there are a few games available. For each game we need to pay extra cost. Boating is also available, but there is not enough water for bating. Below you can see a snap of the pond. 

It looked like no one is really bothered to offer facilities to the tourists. Read more about Thenmala in the upcoming posts.

Anappara, Kallar - A trip on two wheels

Vrooom Vrooom … the bike started, into first gear, reached 15kmph, shifting to second gear, reached 25kmph, shifting to third gear, reached 40kmph, shifting to fourth gear, reached 55kmph, shifted to overdrive, cruising over 70kmph… this is how it feels when we are on a weekend tour. Hey guys, check out the stories from the trip happened this week. Its friendship day, what a way to celebrate the friendship day other than a good trip !

We planned to go to Anappara, its near to Kallar on the way to Ponmudi. It is 36 kms from Thriruvananthapuram. The idea came from Ravi, Jammu’s friend. We (Vijay, Jamnas, Lalu, Nipin) met at Museum. We started the journey at 12:55 PM. We met Jammu and Ravi at Peroorkada. We were on three bikes. Vijay and myself on Hunk, Ravi and Jammu on Apache, Lalu and Nipin on Passion. As the journey progressed the mighty rain hit us. We took a five minutes break and proceeded.

We took a halt at Vithura. We bought lunch from Vithura. We headed to Anappara. The road is full of curves with plenty of trees on the road side, perfect for a weekend trip. Vijay took some snaps of our bike trip. Vijay is my pillion rider. Here you can see some of his photographic excellence. Thanks to Vijay he took some amazing photos.

After travelling for some 35kms we took a left turn and headed to Annapara, the road is very narrow and silent. We reached Anappara at 2:50 PM. We locked the bikes and took some snaps there. We started to get into the forest. Since it’s the journey inside the forest we need to take care of the leeches. On the way inside the forest we saw a lot of beautiful plants and flowers.

The way inside the forest is not much clear, since its very often that tourists visit this place. The path is narrow and slippery. Here you will not find a guide and there is no entry pass as well. After a 15 minute walk inside the forest we reached the destination.

After reaching the destination we found that almost everyone was caught with leech. There are a few tips to take away the leech. The leech is so stick to the skin that if we remove it by applying pressure you might lose blood. The best thing is to burn the leech with a lighter. We need to be extremely careful while using the lighter. Even though it’s the best approach, I recommend you to be very careful while handling fire.

It’s time to enjoy sometime inside the forest. We can hear the sound of the water flowing in the river. Had lunch at river bank. The water flowing in the Kallar river is a pleasure to watch. The river is full of round shaped stones and the water in the river is crystal clear. After enjoying the river for some time, we get into the river. We played in the water for some time.

We stayed there till 5:45 PM. It’s the pack up time. We had to get out of the forest before it gets dark. We get out from the forest, again we checked for the leeches, the same procedure follows. Here is a group photo before leaving from Anappara, thanks to Jammu’s mobile cam.

After some time we were ready for the return trip. Jammu and Ravi rushed as they want to attend a party. We were travelling smoothly through the curves. Then one biker overtook me on his bullet, and seemed like he was rushing. It turned my head on. I increased the acceleration and the bike started gaining speed, 50, 55, 60 … and a corner ahead, oops a gear change, braking and the speed came down to 45kmph. I can see the bullet boy rushing, handling corners with ease. I guess he is pretty much familiar with the road. For every 200 – 300 meter there is a curve, so it was hard to maintain the speed. Sometimes I reached very near to him, then I was lost. My speedometer was reading 70kmph and he was far ahead. After battling for some time I over took him, HURRAY I won :). That was not the end, he overtook me in another 5 minutes, and we travelled complimenting each other making way for the other.

It was a lovely trip. Always looking forward to a nice trip.

How to reach Anappara ?
Thiruvananthapuram -> Peroorkada -> Nedumangad -> Vithura -> Anappara. Anappara is situated 36kms from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. It is near to Kallar and is on the way to Ponmudi.

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Boating At Kumarakom

20 April 2008

We were on for a trip to attend the Juby's engagement. It happened at Kottayam. We were around 30 guys on a mini bus. We reached Kottayam at around 11:00AM. We attended the
engagement party and had a nice lunch too.

We had a plan to go for boating at Kumarakom. After attending the engagement we headed to Kumarakom.

Kumarakom

Kumarakom is a tourist village in Kottayam, Kerala. It is situated 16 km from Kottayam town. Kumarakom is a great tourist destination which provides boating, fishing, sight seeing etc. Wide variety of house boats can be seen in Kumarakom. The place is gifted with the natural beauty of Kerala.

After waiting for a few minutes in the jetty, the we got into the boat. Its a normal boat, not a house boat. We started boating at 4:20Pm. We had already booked a boat for our trip. The boating costs us Rs 900 for two hours.

All the boys got into the roof top as soon as they get in. On the way, we can see a lots of boats specially house boats. House boat is a common site at Kumarakom. We enjoyed the journey as the breeze hitting the boat.

A lots of small islands can be seen on the lake. The landscape is blessed with lovely greenery with the coconut trees all around. As the boating progressed all of us took place at the of top.

Temples, churches, resorts all are there on the banks of the lake. In between the journey the boat stops at the other end of the jetty.


Here is a guy who is trying to impress others with his head stand, hmmm not bad at all. And he is none other than Jamnas.

Every one enjoyed the journey. We completed boating at 6:25PM, thats exactly two hours of boating.


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