While the hills were hot, it was far cooler than the beach and it was tough to be back in the heat. When we got to Mararikulam we checked into the homestay, had lunch, and then went to the beach. With no intention of going for a swim, we were too hot not to. Still in the clothes we had worn for now 6 days, we used the ocean as our “Prewash” of our clothes. The Arabian Sea was amazing. The water was close to 90F and it was luxurious.

The Arabian Sea

The hotel had some old junker bikes. We put 60 KM on the bikes seeing the wholesale fish market, Allepey, and Mararikulam areas. It was great to see a ton of the surrounding area that we were visiting.  

Our mighty steads

2-lane roads

The sunrise fish market was super cool. The smaller fish were sold by the kilo and the larger fish were sold by a verbal auction.

Fish Market

One of the things listed as not to miss in the Allepey area is a backwaters boat cruise. You can do large houseboats, small boats, canoes, or kayaks. We chose the canoe trip. If this was your first chance to see local communities it would be an amazing experience, but having spent 5 days walking through the communities, it was a disappointment and was not worth investing 6 hours of a day. We got bored so we helped paddle for about half of the trip. We were still glad to have done it, but would have seen more walking another day in Idukki.

Canoeing the Backwaters

Another very interesting thing that we wanted to do and ended up doing twice was an Ayurveda massage.  It was a very interesting process with oils, chanting, and massaging from the top of your head to your toes in one motion.

We enjoyed a little beach time before spending Thanksgiving as a travel day. It was a two-hour drive to Kochi, a 70-minute flight to Bangalore, then a four-hour drive from Bangalore to Mysore which included a stop for a roadside dosa which may have been the best dosa of the trip.

Thanksgiving dinner

Mysore is known as the cleanest city in India and it showed. It was so different than any other Indian city. It truly was clean. Only in a few back dirt roads did we find the normal road trash of India. For our first full day, we had arranged a cooking class. It was 3.5 hours in a husband and wife’s home where we made 9 dishes and then got to indulge ourselves in eating them. It was a great meal and greatly built on the other 2 classes we had taken. The rest of the day was spent walking around and seeing some of the many temples and palaces of Mysore.

Shree Chamundeshwari Temple sits at the top of Chamunde Hill with 1,025 steps leading up to it. It was great to get some climbing in after a few days. The temple was huge and there were tons of people making the pilgrimage to the top. We chose not to deal with the long wait to enter and instead took in the surroundings. This also made a great workout on Sunday morning doing 2 laps of stairs before taking the train back to Bangalore marking the end of an amazing Southern India trip.

Cooking Class

Mysore Palace

Since our first trip in 2002, India has been near and dear to our hearts. It had been a long time since we had been there and it has us eager to plan another trip. Maybe a bike tour in Uttar Pradesh or Uttarakhand?

We had a lot of highlights. We each took a turn writing down our highlights and then when we compared we both wanted to add each other’s to our list. I guess that is the sign of an amazing trip.

Chad’s Highlights

1. Overall walking from village to village of Idukki and just seeing local life.
2. Picnic with locals on the walk from Kurisumala Hill Church to Thangalpara
3. Cooking class in Mysore
4. Diwali with Mamatha and her family
5. Having cheap, but really good food and doing some dirt bagging
6. Flower market in Bangalore

Emily’s Highlights

1. Diwali with Mamatha and family
2. Flower market at Diwali
3. Walking around the streets in neighborhoods seeing people celebrate Diwali
4. The two breakfasts of eating parotta with the locals
5. All the friendly people when we were walking through the villages
6. Walking through the villages seeing how people live
7. Ayurvedic massages
8. All the colors, smells, food!

Overall, every trip to India is a rewarding experience. It is not a restful vacation, but we have always come back with a deep and long-lasting appreciation for everything it has to offer.