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Published: September 7th 2010
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Tamil Nadu and Kerala are the two most southern states in India.
I traveled through these states with two special friends... and saw some of the most beautiful places I ever visited.
My trip started in Chennai, where my flight landed. I did not visit this city, I went directly to the railway station and took a train to Trichy, where my friend was waiting for me. The four hours trip was like a movie among green rice fields and coconut trees with mountains on the back, cattle plowing the fields and villages with children flying colored kites on the top of the houses. I loved these landscapes, this rural India... maybe because I lived similar scenes of my childhood in the countryside (although without rice or coconuts...). This was the picture of India I had in my mind before coming, something like the Incredible India of the ad campaign.
First stop, Madurai:
Many things happened in Madurai... but I will write only about the sightseeing.
The most important place in Madurai is the Meenakshi Temple, a huge hindu temple with four big impressive gopurams. The temple is dedicated to god Shiva and Meenakshi, and other than the architecture
and the beautiful colored ceilings, I was impressed by the faith and religiosity of the people inside. The temple is the heart of the city, and the streets around it are like alive veins with lots of people going in and out of the temple all the time, then taking their own way into the city again. Although carrying my camera, I did not feel like a tourist here... it is like I could not feel out of this
vascular circulation; even when taking a photos: it was like
ok, picture... done, keep going... From the city we went to the countryside and then up to the mountains, where we spent a couple of days at my friend's coffee estate. This was very relaxing and I learned a lot about the tropical agricultural system: coffee, banana, cardamom, pepper, jackfruit, silkcotton... . Then, we still went upper, to the highest mountain range in southern India: The Nilgiris. I enjoyed very much our way up and I loved being up there... among the mist and the small, clear blue-painted villages, surrounded by tea estates. We stayed two days in Ooty, the main city in the area, that actually is a popular
tourist destination since the British were here. We visited the beautiful Botanical Gardens, Doddabetta (the highest peak in the area, about 2500 masl), rowed a boat on a lake, visited a tea factory, had excellent food, celebrated my birthday and went for lot of shopping. Goooooood!!!!!
In India, the beauty of the land cannot be described without using the word "sky", and this was especially true when we left Ooty heading the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve. We descended into the plains through the Bison Valley, one of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen. Behind, up there, we left the tea plantations and the blue villages that seemed to be hanging in the air, close to the clouds, over the lush forest we were crossing. There were 36 hairpin bends in 18 km and no place to stop for photos... but it does not matter, it was awesome.
Mudumalai was one of the first wildlife sanctuaries established in India. Mudumalai is a dense savanna, maybe a clear forest, that covers the plains at the bottom of Nilgiri mountains. The Mudumalai National Park becomes Bandipura National Park when you cross the state boundary and get into Karnataka, anyway... it
is beautiful the same. We stayed in a resort in Masinagudi, a little town in the center of the park. Our lodging was a comfortable bamboo tree-house!!!
wow... that was my dream when I was a child!!!. From there, we went to two safaris, in both Bandipura and Mudumalai National Park, and to a short trek to the Sri Murugan Temple, a small hindu temple on the top of a hill with very nice views over the reserve. In our safaris we saw elephants, bisons, deers, more deers, peacocks, wild chickens and more deers... . We could not see tigers although there were recent footprints in our way (almost!). Without any doubt, the driver was a professional, he stopped even when he saw a squirrel! that was fun...
We left Masinagudi (and Tamil Nadu state) and head to the long state on the eastern coast: Kerala, God's own country. Coconut trees and water everywhere... beautiful. Our destination was Alappuzha (Alleppey) to take one of the famous Kerala houseboats, probably the best experience of our trip. The houseboat was a big barge with two rooms, two bathrooms and a super-comfortable open living room. The roof was beautifully made of palm
leaves and there were two people coming with us: the cook and the
captain. We spent one full day (with a night included) in the Kerala backwaters. Just relaxing and admiring the landscape (well, also having excellent food and playing cards...). In the evening, when we stopped, we jumped into the water... it was a lot of fun. Coconut trees, nenuphars, water and sky... that was all... what else can you ask for?
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ADITI S
ADITI D SATPUTE
Hi Juan... Thats THE INDIA.. You should ask where is water?....but I am sure you had lot of fun in India..