My First Time in India - A Land Full of Eastern Promise? -

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My First Time in India - A Land Full of Eastern Promise?

Three short weeks ago, Asia was my last unexplored continent. As the Turkish Delight adverts of yesteryear used to say, it was for me “Full of Eastern Promise” – an intriguing mystery just waiting to be unravelled. So where best to start? Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia and The Silk Road were all possibilities, but why not take the plunge and dive right into the largest (by population) of all the 48 countries in Asia and make a first time trip to India?

India has long been on my trip wish list, but to be honest, I have been putting it off because the mental images I had of it were contradictory. On the plus side, I could visualise elegant saris, gentle giant elephants, majestic temples, glittering palaces and the thrill of wild tigers. On the other hand, the downside offered: the misery of Delhi-belly, curry for breakfast, lunch and dinner; scenes of heart wrenching poverty and roads so scary they could be endured only with eyes tight shut. I am an optimist at heart though and an incurable romantic too, so the upsides eventually won and I decided to plan a trip to Kerala.

Why Kerala? Most people start their discovery of India by visiting The Golden Triangle and many say that you haven’t really seen India until you have ticked off all those big tourist sights. It was really important to me though to make my first trip to India one that would entice me to return. I was hoping to find a warm, sunny haven that might offer good potential for many future escapes to shorten those miserably cold, grey, wet English Winters. The more I travel, the less pleasure I find in ticking off the big tourist sights and jostling with the crowds anyway. So, I opted for Kerala, the southern Indian state which has successfully marketed itself as “God’s Own Country” and seemed to offer a more gentle introduction to the pleasures of the Indian sub continent than the central/northern regions.

Although little known as a tourist destination in the early 1980’s, Kerala has since been named as one of the ten paradises of the world by National Geographic Traveler. Kerala is also famous for its ecotourism initiatives and beautiful backwaters, which sounded like my cup of tea. Impressively, Kerala also featured in TIME magazine’s list of the top 50 World’s Greatest Places to explore (2022) – the only Indian state to be included.

As I write, it is snowing at home in the UK whilst the weather in Kerala is a balmy 28 degrees with no rain forecast for weeks. Now is the perfect time to visit in fact before the heat begins to build in the run up to the monsoon season of June to August.

On top of all that, I can get a direct flight from London Gatwick to Cochin Airport and the flight time is a very doable 10 hours and 40 minutes.

OK – so I am IN – Kerala here we come!

Sometimes - It’s OK to Seek Help

If you are a follower of Love to Wander, you will know that I love to travel independently – constructing my own itinerary and choosing exactly where I want to stay and for how long without being tied to a plan put together by a travel agent. Itineraries covering all the tourist hot spots mean you risk missing out on experiencing the hidden gems and the personal interactions with local people that make travelling such an enriching experience. Planning a trip is often as exhilarating as the actual holiday itself – and you save all that travel agent commission too.

If you are visiting a country with an unfamiliar culture and cuisine of which you have no experience though, I think it is OK to seek help from a reliable local travel agent to find the perfect accommodation and local experiences that will make all your travel dreams come true. Yes, their service will come at a price, but with some trips, choosing the right travel agent can make all the difference to your enjoyment of a trip and a bit of commission can be money well spent. For my first trip to India, I chose Kerala Connections (recently merged with No News No Shoes) and was very pleased with the itinerary they constructed for us.

Apart from excellent accommodation choices and a good variety of locations and experiences, they also have a digital app called TravelKey which contains all the details of your trip in one easy to access place which you can download before you go and consult en route without the need for WiFi. TravelKay makes it so much easier than shuffling through a pile of travel documents and vouchers that all too easily get muddled up, soaked in a rain shower or blown away on a passing breeze.

I discovered Kerala Connections, via Responsible Travel – a great resource for introducing you to tour operators which you would otherwise find difficult to locate and thereby giving you access to the very best rates, a mine a wealth of local knowledge and a commitment to ensuring that travel benefits local people and the environment.

Our 3 Week Itinerary

I wanted to start the trip to Kerala with a couple of days in Kochi (or Cochin as it used to be known) because this was the port which acted as a major gateway, opening up India for trade with China, Africa, Arabia and later Europe. It also has an international airport with direct flights from London. From Kochi, we would travel to Neriamangalam to spend two days exploring the lush and bio-diverse market garden Midlands of Kerala.

Then, we would venture up into the Highlands of Kerala, basing ourselves in the heart of tea plantation territory of Munnar for two days. The Highlands also produce the spices so sought after by the early Chinese and Arabian travellers, so we included three days in Thekkady, Kerala’s spice capital. As we reached the halfway point of our 3 week trip, we scheduled a little down time with three days surrounded by paddy fields and coconut trees in the peaceful resort of Kumarakom in Kerala’s Lowlands.

You can’t visit Kerala without staying on a houseboat, so we booked two nights on a Lakes and Lagoons houseboat operating in the Alleppey area – a large network of canals earning it the sobriquet of “The Venice of the East”. Once a busy trade port, it is today the centre of backwaters tourism in Kerala offering serene cruises which give a unique perspective on the daily village life of toddy tapping, fishing, coir making and prawn farming that can only be seen from the water.

It is also where the annual spectacular of the snake boat race takes place in Aranmula on the second Saturday of August, but that is a monsoon season, which we wanted to avoid. For the last five days of our trip, we returned to the coast for three days in the beach resort of Mararikulum before ending the trip with two days in a small resort near the meandering Muvattupuzha River to finish recharging before the flight home.

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