Haarish's Trip to Kerala
By Haarish Bharathan
I recently took a trip to the southern Indian state of Kerala to visit Trivandrum, Cochin, Allepey, and Kollam, flying with Etihad to Abu Dhabi then connecting to Trivandrum Airport.
Location
Trivandrum city centre is only about 5km from the airport, while Cochin is about 4 hours by train, and Allepey is only about an hour and a half from there. Finally, we finished off in Kollam, which is about an hour and a half by train or 2 and a half hours driving.
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What I Loved
The highlight of my trip has to be the amazing food. Indian food is always a favourite, and it was great to get authentic cuisine in the country itself. The Kerala region has its own local dishes, with both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. I really enjoyed erissery, a pumpkin and lentil stew, and also the prawn curry. There are definitely options for every palate in Kerala.
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Activities & Places to See
- We enjoyed a hike to the hill station at Kottancheri, a great place for relaxing and admiring the scenery of the hills. Bring your walking shoes!
- The beaches in Trivandrum like Varkala and Kovalam are beautiful and are perfect for relaxing next to, especially in the warm weather of the summer.
- We also loved the Lakes and Lagoons houseboat tour in Allepey, which brought us around the backwaters of the region in style.
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Shopping
For shopping, you can’t beat the Lulu Mall in Cochin, one of the largest in all of India. Another great mall was the Mall of Travancore in Trivandrum, one of the biggest in Kerala.
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Food & Bars
Indian food is always amazing and was definitely a highlight. Apart from the dishes I’ve already mentioned, we also really liked idiyappam with curry, and puttu and kadala, a steamed rice cake for breakfast. You’ll also find plenty of popular chains like McDonalds and Burger King, especially in the shopping malls.
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