Yes, you got it right, I had been to Kottayam, Kerala, 2 weeks back. I just spent a day in the city moving around aimlessly for about a 3-4 hours. Reason for being to Kottayam was a friend's wedding. So now you understand that, there was not enough time to explore the city. Why? Simple, a lot of time goes into preparation (read beautifying exercise) for attending the wedding!
Nevertheless, I am just going to detail out my impressions about the city, Let's take a virtual tour of Kottayam from a novice view:
Reach Kottayam:
Being in Mangalore, most parts of Kerala are easily accessible to me. So we just boarded a train bound to Trivandrum, Malabar express @ 6.20 pm and reached Kottayam in the wee hours, at around 4.30 am. There are other trains as well at different times, you can very easily check irctc.co.in :)
For drivaholics, you can drive to the city from Mangalore, the drive is approximately 11 hours. Sounds completely tiring to me, but one of the person reaching Kottayam for the wedding did the same. Managed to keep himself awake during the wedding hours ;)
There are convenient trains available from Chennai and Bangalore as well. However, from Bangalore there are buses that ply regularly and have good frequency as well.
The point that I am trying to make here is, the city seems well connected from other important cities.
Impressions:
So what was the put off?
Weather, hot, hot and hot.. Super hot... So a lot of our plans went for a toss. We had no energy to get out into the hot sun and explore the places of tourist interest.
What you can actually do?
That's all we did in a day and I found Kottayam something really interesting. This place is surely in my list of must visits. I would love to explore this city more..
Nevertheless, I am just going to detail out my impressions about the city, Let's take a virtual tour of Kottayam from a novice view:
Reach Kottayam:
Being in Mangalore, most parts of Kerala are easily accessible to me. So we just boarded a train bound to Trivandrum, Malabar express @ 6.20 pm and reached Kottayam in the wee hours, at around 4.30 am. There are other trains as well at different times, you can very easily check irctc.co.in :)
For drivaholics, you can drive to the city from Mangalore, the drive is approximately 11 hours. Sounds completely tiring to me, but one of the person reaching Kottayam for the wedding did the same. Managed to keep himself awake during the wedding hours ;)
There are convenient trains available from Chennai and Bangalore as well. However, from Bangalore there are buses that ply regularly and have good frequency as well.
The point that I am trying to make here is, the city seems well connected from other important cities.
Impressions:
- As we reached Kottayam in the early morning, we thought we might be in trouble to get transportation and may be even end up fighting with auto drivers. I was proved completely wrong here. Just when we got out of the railway station, we found a prepaid auto stand, yes operating even in the early morning hours. And an official giving you the tickets, not some local person. The auto driver did not make any fuss about the rates, just collected the exact amount mentioned in the challan from the prepaid counter. The auto part certainly impressed me a big deal, as even during night time, 10 pm odd, we took an auto to the railway station without any hassles from our place of stay.
- After we had settled in our rooms in YMCA, we decided to take a stroll to find breakfast and coffee. About YMCA, it was a very decent place close to the railway station and bus stand. The staff was friendly and helping enough.
- We got out to take a stroll in the city. City seemed pretty much clean and well maintained. Kottayam was painted red celebrating KEC's win in the recently completed polls. Though I have least interest in politics, this seemed something beautiful/colorful/interesting to me.
- Indian Coffee House (ICH) is one of the most famous coffee and snacks shop in Kerala, Kottayam was no different. I happened to see atleast 2-3 branches of ICH in a couple of hours. The other restaurants and coffee shops open only after 7 am. This is not much trouble usually, but that day it was a little bit disappointing as I was damn hungry and craving for the first cup of my morning coffee.
- However, the regular hotels were open, Arya Bhavan to be precise. Nothing gaga about the place, except for the delicious breakfast (idly-vada-sambar-chutney) and coffee we had that morning. The taste and aroma of the fresh coconut chutney is still lingering in my mind.
- During our stroll in the morning, we happened to witness a minor car-scooty accident. I am not going to describe the accident,but the promptness of the police in reaching the spot and giving a chit to the wrong party was amazing. Within no time, policeman arrived and the area was cleared. About 30 minutes later, another police team arrived to take a complete note of the incident. I found it quite impressive.
- Once we reached the wedding venue, colorful ladies and gentlemen, beautiful bride and the very handsome groom, all set to begin a new journey. What actually was going on my mind during the wedding proceedings was food! Being a vegetarian, attending a Christian wedding meant almost no food. But, but, but surprise awaited, there were 2 separate tables laid out only for veggies. That's not all, food that was good enough and some good variety as well. I was just sooo happy! I believe Kottayam is the only place that serves separate veg food during Christian weddings. This is my second Christian wedding in Kottayam, and both had the same. Other places serve very minimal veg food and that really becomes a turn off when you are hungry and people around you are actually hogging :)
- Towards the end of day, rain god smiled and there was slight drizzle. For dinner, we found a restaurant called Meenachil that served some tasty north-Indian food. Something that we least expected again! Though I was looking for some Kerala specialities, the menu did not have it, yet i wasn't very disappointed after having the food served.
- All the while, language did not seem to be a problem, people easily understand Hindi/English/Tamil. Knowing Malayalam is obviously a plus.
So what was the put off?
Weather, hot, hot and hot.. Super hot... So a lot of our plans went for a toss. We had no energy to get out into the hot sun and explore the places of tourist interest.
What you can actually do?
- Visit the Vembanad lake, backwaters in Kumarakom, drench yourself in the Aruvikkuzhi waterfalls or go to Ernakulam and visit Fort Kochi.
- Ernakulam is about 2 hours from Kottayam and well connected by road and rail.
- If you have enough time, travel to Trivandrum, about 3 hours from Kottayam and visit Kovalam beach and Varakala, a decent tourist place. Varakala is known for beachside shacks... :) And for spiritual or interested people, visit the Padmanabhaswamy temple. I think I don't need to describe this temple..
That's all we did in a day and I found Kottayam something really interesting. This place is surely in my list of must visits. I would love to explore this city more..