Ride Summary: Total Distance: 120 kms Total Time: 3 hrs 30 min
We were the only ones staying at the Bamboo Grove in Thekkady. It is exactly how I wanted. An off-season, cheap rates, no crowd and great weather. What else do you want from a vacation. Since it was a short ride, we weren't in a hurry to leave. I finished up my blog writing and we were on the saddle around 10 am.
Near the town of Vanduperiyar, we stopped for breakfast. Keralites eat fish curry/mutton curry with Kerala Paratha for breakfast. So I decided to do it their way. I ordered an egg curry instead with a Kerala Paratha. The guy who was making them was so fast. I spoke to him and he asked me if I was riding my bike all the way from Pune. He spoke fluent hindi as he used to work in Chembur, Mumbai in his past life. He shared his own adventure of walking from Mumbai to Pune! Have a look at him making those parathas. Impressive stuff!
We reached the Kumarakom backwaters around 1:30 pm. I realized I had just completed 2000 kms in the ride from Pune! The hotel we booked from expedia (after reading reviews from tripadvisor) turned out to be a disappointment as far as location is concerned. It was a pain to find it but the rooms were very nice. In addition, the hotel was connected to the backwater from the canal; hence we were glad that we could take the boat ride without having to take our our bikes once again. But the hotel had a good view of the canal.
We quickly wrapped up lunch. Only bread omelette is second to maggi as far as speed goes; hence we picked that one from the menu. We were set for the boat pickup around 3:30 pm from the hotel. The backwaters are beautiful. This was my 1st experience with boating in the backwaters and it was beautiful. You get to see the villages around. And a variety of birds! Here's a picture I took of the snake bird as they call it. I really missed my 70-300 lens but there is only so much you can carry on a long motorcycle ride. I was already quite loaded with electronics; hence went back to my gopro for some selfie clicks.
As we approached the lake, the boat's engine heated up and the guy told us to get off. He couldn't get the boat's engine to cool down; hence the 3 hr ride was reduced to 1.5 hrs. It wasn't such a big deal as we had done the full trip to the lake. But I was disappointed to not get pictures on the return journey as the sun was coming down. The colors would have really lit up in that 5 pm light. Oh Well!
We walked about 20 mins or so to the road to catch a rickshaw. Kerala rickshaws are really comfortable. They are quite big when you compare them with a Pune rickshaw for instance. 3 people actually can comfortably be seated in them. I took a nice hot shower after I was back to the room and was all set for the fish fry for dinner!
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