Decisions have been made and we finally have a date upon which we are traveling to India. The reason that we are going? A Wedding! One of our friends is getting married in Calcutta on the 22nd of December and we are joining in on the festivities. Because India is such big country and we only have little over a week before the wedding, we had to be decisive on where to go. We chose to only visit one province because we wanted to see at least one part of the country more thoroughly rather than having to focus on getting from point A to point B.
Since it is our first time in India and we have heard A LOT of stories about the country, we preferred to focus on South India, the Kerala province in particular. Known as “God’s Own Country”, the area is a little less populated than other provinces, has one of the highest literacy rates (94%) in the country and has the elephant as their state animal (awesome!). But more importantly, the area is known for its beautiful landscapes and animal population. Since we will be spending Christmas and the end of December in busy Calcutta I think it will be nice to see the other side of India as well. We haven’t stipulated the entire route yet but a couple of the highlights have already been determined. We will be flying into Kochi or Cochin, a well-known fishing port and international airport. Those big fishing nets three photos down are a trademark for the city but there is so much more to do. There are the colonial buildings, ayurvedic massage centers and the yoga schools all over town. After that we’re planning to discover the backwaters of Kerela via Alleppeya through to Kottayam. Here we’ll be able to see what happens in the little fishing villages and we’ll get a first look at India’s nature.
Kottayam is the perfect take-off point to head to Periyar Nature Reserve/Wildlife sactuary in the middle of the mountains. I’m hoping to catch some wild elephants and maybe even a tiger! Anyway the photos I’ve seen of the Western Gaths (the mountain range in which the nature reserve is located) look AMAZEBALLS! Then it is almost time for the big wedding so we’ll head to Madurai which has some beautiful temples and fly into Calcutta from there. That’s the plan so far, sound pretty good right?! With writing this down I’m getting really exciting to see all the different colors, people and animals that is India.
// Photos / Andrew Jacona / Flickr / Show Pony Mag / Chinese Fishing Nets in Kochi / jmbaud74 / Flickr / Flickr / Unknown / Flickr /Andrew Jacona / Tree Huggers / Backwaters of Kerala / Unknown / Top Inspired / Souvik_Prometure //