We did this 2 days and 2 nights trip to Kumarakom recently between 11th Oct and 13th Oct. A mix of good, and messed up bad experience, Kerala's infamous, brand identity, an unexpected hartaal!
Highlights
- Waterscapes, a Kerala Tourism Development Corporation place.
- Unique canal-themed backwater resort with stilted wooden hut cottage rooms.
- On the shores of Vembanad lake, and nested inside the Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary.
- Cottage on a micro island with tiny canals all around, you reach through maze of mini bridges.
- A long walk inside the Bird Sanctuary, footpath, dense tree-cover (but no birds, as it was off season).
- But saw some nice birds in the resort, like Kingfishers, Cormorants, Pond Herons, etc.
- Trees and mangrove vegetation, ducks, turtles, dragon flies, squirrels, in the resort.
- A wink and miss sighting of monitor lizard that came by.
- Front lobby building - a brick structure built on stilts on the canal waters; as if floating.
- Pearlspot Restaurant - a wooden structure built on stilts in the lake backwaters; as if floating.
- Night walks from inside the resort to the main road amidst dark dense trees.
- The long walk to the nearby boat jetty on Meenachil river.
- A calm short boat-cruise on Meenachil river.
- Food
- Exorbitant cost of buffet lunch and dinner (each Rs 750 per head) at the restaurant.
- Walking on the highway in the night to a restaurant farby(!) was not too safe.
- Bird sanctuary
- October is not a good time to see any birds in the sanctuary.
- Even after a long walk for 2 KM inside we did not spot even one bird there.
- But we saw some of them within our resort itself where we stayed.
- Tatkaal ticket
- We had to look for tatkaal ticket online on the next day of stay there.
- The internet was scratchy and their wifi was flaky too.
- Ran around from the lake shore to the cottage to the front desk; 3-4 hours messed up.
- Hartaal
- A big issue in Kerala. Never know when there will be a complete flash strike!
- We were to vacate the next morning at 11 am, but at 11 pm previous night we heard this!
- Our train to Bangalore was at 3:30 PM from Kottayam Railway Station.
- We were 18 KM from Kottayam Railway Station and no vehicles from 6 AM next!!
- We vacated 4:30 am, got to a hotel 2.5 KM far from Kottayam Railway Station.
- Town was completely empty, with no shops or restaurants open; no vehicles on road.
- The day was messed up; came out and saw nothing; stayed indoors for that ~8 hours.
- Their restaurant was closed too, with just minimal room service, so we were lucky.
- Had to start the 2.5 KM walk from hotel to Railway Station, carrying all our baggage.
- Luckily we got an auto after we walked >1 KM.
Photos
Here are some pictures from our trip, and an Itinerary Outline and a few Trip Tips at the end...
