Once again, our reservations, ground transportation, and
other details were arranged by Swagatam Tours and Travel -
www.swagatam.com. While minor
problems occurred (endemic to travel in India), they were quick to
resolve them.
In Kerala, Swagatam subcontracted the work to
Travelcart. These folks were perfectly attentive and precise. They
treated us like VIPs. Our driver in Kerala, Ramesh, was a charming man,
an excellent driver, and a man of seemingly infinite patience.
www.travelcartindia.com
Our USA-India tickets and internal India flights were
arranged again by the India specialist, Alanita Travel of Watertown,
MA www.alanitatravel.com.
Their prices are well known amongst NRIs and are FAR better than you can
get with Travelocity or Expedia.
Mumbai
Recommended Restaurant: Sahakari Bhandar /Sharmik Canteen, opposite
the Regal Cinema at the beginning of Colaba: A bustling pure-veg snack
shop that tops any restaurant in Mumbai. Try the Pav Bhajji, Masala
Bhajji, banana and mango lassis (probably the best you’ll have in
India), cheese masala dosa, Punjabi samosas, and the list goes on and
on. Everything we tried here was superb. Open long hours, very friendly
and helpful staff, very inexpensive. We wish they would open a branch
here in Cambridge! We eat only pure-veg while in India.
Lodging Reviews: On this trip, we made more of
an effort to stay in small personal lodges.
Mumbai: Suba Palace -
www.hotelsubapalace.com.
Perfect location one block from the Taj and the Gateway of India, clean
and comfortable, staff was incredibly warm and helpful. This was our
second stay there – and we highly recommend it.
Trivandrum: Wild Palms Guesthouse (no web) – A
small lodge with 5-6 rooms in a beautifully designed Kerala-style
building, with beautifully carved doors. It is in a quiet area, with
friendly staff, and a reasonable location off the noisy main drag. They
made us a great Kerala-style dinner.
Kollam: Valiya Vila
www.kollamlakeviewresort.com – Another small lodge off the beaten
path. Would have been perfect if their a/c didn’t fail. The location is
exquisite, although quite a way out of town. When the A/C failed, the
owner arranged for us to spend our last night in a nice aryuvedic center
on the coast. Susan got an aryuvedic massage, noting is was an
"interesting cross-cultural experience." She has never been so
well-oiled.
Periyar: Lake Palace Hotel The grossly overpriced
KTDC (government-run) hotel that bumped us at the last minute. It
is the only hotel deep within the park, so it offers the best chance of
seeing animals at dawn and at dusk. However, they bump guests frequently
and are rumored to have very poor service. When we got bumped, we stayed
at the...
Wildernest, Thekkady/Periyar:
www.wildernest-kerala.com
- We cannot possibly express how nice these folks were. They treated us
like VIPs from the very moment we arrived. The rooms were enormous,
airy, comfortable and spotless. The staff could not have been nicer. The
owner/manager took care to answer all our questions. Located just a 5
minute walk from Thekkady, it’s also situated between Spice Village and
Cardamom County hotels. We had the dinner buffet at Cardamom County –
the food was superb. We thought Spice Village was a bit stuffy. In town,
at the main fork in the road, was en excellent chaat shop with
world-class lassis.
Tea County, Munnar – a large KTDC hotel. There is
an amazing difference in how government hotels are run. The hotel was
not busy – perhaps ¼ full or less. They were offering a buffet dinner
which we didn’t care for (with too much meat). But we weren’t permitted
to order a la carte in the restaurant, we had to eat in the bar
balancing the food on our knees. The dining hall was empty. But rules
are rules, and who are we to see the silliness in this? Later, we
ordered something like fruit juice – and were told that there was none
(an amazingly odd occurrence in Kerala). In fact, they had none of the
items that we asked for. It turned out that our waiter didn’t speak
English. Another waiter was happy to bring us our order. (Having a
waiter in a nice hotel that speaks no English is exceedingly rare.)
Casino Hotel, Trichur– There are no western-class
hotels in Trichur – and there are very few western tourists. We stayed
at an Indian business-class hotel, the Casino, that was perfectly
comfortable. Just a 5-minute motorickshaw ride from town, the location
was perfect. The staff’s English was ok, and the restaurant was very
nice.
Raintree Lodge – We found the Raintree at
www.tripadvisor.com. The hotel
was very nice and comfortable, but we were worried before we arrived –
it had way too many positive recommendations – and these were too
effusive. How could any small hotel be that good? The helpful and
friendly owner answered that question upon our arrival. Many younger
travelers arrive in Kochi thoroughly clueless as to what they should see
and do while in India. The owner spends time with each of them helping
plan their itinerary and making reservations. We found the hotel is
suitable though modest, and well situated. There’s another upscale hotel
that wasn’t in our guidebooks, the Brunton Boatyard.
http://www.nivalink.com/brunton/. Pricey by Indian standards, it has
a delightful waterfront terrace bar.
Malaria - We each got about 15-20 night-mosquito
bites. Malaria is on the upswing in Maharashtra and Kerala. When we
returned home, we read a horror story about a Peace Corps worker who
stopped taking his meds. We also learned that World Health Organization
estimates that each year 300-500 million cases of malaria occur
worldwide and more than two million people die yearly of malaria. We’re
still on doxycyline now. Our traveling companions, Tony and Erika, were
taking the atovaquone/proguanil regimen and both experienced GI side
effects. And as we’ve reported before, Larium is so awful that it should
be taken off the market immediately.
