Local Life in Kumarkom Kerala

Any article on Kerala, India is usually talks about the backwaters and its scenic beauty.
My take on ""What makes the place beautiful is its local life !!!"
So thought of devoting this article on the Local Life in Kumarakom.

The localities stay in small houses lined on the banks of the lake. Their staple diet is rice and freshly caught fish from the lake. The rice is grown in the paddy fields located on islands. One can spot the paddy field workers working in the fields while enjoying the boat ride. Since their farms and houses are located on different islands they use small boats to commute to and fro.

Kumarakom, Kerala

Kumarakom- Back water lake destination in Kerala, India. It is located at 40 mins to 50 mins drive from Cochin Airport.
Since its surrounded by the Vembanad Lake all over. Choosing to  stay in house boat or hotel facing the lake is the best option. You will love enjoying a cup of tea or coffee or might be beer, watching the silver lined coconut trees  on the banks of the island.
The activities are as follows:

• Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary
• House Boat Stay
• Boat Ride in the Back waters

Best time to visit Kumarakom is from October to February. 2nd week of December to 1st week of January being the peak season where all the rates are doubled up.
The scenic beauty of Kumarakom can be described in no words. Therefore adding more pictures to this post makes more sense.

Koln, Germany

Koln is one of the main cities of Germany, Europe. It is fourth largest city in Germany.

I made a one day trip to Koln from Kamlint Fort, Gemrany.

Few attractions in Koln are

• Koln Cathedral or Dome


• Koln Museum - I skipped the visit of Musueum as i was not intrested in it.


• Koln Chocolate Museum


• Koln Rhine River Ferry Ride - Its good idea in Summer to visit the Koln River Ride along with your near and dear ones. Since I was all alone, I skipped the River Ride.


• Koln Wine Fest

Other then these, I roamed on streets of Koln. Viewed some old historic buildings. And had lunch break sitting on the bank of river Rhine.

Rheinberg Orsoy Germany

On one weekend, I visited neighbouring small village Rheinberg, Orsoy, in Germany. The village is on the banks of River Rhein and is a weekend gate away for locals during summer.

One can just sit on the banks of the River front and enjoy the view along with some snack and drinks. There are many Cafes around this tourist attraction place.


I also took the ferry across the River Rhine. The Ferry takes you to the other bank where one can feed some gooses. Since it was my first visit in Germany. I was all excited about the ferry trip and feeding those huge Gooses. Later on I had hearty laugh, on others when I saw them doing the same for the first time. I also took pictures with flock of sheeps grazing in the grass meadow.



On the other bank of the river there was Coal Mine hosting its huge chimneys.
There is a market place (i.e. Markt Platz) in the heart of the village. The market place hosts weekend market, where local people buy locally grown vegetables, fruits, candles, domestic stuff, etc.

Lake Palace Udaipur

The Lake Palace in Udaipur, Rajasthan, India popularly known as Taj Lake Palace. It is actually a Palace built by Maharaja of Udiapur. It is located on natural island in the Lake Pichola, Udiapur and is constructed with white marble stone. It is one of the most photographed historic monunment of India. The Palace is now converted to a hotel and operates under Indias most popular brand Taj Hotels. Like all other Rajasthani Palaces, it features many courtyards, terraces, fountains and gardens. The tourist reach the destination with help of the jetty which operates from the City Palace.
Being an expensive affair, we just managed to capture a glimpse of it from the top of the City Palace Udaipur.

Gaumukh Reservior, Chittorghar Fort

Gaumukh Reservior is one of the water bodies available on the Chittorghar Fort, Rajasthan, India. As the name suggest the water source is a spring which oozes out of the face of Cow. There is a Shiva Temple next to the Gaumukh (Cows Mouth). One has to climb down the steps towards the reservior and walk inside the temple to view the Gaumukh.

The reservior water provides source of water for lots of pigeons around. You can site people throwing peanuts and rice flakes to the fish in the reservior. The Reservior offers magnificient view from top. This view is available from the backyard of Meera Temple. The fortess walls surround one side of the reservior. Walking along the fortress walls near the reservior is prohibitted to avoid accidents amongst the visitors.
Gaumukh Reservior Video 1:

Gaumukh Reservior Video 2:

Chittorgarh Fort

Chittorgarh Fort is main attraction in the city of Chittor, Rajasthan, India. The major attractions are:

1. Vijay Stambh
2. Kirti Stambh
3. Gaumukh Reservior
4. Rani Padmini Mahal
5. Rana Kumbh Palace
6. Fateh Prakash Palace Museum
7. Several Gates or Pols
8. Temples(Kalikamata temple, Jain Temple, Meera Temple, etc)

The fort is pride of Rajasthan and attracts maximum number of tourists after the City Palace Fort in Udaipur. The Fort hosts loads of Rajput history and is classic example of Rajasthani architechture.

How to reach Chittorghar Fort:

Chittor city is about 2 hrs drive from Udaipur City. We were based in Udaipur and planned day trip to Chittorghar Fort. We booked Cab from Udaipur city which would take us around Chittorghar fort. The Chittorgarh fort lies at the top of Hill. If one reaches Chittor City by local mode of transport like bus or train, then they have to take local vehicle(cab, rickshaw, motor cycle ride) to the top of the hill.

It will take you about day to visit the fort and the major attractions in the fort.

Chittorghar Fort Video

Central Park, NY

We wrapped up our first day on New York, USA at Grand Central Park. It is a huge Public Park in midst of Manhattan City. It covers around square mile of the Manhattan. Once you enter the park you get lost in midst of lush green leaves and you completely forget that you are walking in heart of the busy Manhattan city. Its good idea to have a summer day picnic in Central Park.

The Park has a few lakes and big reservior. One can spot the New York Skyline over the horizon of the Central Park Reservoir. Since we entered the park in evening, we were tierd and decided to cover few part of it and took exit. The Central Park Reservoir, Chinese house and China Garden were some of the parts of the Central Park which we explored.

City Palace Udaipur

The City Palace, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India is built by Maharana Udai Singh and is one of the major tourist attractions of the City. It is one of the largest palace complexes in Rajasthan. It lies on the banks of Lake Pichola. The palace has several gates known as Pols. The main entrance of the palace is triple arch gate - Tripolia.

Two grand Canons stand below the two of these arches. The palace comprises of several palaces, courtyards, balconies, hanging gardens, etc. The balconies and terraces provide breath taking view of the surrounding city and Lake Pichola.

Pushkar Ghats

Pushkar is famous for Bramha Temple and the Ghats. The Ghats are small lakes near created near the temple in ancient times. These Ghats facilated water for drinking, bathing and other needs of the travellers and devotees who visited the temple. Beware that the water of the Ghats is definitely not potable nowadays. The Ghats also provide place of worship and other Hindu rituals for the Lord Bramha devotees. One could site a lot of people performing some pujas and offering prasad to the good at banks of the Ghats. Before the Puja or ritual is performed the devotee baths in the holy water of Ghat.

Broads - Norwich

Broads are few man made lakes near Norwich, UK . The Broads lakes are connected to each other. One can swim, sail and fish in these Broads. We reached one of the Broad lakes. After our first experience of motor boat sailing at Lake District, I was all set for next sailing adventure. We reached the centre at around 3:30 pm. Since the boat rental service closes at 5 o clock in the evening, we could hire boat only for an hour. This was one more reason to convince Abhi to hire Motor Boat. The other one was I was did not wanted to do any heavy exercise by rowing or paddling the boats. We drove the boat for hour long. Abhi tried few stunt by jumping over the boat. We sighted some windmills farms on the other end of the Lake. Unfortunately due to time constraints, we had to return back to the shores.

Motor Boat sailing in Lake Windermere

We parked the car in Car park of Lake Windermere Boat hiring centre. Plan was to do some sailing in the Windermere lake. We put on life saver jackets and headed towards the boat. To our surprise there was no one to drive the boat. We had to sail the boat across the lake. Shooo!!! That was quiet an activity. Both I and Abhi were scared initially. When to boat started, I was so scared that I was not ready to move at all. However after a while both of us were comfortable and we were all set to sail the boat. I tried my luck on the radar near the shores of the lake. Time was ticking and we had to soon reach the centre to return the boat. Abhi decided to cross the deep waters of Windermere and took the drivers seat. Hmmm….it was quiet a scary experience. But it did encourage us to take few more boat rides in Norwich Broads in near future.

Indian Chai session on Lake Windermere Banks

After hour full of adventurous sailing we decided to have tea and biscuits in the nature, sitting on shores of lake Windermere. It was fun and we took some cool snaps.
We had to spend an hour at the tourist centre to find bed and breakfast. After a long search we found on in Kendal. It was almost noon and we decided to have lunch in the COOP restaurant behind the Tourist information centre.

Interlaken Lake Cruise

We then took train to Bern Sea from where the cruise departure point is. There were many romatic hotels in Interlaken next to the Bern Sea. The cruise took us around the Interlaken Lake and brought us back to the Bern sea. It was great experience. I have no words to describe it; therefore I had to add many pictures to support it. We could see some para-gliders flying in the sky. Unfortunately we had not planned that item in our list. There was huge cow’s statue outside the departure point. We took some pictures along with it.
After the cruise was over, we went to Interlaken Ost station.

Cruising in Lake Luzern

Cruising in Lake Luzern

We reached the city centre and hopped in boat. The boat had several routes including 1 hour, 2 hour and four hours. Since we had to reach Interlaken in the evening, we opted for 1 hour cruise. Once the boat leaves the dock, one can see the Luzern city settled next to the lake bank. Many hotels and villas populate the lake side. The better the lake view, costlier is the hotel. On the other side you can see the Swiss Alps tips lost in the foggy clouds. The boat halted at the stop named Rigi and we decided to de-port .

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