Categories: beach, kerala

Cherai Beach, Ernakulam/Kochi, Kerala

Bandipur -> Wayanad -> Kozhikode -> Guruvayur -> Cochin -> Periyar

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Approach to Cherai beach has some interesting landscapes. While driving on the highway, we see houses, small towns and plenty of buildings and there is hardly any change in the pattern no matter how long you drive. Turn away and head towards the beach and there is a sudden change in the way the world appears. Dense concrete structures give way to dense coconut forests. See where you can, you only have endless array of coconut trees with a house or two in the middle of them. They are uniformly planted at distances that make their leave just touch their neighbor and eventually block the hot sun from reaching the ground.

There were puddles of water here and there amidst the forest of coconuts, and they probably remain filled through the year. The land looked marshy and it looked as though the sea tried to expand further and left its traces. We drove through this maze of coconuts for a few kilometers before we hit some lakes.

I am not sure if they were lakes or lagoons or just backwaters. Some sections of the waterbody were barricaded, probably to rear fish or prawns. The strip of land between the sea and this lake, which formed the Cherai beach was a narrow landmass which was again inhabited by coconut trees and a few houses. The lake shore had some homestays or lodges which were built on stilts and looked very picturesque. We drove along the narrow land strip along the beach for a few kilometers, and the landscape all the way was similar. After finding a secluded place, we whiled away some time near the beach relaxing.

An hour or so before sun was about to set, we decided to head to Kochi(Cohin), go around the town and then settle down at Fort Kochi for the day.

About Cherai Beach

Cherai is a short 20 minute drive from Kochi. If you are staying in Fort Kochi, you can take a boat to Vypeen Jetty, from where you take the road along the sea for 11kms until you reach Cherai beach. If you intend to stay near the beach, there are some homestays and budget accommodation spread near the beach, but I did not see any upmarket hotels or resorts close by. Just like Kappad beach, the sea is deep here and you can’t go too far into the water. The beach is very narrow and quickly gives way to the road built close to the beach.

To be continued..


Categories: misc

THE YEAR OF 2006 ON INDIA TRAVEL BLOG

2006 was the most eventful year on India Travel Blog. A look back at all that was on this blog in the last twelve months.

I started the year with around 3500 page views per month or 120 page views per day in January. I expect to close December with more than 20,000 page views or 700 page views a day, with peak traffic at 1500 page views on 21st December. Total page views for the year stands a little above 100,000. The blog that started initially as a Bangalore centric one has spread its content to northern parts of India. I also travelled a lot this year, to places in Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh, North East India and Kerala. This of course along with many places in my home state – Karnataka.

JANUARY

I did not travel much in this month, but had plenty of time in my hands. I spent it writing about my earlier journeys, which includes Auli, Coorg, and Sakaleshpura trek.

FEBRUARY – OCTOBER

I was on the road for whole of Feb, travelling in Rishikesh, Auli, Haridwar, Rajaji National Park and Corbett. I usually do not post from the road since that does not give me enough time to spend in writing or processing photographs. So not much on the blog for this month.

In March I was in Varanasi and Agra and then returned home. I started writing about these journeys, which I did not know would take as much as seven months to complete! See summary of the entire story here. I also made a three week trip to North East India which is yet to be written about on this blog. I did not travel much for rest of the year, but writing about Auli, Rishikesh, Corbett, Varanasi and Agra kept me busy. My articles on Varanasi was also published on a Delhi based magazine – landscape. I still seem to have so much content to go up on this blog, at current rate, I can keep writing for next 6 months without bothering to travel more.

In this period, I also wrote about a few earlier journeys or weekend trips like Yumthang valley, Gurudongmar and Gangtok in Sikkim and trip to Coorg during monsoons.

I also started an India Travel Blog mailing list, to which I have sent just two emails in six months!

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NOVEMBER – DECEMBER

I wrote about my Chikmagalur trip to to see the Kurinjis in October, which also made to to the cover of landscape magazine. I made a short week long trip to Kerala which served me as a good introduction to the state. I started writing about it, and unfortunately lost many of the photographs made in Kerala accidentally.

Writing on Kerala has continued in December and will go on for another month. The end of the year will be marked with this post, and I look forward to 2007 to travel more, take more and better images and write more.

IN 2007…

There are plans a plenty for the coming year. January will be spent writing about the remaining part of the Kerala journey. Next, I will start writing about my North-East trip, which should keep my occupied till April. There are several travel book reviews that are pending for a long time, and I hope to post them once in a week or two, and that means extending the North-East report till June. In summer this year, I intend to travel to Himachal and/or Kashmir including Leh/Ladakh. That should keep me writing till August. I have no precise plans for rest of the year, but short weekend journeys and occasional longer journeys should help keeping this blog busy, up and running for the whole of 2007.

So see you in the next year. Wish you all a very happy and a fruitful 2007. Make merry, have fun and travel more.


Categories: calendar

JANUARY 2007 DESKTOP CALENDAR

I am planning to make a habit of publishing a wallpaper photo calendar for download for each month. Let me start with an image of sunrise, which would do well for the new year. Click on the image to get 1024×768 desktop wallpaper.

About the image: This image was made at Matanga Paravatha, Hampi in Karnataka, India, in Dec 2004. For more information on Hampi, see the post on Hampi. Also see more images from Hampi.