Ernakulam - A Travel Review

Ernakulam a coastal city of Kerala is a beautiful place for nature lovers. The name ernakulam came from the word 'Erayanarkulam' which means `The Almighty's abode`. Its true infact. When I was there a week before, the monsoon had just started.

I along with 3 of my collegues were there to attend one of our friend's marriage. We reached Ernakulam South railway station very early by 3 A.M. Soon after reaching station gates, we were waiting under shelter to hire an autorickshaw as the down pour was heavy. They follow a discipline. Autos in Kerala(except Piaggio Ape model) normally will not take more than three passengers at a time. We then managed to get the conveyance and reached the Hotel where we had booked a room.


First day we went to Veega Land, so called the largest and hygenic Water Park in Asia. It is located 25-30 Kms (Approx.) a travel of 45mins - 1 hr from Ernakulam. From Ernakulam we need to travel to Kakkanad. From there you can get an auto-rickshaw or buses. When talking about buses, I need to mention about buses in Ernakulam. I came to know from my collegue that around 90% of buses running in and around the city are run by private owners. I can say that riding in these city buses was much more like a thrilling ride than any other ride in Veega Land.

We spent nearly six hours inside the Water Park and enjoyed all the rides. Almost 95% of the rides are water rides. The Theme park is well constructed above a hillock. It is said that the water used for the games is recycled every 5 minutes. After spending the whole day there we returned to ernakulam around 8.30 & started looking for hotels to take dinner. But most of the hotels were empty and some of them are even closed!!!

As I said earlier, the people in kerala follow discipline. In Kerala 'RULES DRIVE BUSINESS', whereas in chennai 'BUSINESS DRIVES RULES'. Rules can change like anything in chennai if that boosts the business.

Next Day we left to a village called Perumbavur 35-40 Kms from Ernakulam. We reached there by 11.45 & the Muhurtham was by 12.00-12.30. The tradition followed by keralites were new to us and it was interesting too. I even heard that no.of people attended marriage, i.e the head count will be calculated by no.of Papads they serve (I was dumb stuck when i heard this.. coz in chennai ppl are mad about papads & other fried stuffs -No one can eat just one [;)] ). On the whole the trip to ernakulam was refreshing, entertaining and enjoyable. If you have 3 days time and you are yet to pick a place to visit, try ERNAKULAM and you will regret never!!!