Backwaters, Beaches & Broken Plans – Kerala Edition

The journey

While I was still in Goa, the Kerala plan was already cooking up. When I first heard about it, my reaction was,

“Kyu yaar, abhi Goa mein hoon aur wapas Kerala? Thoda ruk jao!” But with Dussehra holidays coming up, one extra leave on Friday meant a long weekend. Quickly, a new WhatsApp group was created, bookings started rolling in, from bus to self-drive cars to hotels, and I realised there was no escape now 😅.

We decided: leave on 30th September, take 1st October off, work from home on 5th, and 3rd October leave. Plan final, Kerala, here we come!

The Journey Begins We left Hyderabad to Bangalore on a Flix Bus, supposedly “luxury,” until the last window broke 🫠. We still managed to reach only 1.5 hours late.

The moment we reached, Aakash welcomed us with poha and hot milk — the perfect start. By evening, after multiple calls and a mini chaos, we managed to get rented DSLR near our bus stop. Ankit Rajpoot and Sahil also arrived on time, and Naved bid us goodbye for the trip.

The quarter of the night went into testing the DSLR and endless ba**odi sessions (as usual).

Early morning, we reached Kochi, ordered snacks from Zepto Café and Swiggy, and got ready to pick up our car (Fronx), an almost brand-new automatic, shining and smooth!

We hit the road to Alleppey, and both Ankit Rajpoot and I took turns driving. Once we reached, we checked into our hotel, had lunch, and went straight for the backwater ride.

That ride was pure Kerala magic, peaceful water, coconut trees, fresh air, and tender coconut in hand. We clicked tons of photos and soaked in every bit of calm.

Later, we tried visiting the lighthouse, but it was closed by 5:30 PM. So we headed to Alleppey Beach, enjoyed snacks by the shore, and ended the night with a chill dinner and an early plan, checkout by 6 AM.

Thanks to Aakash, the wake-up manager for that day, we were ready by 6 AM and off to the Jatayu Earth Centre. And good call by Rahul, since we left early, there was less queue!

The place was stunning, that massive sculpture, the view, the breeze, totally worth the early start.

On the way to Varkala, I was driving through a narrow lane when the car got stuck from behind 😅. Everyone started shouting,

“Left le! Right me jagah hai! Back kr le!” Somehow, I managed to get out, laughing and panicking at the same time. We checked into our hotel, had lunch near Varkala Cliff (nice view, meh food), and then went to the beach. Sadly, swimming was restricted, so we planned to watch the sunset later… but Aakash fell asleep, and the whole group followed. Sunset missed! 🌅

We made Maggi, went to Varkala Cliff again, and unknowingly walked all the way to Black Sand Beach. The vibe there was unreal, dark sand, dim lights, and laughter echoing everywhere.

By the time we came back, it was 10:30 PM and most restaurants were closed. Luckily, Ankit found one open till 11:30. The dinner was perfect, right by the cliff, sea breeze, and amazing food. We liked it so much we came back again next morning for brunch.

That night, we decided to head to Kanyakumari since it was only 135 km away. Everyone except Aakash agreed. Majority wins 😎

Morning started with Kayaking through mangroves, making reels, and even swimming in the backwaters. After that, as promised, brunch again at our favourite cliff restaurant.

Then, on Rahul’s suggestion, we all bought lungis and hit the road to Kanyakumari. Sadly, due to clouds, we missed the full sunset, only saw the orange glare, but we were standing at the southernmost tip of India, wearing matching lungis, and feeling like legends.

We didn’t remove those lungis till we reached our hotel 😂. Rajpoot, Rahul and Aakash drove us back safely that night, ending Day 3.

Next morning was easy-going. After driving for 6-8 hours, we reached Marine Drive, Kochi, and visited a spot we had seen in some reel. The road was so narrow, our car got stuck, water on both sides, cars ahead and behind, total movie scene.

A girl driving the car in front handled it like a pro and cleared the way. We followed her lead and finally reached a small aesthetic place, our last calm stop before city chaos.

Final ritual before ending the trip? Chair massage at Lulu Mall, the almost perfect goodbye.

Then we boarded our bus back. In the morning, we were at Ankit’s and Sahil’s flat in Mysore, and I told Rahul,

“Dekh yaar, aise rehte hain ameer log!” 😂 After breakfast, we drove back to Bangalore, met Naved, Mohit, and Rehan, and picked up Rahul’s laptop (because of course he didn’t want to bring it on the trip).

And to wrap it all up in true Bangalore style, Aakash dropped us to the bus stop on his bike, tripling on the main road with trolleys in hand (because you know… Bangalore traffic! 😅).

Finally, we boarded our bus back to Hyderabad — tired, tanned, but totally satisfied.