Trip to Palakkad - Kerala

This is about a short (two days and one night) trip to Palakkad a city in the state of Kerala. 

Travel Options Taken

• The best option for Bangalore to Palakkad and back, would be to go by Train, as the Bus takes minimum 10 hours from Bangalore and 10 hours in train is more comfortable than 10 hours of bus journey (my personal preference)

  

  @ 4:30 AM in the morning

• Took Kanyakumari Express (16526) which runs at 8:00 PM and reaches Palakkad Junction at 4:30 AM next day.

• For roaming around in Palakkad, had hired the cab for 2 days.

• Didn't have the confirmed train ticket for return journey, so preferred to go to Salem by train which took about 5 hours and from Salem took a Tamil Nadu local bus to Bangalore which took about 4 hours from there. Once one in Salem, one need not worry about getting the buses to Bangalore as there are frequent TN local buses from Salem to Bangalore.

Places Covered

• Silent Valley National Park (★★★✩✩)

@ SVNP entrance gate

Its about 55 kms from Palakkad railway station and about 42 kms from the Alanallur village where we stayed. Public and private transports are not allowed in SVNP one has to hire forest department jeep. The jeep takes minimum 45 minutes or more depending on the breaks you take in between to see the birds and animals around. For more please read my next blog ;) 

• Malampuzha Dam (★★★✩✩)

Its about 8 kms from Palakkad railway station and around 60 km from the home stay we stayed in Mannarkad. You need a full day to visit this place. I would say this is a good place for one day outing with family. 

View from the bridge

Entry fee to garden is 25 rps per person and 100 rps for camera. Its 15 mins walk from garden entrance to the dam bridge. The view from bridge is awesome. If you have time you can go for a long walk on the bridge from one end to another and back.

Garden has spread over a wide area and has attractions like entrance garden, chess board park, maze park, garden with mountain background, sunken garden to name a few. 

Rope way, snake park and rock park are outside the garden, you need to buy tickets at the respective entrance gates to visit them. Due to lack of time I could do only the rope way. From rope way you can see the 360 view of the garden, river and roads which takes you to the Kava view point.

• Kava View Point (★✩✩✩✩)

This place is around 6 kms from Malapuzha Dam, drive to this place is nice but there is nothing much to see and do. It just has the closer view to the Dam reservoir. 

Staying Option

Like any other cities, Palakkad also has plenty of hotels to opt for, but we opted for home-stay and booked Spice home-stay for one night and below is my review on the same:

• Home-stay is located in a small village called Alanallur near Mannarkad.
• It is surrounded with lots of trees, you will feel you are staying in middle of a jungle.
• Has ample of parking space for 3-4 cars to fit in. 

  

  Spices Home Stay

• Also has a small lawn outside to sit. 
• The entrance has a dining cum living room with TV and kitchen attached. 
• Every room has attached bathroom with two cots, mattresses, pillows and towels. I think you can request for general toiletries, as I always carry my stuffs so I didn't ask for it. 
• Home stay had a dedicated cook but during our stay he was on vacation so caretaker took the charge of cooking too. Very talkative fellow but knew to cook Kerala food well.
• Most of the home stays have the fixed rates which included food charges too but this one was a bit different it had room charge plus the food charges separately. 

  

  Idli with Coconut Chatani and Avial 

  
  
• The only thing which pinched me was the home-stay had food changes bit on expensive side. One time meal costed same as the luxurious buffet charges in few of the good restaurant in Bangalore and compare to those restaurants this didn't have as many variety of foods in it's menu. 
• The owner was in town so he showed us his rubber estate in the evening. It was a good walk through rubber trees. Passed through plantation like jack-fruit, pineapple, cashew-nuts etc. 
• My Ratings: ★★★✩✩

Few Tips:

• Go to SVNP during season, there will be rush but you will be able to experience much better flora and fauna of the place.
• Before starting 5km trek in Silent Valley National park, prepared yourself such a way that you don't come in contact with leeches. Don't forget to keep salt with you, and do wear shoes don't go on sleeper thinking its just 5km trek.
• Food and water is  not available in SVNP, so pack some food while going there. 
• Malampuzha Dam & Garden is a good place for a full day picnic with kids. If time permits book the taxi which takes you from one end of the bridge to another end and back.
• Finding good hygienic food near Malampuzha Garden is a big issue, so better get your own food if you are too fussy about food like me :P 

  

  Kerala Cuisine - nom nom

• While booking Home-stay ask for each and every minute charge details, so that you don't get surprise at the end. Keep details in writings, specially while booking home stays which says charges are minimal, you can cook your own food or customize the menu and what not. They do charge extra. 

The Overall rating for the trip ★★★✩✩ 

Cellular Jail - Port Blair

Cellular Jail, also known as Kala Pani is the colonial prison from British era where many prisoners including political prisoners were kept during the struggle of India's Independence. This building has 3 wings which meets at the center, and each wing has three stories. It was said to have 7 wings before which have been demolished now for the sake of the development in the city. Now this place is the national memorial monument and available for visitor to visit with a nominal entrance fee from morning 09:00 am till 04:45 pm in the evening.

To the left side of the entrance gate there is a museum which shows -

• The struggle of India's Independence through pictures. 
• Also has several picture of known and unknown prisoners with their stories and the crime for which they had been put inside the jail. 
• Stories of political prisoners.
• The collection is so huge that many of us may not have heard of their names who are alive only in history now. 

The museum is extended to the right side of the entrance gate and has -

• The miniature version of original Cellular Jail.

  

  Miniature version of Cellular Jail

• The birth & construction story of Cellular Jail. 
• The stories of several dreaded jailers. 
• The story of prisoners life.
• Coins released on Cellular Jail.
• Coins released during birth century of Netaji.
• Uniform of convict officials.
• Neck ring & uniform of political prisoners.
• Lock & Keys used in jail.
• Helmet used by Japanese soldiers during 1942- 1945.
• And several other things which had been used by the jailers and prisoners. 

Cellular Jail premises has several things to see, below are the few of them which I could remember - 

• 

  Corridor

  Cells - Each wing had three floor, and each wing had around 70+ cells. Each cell had a small window at the top of the wall from where only a small ray of light could come in. The prisoners were kept inside the cell without providing any light, they had to rely on the ray of light which used to come from the window. Few cells had no windows or doors at all, hence there was no way a light could pass inside the cells. Prisoners had been kept in those cells for several days and being tortured until they broke-down themselves.

• Condemned Cell - The cell where prisoners sentenced to death spent last days of their life. The Gallows can seen from Condemned Cells.

• Gallows - At a time they used to execute 3 people together.

• Models depicting the rituals one had to follow before the execution.

• Models depicting prisoners life - There were models which showed the typical prisoner's life in

  

  Gallows

   prison.

• Oil Mill - Known as Kohlu (The oil girding). The most difficult and hardest work, which caused the death of some. Each prisoner was given around 15-20 coconuts to get the oil. Starting from peeling the shell to taking out the oil from coconut was an step to step process which was done manually by each prisoners. The hardest step was grinding oil as it required the physical strength and the kind of food the prisoners used to get it was nearly impossible to perform this tasks. If someone was not able to finish the assigned tasks they used to get the punishment and also the extra work.    

• Flogging Frame - Used for giving the punishments to the prisoners, where they were tied to a frame with their hands, waist and legs tied and a whip is used for beating them.

• Cross Bar Fetters - This consisted of the iron rings around the neck & ankles and a bar which kept the two legs apart. Prisoners had a horrified life inside the cells of Cellular Jail.  

Once done with museum, the path takes you to a huge grounds where chairs are arranged in several rows and columns for people to sit and see the Sound & Light Show which airs almost everyday at 06:00 pm and 07:15 pm. We attended the 06:00 pm show which was in Hindi and was very informative. We were able to connect to the jail premises which we had covered in the afternoon. 

The show used the big bo tree near the sit outs and the center of the 7 wings of the Cellular Jail to narrate the story. During the show it covered the history of Andaman and Cellular jail. Told about the few important events which took place in Cellular Jail, which were also among the few unforgettable turning points in Indian history.

Sit outs for Sound & Light show

Taking pictures and videos during the show was prohibited, so I don't have anything which revels the glimpse of the show, but I would must say that overall it was a very good experience and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would highly recommend people to attend this show if they happen to be in Port Blair.