Kodaikanal Experience: On 23 may 2010, myself, my wife and mother made an unforgettable tour of kerala (Munnar, Kochin) ,Tamilnadu (Kodaikanal) & AP(Tirupati, Balaji) for 8 days. On 23rd we reached directly to Kodaikanal road railway station just 75km from Kodaikanal hill station by nav yug express 6688, wkly train coming from jammu tawi. We booked AC Innova for 6 days from kumar taxi, Cochin, approved by tourism of Govt of India. Very nice peoples, especially, Mr Ajit,09446323558 who asked for the entire payment after completion of the tour(no advance, unbelievable). Our driver Siddharth was very caring, mannered and most importantly could speak hindi fluently (because language is a big problem there). We booked hotel spring valley09842027526 in Kodai, 2km near to main market, nice hotel, good room service, worth the money. The places we will love to visit again are pillar rocks(always fog present), Kodai lake (though not maintained properly), Bryant park near to lake & Chettiar park (for beautiful flowers), Coakers walk (2 km jogging path in between fog ) & Kurinji temple. Nothing special for shopping we found there than home made chocolates. Don’t forget to have ghee roast dosa in sarabhavan bhavan (famous)..we stayed for 3nights in Kodai and then moved to Munnar, 190km, the journey took around 6hrs, the scenic beauty was mind blowing, the lush green tea gardens and the pre-monsoon clouds going near to and touching us. Do take a break for few min in gap view, heavenly scenery. In Munnar we stayed for 2nights and visited Ervikulam national park (endangered tahr goats & Anamudi, highest peak in Kerala 9000ft) and Mattupattu dam (enjoy speed boating there) & top station. Then on 5th day, we moved for Cochin. On the way, enjoyed Cheeyapara waterfall & covered 130 km in 5.30hrs, first visited Bolgatty palace, now KTDC resort (excellent greenery and view of backwater) & then enjoyed golden moments of 2 hrs in golden beach, the Cherai beach 35 km away from city (very clean beach & minimally crowded). Lastly,we took Himsagar exp. at 8.40 pm from Ernakulam station and reached Tirupati next day morning 9am. We had made internet booking at TTD guest house, kaustabh in Tirumala & after having shregra darshan ticket Rs 300/person, had darshan of lord balaji in 3 hrs. Then on the same night, we left for Nagpur, our home town by Kerala exp.
Food, sight-seeing and shopping: Kodai lake
Activities & things to do: boating
Travel tips, How to reach, travel warnings etc: language problem
