A couple of days at Kannur
It is said that Kerala is Gods own Country…………………Well indeed it is.
Recently in the month of April we planned a trip to Kannur (or also known as Cannanore ) which is a beautiful city in the state of Kerala.
We had not preplanned this trip. We decided to visit Kannur to attend wedding of one of our best friends who is originally from Kannur and working in Vadodara, Gujarat with us.
Ooops I forgot to tell you something more about us besides being “cupid travelers”.
We (both me and my wife) are electrical engineers by profession and working in an MNC in Vadodara, Gujarat. I am Devansh and my wife’s name is Dipika.
Now coming back to our Kannur trip.
As this trip was not preplanned we got leave only for a week. Also we had not booked tickets in advance…….which was a blunder by us.
When we tried to book tickets of AC third class all were booked and no ticket was available. Hence we decided to book in only Sleeper reservation which was not a good idea at all.
The reason was that it was 24-26 hours journey in train from Vadodara to Kannur. And as we were approaching to Kannur it was getting very humid. So humid that we were literally dripping because of sweat. I took half bath in the train itself twice -J. So friends if you are heading towards Kerala in the month of April-May and if your journey is so long of one or two days then it is worth spending money and book the tickets in Third,Second or First Class AC.
Me and my wife always believe in Value based travelling. But going in AC class towards Kerala will be a smarter choice especially during summers. (And monsoon may be)
Anyways……Now we had only 4 days with us. Two days we had kept for attending the Marriage and pre wedding functions. Another two days we had kept for exploring the city as much as we can.
One smart move that we made was to book the hotel room in advance.
We booked Mascot Beach Resort at Baby Beach in just Rs 1800 per night.( It was a non AC room ).
Again its better if you book AC Room.
We had planned this trip in a very tight and strict budget as we did not want to spend much and keep it aside for our other journeys. -;)
The hotel had a wonderful swimming pool and a good restaurant. Sadly there was no gym. Being a fitness freak I would prefer hotels with gym so that you do not have a break in your exercise routine.
Please note that Liquors / Hard Drinks are not available in this hotel and hence if you are into drinking and if you are not a teetotaler then this might be a problem for you. Though you can bring Hard Drinks from Beer and Wine shop which is just near by about 15 -20 mins walking distance. I would suggest that you buy during day time as later during night time there is very less possibility of finding a cab or an auto rickshaw.
Apart from this the hotel had really nice views of the baby beach. This beach is a rocky beach, meaning you cannot just go in and dive in at the beach. I would say that if your feet cannot touch the caressing waves of the beach then the beach loses its charm. However it offered one of the breathtaking views of the sunset where you can relax and enjoy.
We had wonderful time at the wedding. We just dropped our luggage at the hotel and our friends uncle came to pick us up. We stayed at her place during the night.
I didn’t liked the fact that no vehicles – cab or auto rickshaws were available during night time. May be because our friends house was at a remote village place.
Hence we decided to stay at our friends place. Also it is much fun staying at a home where wedding is going on.
Our first two days went into attending the wedding and on the third day we decided to roam and go places.
After dropping Dipika at the hotel I went to buy a couple of beers as I was feeling beer thirsty and so I went to buy beers .I had to walk for 15-20 minutes as I was not able to find any vehicle to the hotel.
After a couple of beers our tummies were grumbling and we headed to the hotel restaurant for dinner.
I enjoyed the dinner at the hotel as it was non-spicy. However Dipika confirmed her disapproval and swore not to have it again and like any other husband I had to obey.-;)
Next day,
I asked the hotel whether they can arrange a short tour for us.
The hotel gave us two options.
- Rs 1200 – 4 hours time and covering all the places within 40kms radius.
- Rs 2200 – 6-8 hours time and covering all the places within 110kms radius.
As we had limited time we decided to go with option 1 as we were tired and had a wonderful hangover of the wedding. So we decided to relax during the evening and have a little bit of boozing.
We asked the driver not to take us to Payyambalam beach as we had kept our second day for that beach. Its one of the best beaches the details of which I have shared later in my same post.
So first day we went to places as below:
- Muzhappilangad Beach: This is beach is the longest drive – in beach in India. Here you can literally drive your vehicles and enjoy the beautiful sunset. Though it is not good to have a dip and for bathing.
You can find more details in the below link.
- Fort St.Angelos : On the same day we went to Fort Angelo’s which was built by Portuguese and which is having great location and wonderful views of the sea. I would suggest to go in the early morning or evening to enjoy the wonderful views.
- Later on the same day we went to Arakkal Museum, Tellicherry fort and Dharmadam beach.At night we went to the hotel Blue Nile and had wine and wonderful dinner. Its a nice restaurant with a closed roof pool and dinner was besides the pool.
Second day……
The next day we went to Payyambalam beach and ohhhh god……this beach was just superb.
We bathed and bathed for 3 hours here in the morning. The feeling of the beach waves touching and caressing our feet was simply awesome. We simply laid down under the shadow of the small trees and enjoyed the warm winds. Dipika like a small kid was playing with the sands of the beach and was looking way pretty. We never came to knew that it’s been 3 hours until the blazing rays of the sun started pinching our bodies.
After having our wonderful time at the beach we headed to the hotel, had bath and went to the Capitol Mall. From there we bought different kinds of chocolates. We roamed around and had lunch at Pizza Hut and returned to the hotel. Later at evening we dipped in the pool and had wonderful photo shoot with amazing views. I had booked a full body massage at the spa to relax and unwind in Mascot Beach Resort and it was wonderful. For me I had booked full body massage @ INR 1000/- and for Dipika I had booked Head to Toe Massage ( Ayurveda Abyanga ) @ INR 1200/-.The oil that they used was Karpooradi and Dhanwantharam which has many medicinal benefits for our body. They have also other varieties of Massage like Hot stone Massage, Swedish massage and Aroma Therapy.
Take a look at the photos and hope this post will help you in near future.
You can visit Kannur and combine other places such as Wayanad, Munnar, Alleppey, Kerala Back waters – Kumarakom and Kochin.
We are sure that we will visit Kerala for the second time and combine all the places.
Another post on the blog coming soon. Meanwhile you can enjoy the pics of “A couple of days at Kannur”.
Cost of the Trip:
- Train tickets: INR 690 x 2 = INR 1382
- Hotel Room: INR 1800 ( per night ) x 4 = INR 7200
- Spa : INR 1200+INR1000 = INR 2200
- Kannur City Visit = INR 1200
- Total for Dinner/Lunch and Drinks = INR 4500 ( approx. )
- Train Tickets Return : INR 681 x 2 = INR 1362
- Total Expense for 2 people = INR 18000 ( approx. )
Me – Standing beside’s the tree. This tree seemed like a passionate lover to me who is trying to woo and offer its love to the beach and in this process swaying its branches with the help of wind.
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Dipika doing pranayama by the pool.
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About to dive in the pool.
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Dipika – Doing Yoga by the Mascot Beach resort pool. Oh man she is flexible.
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A wonderful view of the pool and the beach.
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Dipika sitting and wondering how to play the next prank on her husband -;).
Sun seemed tired of working the whole day and looked as if was about to rest on its bed laden with rocky mountains with clouds as its rug.
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We – Heading towards Payyambalam beach.
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Dipika trying Yoga by the beach.
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Me – Resting by the payyambalam beach.
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Stop or I will shoot.
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Posing at the fort.
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Relaxing on the bench.
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Remove the shades lady I am not able to see your eyes.
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At the wedding.
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| Her Hair though. - :) |
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Ok…..Enough of playing around with the tree.
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1 Comments
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