In this article
Intro
As I sit in the departure lounge at Heathrow Airport patiently waiting for our gate to be called, I’m thinking about the trip we are about to embark on. It’s a journey we’ve talked about for so long, but, for whatever reason, haven’t got round to doing … until now.
Why we are Travelling to Southern India
It’s more than just another holiday – it’s also a quest to give some context to Mark’s family history. You see, my father-in-law and his Mum (Mark’s nan) were born in India. Mark’s grandparents married there, as did one set of great-grandparents. Some of his family are buried there. We want to see the places where they lived, where they went to school and to church, the barracks where some of them were stationed, and where they were finally laid to rest. So, this should be a trip with added poignancy and significance.
Our Itinerary
We finally decided, back in September, that we could (and indeed should) go to India for eight weeks at this time. Having secured very reasonably-priced flights, we then set about planning our itinerary. What we came up with is as follows, though we have deliberately not booked anything beyond the first few days as we wanted to give ourselves the flexibility to make changes along the way.
Our plan is:
- Fly to Cochin on 28th January
- Stay for 4 nights
- Travel by train to Coimbatore
- Stay overnight
- Travel by mountain railway to Ooty
- Stay for 2 nights
- Travel by bus to Coonoor
- Stay for 3 nights
- Go by bus to Mysore
After this point, timings become a little more vague!
- Travel by bus to Bangalore
- Go by train to Chennai
- Take the bus to Mamallapuram
- Go by bus to Tiruvannamalai
- Travel by bus to Puducherry
- Go by bus and train to Thanjavur
- Take the train to Trichy
- Go by train to Madurai
- Go by bus and auto-rickshaw to Sholai School, Kodaikanal (This is a fixed point in our trip as we are volunteering here for 2 weeks starting 27th)
- Travel by bus to Kanyakumari, the southernmost point of India
- Spend 10 days travelling back up north through Kerala, via Kovalam, Trivandrum, Varkala, Kollam, Alleppey, Kumily and Munnar.
- Travel by bus back to Fort Cochin for the final two nights of our trip.
- Fly back to Heathrow from Cochin, arriving back on March 25th.
So, that’s the plan!
I think I’m more excited about this trip than any other we’ve made in recent years. It will be interesting to look back at the end and see how far the reality of the journey deviated from the plan!
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