kerala tourism some more places

                                                        I sometimes feel i should be banned from travelling outside my beautiful state . Because inspite of being a keralite i have still not finished seeing all the nice places in kerala . Each time i am in my homestate i realise that ...

Just a few months back on a lazy afternoon my cousin suggested we make a bike trip in a royal enfield to an elephant sanctuary . This was at trivandrum and i was surprised that such a place even existed near trivandrum having gone to places like kovalam beach and ponmudi hills n number of times . In a red thunderbird we went out and there it was quite close to trivandrum there was an elephant sanctuary surrounded by forest and a lake near kattakkada .  We saw baby elephants rescued from a mountain stream , wild elephant training place where it is converted into "non-wild "elephant . We had elephant back rides and there was even facility to feed elephant for a small fee .  The point is kerala has at least two elephant sanctauries one at kodanad and another near trivandrum .

Then there is Ravi Karunakaran Museum the worlds largest private collection of Swaroski crystals .  To tell the truth i am not a big art connoisseur ,But i was spellbound by the magnificient collection of swarowski crystals in beautiful colours and they told me some are costing more than 3 lakh a piece . The museum has hundreds of these some of them rare and exclusive to them . In addition the museum has an ivory collection and kerala antique collection . All this worth more than 20 crores + belongs to one family . The museum is at alleppey .

Kerala is full of beautiful beaches but i like especially the thalassery beach , the poovar beach and alleppey beach and kovalam beach . Of these the poovar beach is a little secluded and has rocks which gives it a scenic beauty . Maybe because i am a mountain person i like this combination but im sure you will like it too especially since its far from the maddening crowd unlike the busy beach of shankumukhom in trivandrum .

And yes i forgot ... travel north and go with the history textbook in your mind and you will step into the place where the first European set foot on india . Yes , Vasco da gama landed at Kappad beach north of calicut . If you are a history fan its a must visit but dont expect to see anything spectacular there other than a small monument marking the event . And of course have a coffee at the nearby hotel . I liked the place maybe because i am a history fan ..

There are countless other places in kerala i am yet to explore .....I am not paid a penny to market kerala tourism ( i swear :) )  but i think for 1/10 th of the cost of a european tour you can take back enough memories visiting kerala ... Or for people like me 1 litre of petrol on a enfield bike ... Welcome to Gods own country  ...