On my recent trip to Manali, I stayed at a magical property, one of the prettiest in the hill station – Johnson Lodge. Located between the Mall Road and Old Manali, it’s the perfect place to stay, especially if you’re looking to explore Manali on foot. The cafe and bar serves delicious food, I loved their English breakfast with eggs, sausages, bacon and mushroom. The cottage rooms are super comfortable and we got fresh logs to light up the fireplace. In the summer months the staff even arrange a bonfire outside in the garden if you’re in a large group. There’s a cosy little spa in the corner, inside which lives Tango – the adorable cocker spaniel at Johnson’s. If you’re looking to visit Manali at any time of the year, this place is a perfect ten on location, rooms, activities and most importantly food!
The Johnsons Cafe and Hotel next door is also a great option to stay as well as eat at. Post a ten minute walk from the hotels towards old Manali, one can find lovely little stores selling Kinnauri and Kullu shawls and traditional Himachali woolen handicrafts. On the other side, the Mall Road is hardly at a distance of a few hundred meters with its iconic Chinese Tibetan restaurant Chopsticks.
The room tariffs at both the Johnsons properties are extremely affordable at under 4k for 2. If you book the cottage which can accommodate upto 6 people, the tariff is about 6-9k.
I will write more about food & activities in Manali in some of my future posts. Happy traveling!
After a hectic but wonderful two days in Pondicherry (coming up in the next few posts), I was very excited for the next leg of my holiday – Kerala. Munching on delicious vadas picked up along the beautiful East Coast Road, I scrolled through some last minute suggestions on Things to Do in Kerala, as we sped off to the Chennai Airport for our flight to Kochi.
ECR, Tamil Nadu
We almost missed the flight, thanks to underestimating
morning rush hour traffic in Chennai, but the mismanaged over congested Chennai
airport ensured an inevitable flight delay, much to our relief.
Two hours later, I was huddled in my window seat looking
down at the beautiful Nilgiris and winding backwaters as we commenced our
descent into Kerala. The Cochin International Airport is a charming building,
red roofed with a distinct colonial influence in the architecture. The journey
from the airport to our hotel in Willingdon Island was long but covered most of
the newer parts of urban Kochi. With shopping malls, commercial buildings and
even an emerging metro rail service, Kochi is akin to any other nascent
metropolitan city in India.
We checked into the Trident hotel in Kochi, a beautiful new
property, lush and cosy with a pool between gardens of palm trees. Willingdon
Island is a quiet and serene artificial island also home to the Port of Kochi
and the naval base. Apart from the Trident, a few other hotels are also located
in Willingdon Island. The Fort Cochin Seafood Specialty Restaurant in the CGH
Earth Casino Hotel serves delicious preparations of crab and squid. There is
also the majestic Taj Malabar with it’s popular restaurant Rice Boat serving
varieties of meen moilee (traditional Kerala fish curry) with portions of fresh
catch of the day! It is a lovely spot to spend an afternoon by the Arabian Sea
over local food and glasses of peach Bellini!
Trident Hotel, Kochi
The Rice Boat, Taj Malabar
Fort Cochin Seafood Specialty Restaurant, CGH Earth
We were visiting Kochi during the opening week of the Kochi
Muziris Biennale, the largest contemporary arts festival in South Asia. Fort
Kochi is the venue for this popular event and that’s where we spent the majority
of our time in Kochi.
Fort Kochi is the older part of the city reflecting the
various cultural influences that have shaped Kochi over the centuries – Chinese
fishing nets, Portugese churches dating back to the 1600s, the Matancherry
Palace built by the Dutch and the quaint Jew Town with the synagogue and spice
shops. The Biennale is hosted at various venues scattered across Fort Kochi
with its focal point at the Aspinwall House, a trading warehouse of the
erstwhile East India Company, now a sea-facing heritage building.
Matancherry Palace, Kochi
Cafes, restaurants, art galleries, bookstores, libraries,
backpackers hostels, colonial hotels all form part of the vibrant bustling
landscape of Fort Kochi. Some of my favourites were the Kashi Art Gallery &
Café, Fort House Hotel, Old Harbour Hotel and the Mocha Art House Café Jew
Town. Princess Street in Fort Kochi is a must visit for literature aficionados
if you’re looking for old bookstores and reading rooms. There are walls with
art and quotes from Albert Camus even!
A bookstore in Princess Street , Fort Kochi
One of the most fun things to do in Kochi is the ferry ride.
There are regular public ferries connecting the three islands – Ernakulam,
Willingdon Island and Fort Kochi. We rode the ferry from Fort Kochi to Vypeen
island in just 3 rupees! If you are looking to spend an evening with chai and
banana pakoras on a silent seaside, the Puthuvypu Lighthouse beach in Vypeen is
a lesser known alternative to the popular Cherai beach. It is a fifteen minute
auto ride away from the Vypeen jetty.
The ferry ticket from Fort Kochi jetty to Vypeen Island
Puthuvypu Lighthouse Beach, Vypeen
There is a lot more to Kochi which we could not cover in a
span of just two days, but it is the perfect gateway to Kerala! In my next post
I will write about our adventures in the backwaters of Kumarakom and Allepey.
Happy reading
Rajeshwari Sahay 