The Three Muskeneers is a story of 3 cousins with an annual ritual of taking a vacation together. All 3 of us are the only child of our respective parents and we’re actually second cousins, but the bond has grown over the years due to our closeness in age, our siblinglessness and of course these yearly vacations we’ve been going on for over nearly a decade now!
3 years ago, we took a trip to Kerala. It was a 4-day vacation planned around Dussehra. Kerala is huge so in this trip we did Thiruvananthapuram, Varkala and a few places around these locations.
My cousin and I took a night bus from Bangalore to Thiruvananthapuram – to be honest I don’t vouch for this because our flight back was so much more comfortable. The bus takes 11 hours and for reasons unknown to us it rerouted to Kanyakumari in the morning which further increased the journey by about 2 hours!
From Thiruvananthapuram we drove down to Varkala where we stayed at the InDa Hotel. It’s a lovely hotel with an earthy feel to it. Breakfast wasn’t included as part of our stay, but they do have a restaurant on-site called InDa Café and the food is delicious – my personal favorites were the Masala Chai and Scrambled Eggs. We’d all met after a whole year so there was a lot of chit-chat and jokes and I’m constantly just laughing every time I spend time with these two.
Varkala is a town by the Arabian Sea so there are opportunities of water sports and activities here. I’m an adrenaline junkie like that so I took a surf lesson by the beach. After multiple falls, I managed to stay still and surf for a certain distance which was pretty decent for day 1. They don’t really throw you in the deep end right at the start – the techniques are first practiced on the shore and once you know the beats of it, is when you go into the waters.
Less than an hour away from Varkala is the world’s largest bird structure – Jatayu Earth's Center. As per Hindu Mythology, the bird Jatayu fell in this very spot in Kerala during his fight with Raavan who had abducted Sita. The sculpture is made atop a hill so there’s a cable car ride to it and the scenery with the massive sculpture amidst the green is a sight worth making a visit for. Tickets are not sold online so you have to go in person and wait a while until you can get on a cable car. And when I say a while, it can take about an hour. But we also visited on a Sunday post 5 pm, so maybe don’t do that! Alternatively, they also have the option of a walkway up to the sculpture.
Back in Thiruvananthapuram, we head to Turf Café and my drink recommendation here is the Peach Iced Tea which was so refreshing!
On our last day in Thiruvananthapuram, we went to the Indian Space Research Organization’s Museum. The entry is only allowed for Indian Nationals, and you have to reserve a slot in advance. Security is super tight – no phones/food allowed inside. But you can’t not visit while in the area – especially if there’s a rocket launch! The official website vssc.gov.in shows upcoming rocket launch schedules so if you can plan a visit around that, you can always flex about having seen a live rocket launch.
We ended the trip with delectable Podi Idlis at the O Café. One of the conversations we’d had on this trip back in 2022 was about our comfort food being Ganji-Uppad which is boiled rice and pickles, a staple home-cooked food of Mangalorean cuisine; and we equated our relationship with each other to be just that. A group of people with whom you find utmost comfort and can truly be yourself with! And in spirit of that philosophy, share this article with your comfort food – the friends/family who know you best and may this serve as a reminder for y’all to take a vacation together!
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