Wednesday, December 26, 2018

BUDGET TRAVEL TO INCREDIBLE INDIA: DEPARTURE FROM COCHIN DOMESTIC AIRPORT, KERALA

July 11, 2018
MABUHAY!

This is a photo and video journal of our budget travel to incredible India featuring our departure from Cochin Domestic Airport, Kerala.
BIDDING FAREWELL TO OUR HOST FAMILY
Our stay at Pastor Boaz home in Palakkad, Kerala is only brief but I'm really grateful that they treated us not just a guest but part of their family. From our arrival at Palakkad Junction till our train ride to Aluva going to Cochin Airport, Pastor Boaz accompanied us and makes sure that we are safe in our trip. This is why we continue to travel because we strongly believe in the goodness of humanity.

Our very nice host family, Pastor Boaz (R), Aksa (M) and his wife (L)

Our souvenir picture with our host family

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TUK-TUK RIDE FROM MYLAMPULLY TO PALAKKAD JUNCTION
During our stay in Kerala, occasionally it rains very hard. We see in the news that there are places in Kerala already damaged by heavy rains and floods. We are a little bit worried that our flight to Mumbai will be canceled. But with a little prayer, we keep our hope high. We woke up 5am then prepared ourselves for our departure. Pastor Boaz already arranged a tuk-tuk cab to drive us from Mylampully to Palakkad Junction Railway station.
After saying farewell to our host family and taking some souvenir photos, we took the tuk-tuk ride while it was still dark and the rain is continually pouring. Pastor Boaz, accompanied us to the train station.

Our travel map itinerary

TRAIN RIDE FROM PALAKKAD TO ALUVA STATION
Pastor Boaz booked us to a superfast train for us to make it at 10am to Cochin Domestic Airport. Superfast train skips some stations and the speed is a little bit faster than the ordinary trains.

Train Ride to Palakkad Junction, Kerala

ARRIVAL AT ALUVA TRAIN TERMINAL STATION

Arriving at Aluva station, we bought 2 packs of vegetable and egg curry as our lunch.

Crows are very common in train stations

Train Ride from Palakkad Junction to Aluva Station, Kerala

AUTO-RICKSHAW (TUK-TUK) RIDE TO COCHIN DOMESTIC AIRPORT
We hired an auto rickshaw cab driver to take us to Cochin Domestic Airport Terminal. It is around 10 kilometers away from Aluva train station. He asked for 120 rupees for our fare.

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Auto Rickshaw Ride to Cochin Domestic Airport

DEPARTURE TO MUMBAI
We arrived at Cochin Domestic Terminal at 10 am, 2 hours earlier from our flight to Mumbai at 12pm. It is still raining and we are a little bit worried that our flight to Mumbai might be canceled.

Cochin Domestic Airport terminal

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Waiting at the Check-in Lounge

We are booked at GO AIR

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Our boarding pass

After checking in, while waiting for our flight at the departure gate lounges, we watched in the TV news how badly Kerala was damaged by heavy rains. Some parts of Mumbai were affected too. But our local friend, Arvind, who is waiting in Mumbai Airport said that the weather is fine now in Mumbai. our airplane took-off just in time.