Whenever Claire and I ask for recommendations on where to travel in India, people always seem to point us in the direction of fancy 5-star spas and resorts with villas and bungalows. Extravagant places to relax and unwind. We tell them we can relax when we go back to California. Luckily, we’re both more interested in visiting the historical sites and natural offerings of “Incredible India”. When I suggested the Hogenakkal Falls, our travel agent and co-worker both tried to dissuade us with morose stories of people slipping on the rocks and drowning. We held our ground anyway and told them we had no intention of getting close enough to endanger ourselves.

So this morning at 6:00 am we started on our journey to the Hogenakkal Falls, in the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu. The falls are about 150 km, or three hours away, and get quite busy during monsoon season. The rest of the year the waterfall is just a trickle.

Once we parked, we walked through an aisle of vendors selling snacks and fried fish and chickpea fritters.

We should have worn flip flops, because at one point we had to take our shoes off to cross the river over a path made out of sand bags. Here’s the view from the top.

[vimeo 15684299]

If you go to Hogenakkal, you must go on a coracle ride. You’ll get to see much more of the river this way and it is pretty fun to ride around in a handmade wicker boat.

[vimeo 15684432]

We had a great time trekking around the falls and exploring and now that we’ve come back unscathed, maybe people will start recommending places other than spas for us. Fingers crossed.