On Friday morning, we were stunned to go downstairs for breakfast and watch news reports about massive flooding in the state of Kerala. It was so bad, the Cochin airport was closed. The roads around the state were likely to be in bad shape, and the Kumarakom resort area couldn’t be in good shape either. Yikes.
By Sunday, we learned that while the airport would likely reopen by sometime Sunday evening, the entire Kumarakom resort area was underwater. Talk about crazy. Even if we took a rescheduled flight Sunday evening or Monday, what kind of condition would the resort be? Or the roads leading to the resort? Would the roads be passable enough for us to visit my family, or vice versa?
We had a family meeting to discuss, and we decided that it wouldn’t be safe or worth it. I felt terrible that we wouldn’t be able to see my cousins – I’ve been trying to plan this visit out with my cousins for a few months now. I contemplated trying to stay with a relative instead, but I was very worried that we would be stuck somewhere in a taxi on a washed out dirt road. Or hit by more monsoon severe weather delaying our already-paid-for Delhi & Agra tour.
It wasn’t worth the risk. So we canceled the Kerala portion of our trip, and I contacted my relatives. We looked at available options with our extra 3.5 days. We decided in the end that we would spend an extra day in Bangalore, then head up to New Delhi for an extra day of sightseeing. We worked with the tour travel agency to arrange new Bangalore -> New Delhi flights, and to add a full Delhi tour day, and an extra hotel night. Instead of flying to Cochin on Sunday afternoon, we are now flying to New Delhi early Monday morning.