I’ve been wanting to visit Kerala, India for years. Ever since my first trip to India back in 2018, I’ve gotten tons of requests to tour this gorgeous state in southern India. In January of 2020, I finally got the opportunity to do it! Come along with me as I begin my epic, 12-day journey through God’s Own Country with a flight on Qatar Airways to Trivandrum in Kerala, India!
I began my journey at the place that has become my second home, Miami International Airport. I was so excited to fly back to India for the fourth time in two years! I’d first fly on Qatar Airways from Miami to Doha and then connect to Trivandrum. I’d have 12 full days on the ground, plus two days traveling. I couldn’t wait to eat some Keralian cuisine, see the attractions, and visit the attractions!
I boarded my 13-hour flight on a Qatar Airways A350. It has a 3-3-3 configuration, offers tons of leg room, and has tons of entertainment options, including the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. They also have tons of amazing food options, including an Indian one!
I love that Qatar Airways gives you a menu with all of their meal options listen in it. They also have cold, hot, and alcoholic beverages, appetizers, main entrees and more. I went with the aloo gobi and wanted to go with the paneer bhurji for brunch later. I was going all-Indian on this flight!
The aloo gobi is basmati rice with palak dal. It looked so good and came with a potato salad. I loved the combination of the rice, potatoes, spinach, dal, and spices. It was so good! It was similar to a biryani and so unbelievably tasty! Qatar Airways never disappoints with the food! It’s always top-notch!
With about 12 hours to go, I kicked back with Angry Birds 2 and went to sleep! Nine hours later, I woke up refreshed despite there being lots of turbulence. It was time for brunch: paneer bhurji with chana masala and fried aloo tikki. It’s one of my favorite things to eat in India! It’s basically cottage cheese with chickpeas and tomatoes. It was a little spicy, just the way I like it!
Then, I went with Once Upon A Time in Hollywood to finish out my last three hours. After that, we arrived in Doha, Qatar after a long, 13-hour flight. It wasn’t a smooth flight at all. I was hoping to get into a business class lounge using my American Airlines platinum statues.
There are two different business class lounges at Hamad International Airport. I went with the smaller, lower-tier one and got some lentils, tabbouleh, and a type of eggplant mash. It was really delicious.
I chilled in the lounge for two hours and then boarded my flight to Trivandrum. I made a new friend on the flight and had some cognac with him. We had a four-hour flight ahead of us and would arrive at 2:20 a.m. The staff onboard was so nice! The flight attendant brought us lots of chocolates!
And just like that, I was back in India for the fourth time! I was beyond excited and couldn’t wait to begin my adventures in Trivandrum in just four hours. I headed through Immigration and got my bags. Then, I got an Uber at the packed (and super hot) arrival area. Uber drivers here usually ask for cash. My ride cost me 200 rupees, or just $2.77 USD.
My first impression of Trivandrum was that it was hot and felt like a jungle! There were very few lights on the streets. We arrived at my Airbnb, which was down a tight alleyway. Luckily, my Uber driver helped me with my bags and helped me find the apartment! It was 4:20 in the morning, so I had enough time to grab a quick shower and unpack before my adventure truly began!
I hope you enjoyed coming with me to God’s Own Country, Kerala, India! If you did, please give this video a thumbs up and leave a comment below. Also, please subscribe to my YouTube channel and click the notification bell so you don’t miss any of my travel/food adventures!
My name is David Hoffmann. For the last decade, I have been traveling around the world in search of unique culture, food, and history! Since starting David’s Been Here in 2008, I have traveled to over 1,100 destinations in 76 countries, which I welcome you to check out on my YouTube channel, travel blog, and social media sites.
I focus a great deal on food and historical sites, as you probably have seen! I love to experience the different flavors that each destination has to offer, from casual street food to gourmet restaurant dining. I’m also passionate about learning about the local history and culture.
P.S. Thank you for watching my videos and subscribing!
And that's it guys, we're here back in India.
Fourth time, so excited.
God's own country, here we go.
What's up everyone, this is David Hoffman
from David's Binia.
Coming at you live from Miami International Airport.
Today I'm so excited because I'm flying back to India
for my fourth time in two years.
Guys, I'm thrilled.
This time I'm going super deep south
to the state of Kerala, the 23rd largest state in India.
It boasts 33 million people
and it has hill stations, backwaters, wildlife,
coffee, coconuts, cashews, and spices.
And yeah, so today what I'm doing is I'm flying from Miami
all the way to Doha, 13 hour flight with Qatar Airways,
the best airline in the world.
And then from there I connect,
I have a three hour connection,
and then I have another like four hour flight
to Trivandrum, which is in southern Kerala.
So I'm doing like a 12 day, full 12 days.
I'm doing 14 days total,
but two days to fly and fly back, right?
So it's 12 days on the ground.
I'm going from Trivandrum all the way up to Kozhikala.
I mean, these names are so like difficult in Kerala,
but yeah, I'm so excited.
There's so much amazing things we're gonna see.
We're gonna eat lots of food,
we're gonna see lots of attractions,
and I cannot wait to explore the backwaters.
Are you guys ready to come with me to Kerala?
Let's go.
Thank you for the flight, have a good trip.
Thank you, my friend.
So we just boarded the flight
and we're flying from Miami to Doha,
13 hour flight on Qatar Airways A350.
It's a three, three, three configuration.
What I love about this airline is the economy classes,
the leg room, it's unlimited entertainment,
and it's delicious food,
and every single meal has a one Indian option.
So it's either like a biryani, a paneer,
it's really, really good.
And also about the entertainment,
they have every single MCU movie.
So Marvel Cinematic Universe movie from Iron Man 1
all the way to Spider-Man Far From Home.
I love the MCU so I can watch,
you know, I can repeat watching these.
My brother would love this.
He would just watch all of them probably.
But yeah, guys, I'm super excited.
13 hour flight all the way to Doha.
Let's go to India.
So one thing I love about Qatar Airways economy class
is they give you this menu,
all the different options for your meals.
So they tell you exactly what's on the menu.
And, you know, for beverages, we have wine, spirits,
cocktails, beer, brandy, cold beverages, hot beverages.
And then we also have to the mains for our dinner
is like you have an appetizer, like potato salad.
You also have some mains,
the chicken kasbah, braised beef barbecue, aloo gobi.
I think I'm supposed to go with that Indian, right?
And then for brunch, when we're landing,
we have chicken tassus, scrambled eggs, and paneer bhurji,
which I'll probably go for later.
We just arrived in Doha.
Long third most of the flight was really, really long.
Can't say it was a smooth flight at all.
But right here, we just touched down.
We have Sapphire with One World.
So I kind of have access to at least one
of the business class lounges.
I know there's two, there's one really good one
and that's decent, but it's not like top, top.
I think I have access to that one,
what we'll see right now.
Let's go.
So like I said before,
there's two different business class lounges
here in Qatar Airport, Hamad International Airport.
And I went to the one that's like the lower tier one.
The other one's like really amazing.
It's like gold, huge place.
This one's a lot smaller.
The reason I got access is because I'm platinum
with American Airlines or Sapphire with One World.
And right now I'm getting some food.
I have here like some lentils, some tabbouleh,
and then some mutaba, I think it's like an eggplant mash.
Really delicious.
And this is the business class lounge
that I came to last time,
with my friend.
You can take showers here.
There's a sleeping area.
There's a family area.
There's lots of food.
There's wine, unlimited wine, drinks and water.
I'm getting some water.
I'm not drinking anymore.
Like for 2020, I don't want to drink that much alcohol.
I'm like done with it.
Especially when you're traveling, you dehydrate a lot.
So it's better just to like drink water and that's it.
I only have two hours left before boarding.
So I'm just going to relax here,
eat some food, drink some water,
maybe roam the internet, you know, free wifi.
And that's it.
Oh man, I'm super tired.
These 13 hour flights to Qatar are intense,
but it's the only way to get here.
Qatar Airways is the state owned flag carrier of Qatar.
It was established in the year 1993
and officially began operations in 1994.
Its home base is Hamad International Airport
and they serve over 150 destinations worldwide,
including Rwanda, Kuala Lumpur, Edinburgh,
Perth, Belgrade, Addis Ababa, Miami,
Istanbul, Dallas, Zagreb, Doha, Amsterdam and many more.
They have a fleet of 200 aircrafts
and employ over 43,000 people.
And that's it guys.
The Business Class Lounge is over.
I spent two hours there.
I ate, I drank water and yeah, I roamed the internet.
It's basically what you do there.
You're just very relaxing.
You chill.
If you have your family, you go to the family area.
There's a big space there.
If you want to sleep, if you have a long layover,
go to the sleeping area.
All right guys, let's go board the flight.
That's it.
After waiting for about 40 minutes,
we're boarding the flight.
Here we go.
I made a new friend here.
Yeah.
What's your name?
My name is Raju Varghese.
I'm Doha.
No, he's from Kerala.
Okay.
I'm from Kerala also.
We're drinking some cognac too.
Okay.
How do you say cheers?
Cheers.
So we're traveling from Doha to Triandrum.
Triandrum.
Takes four hours.
Triandrum.
It takes four hours.
We left at like 7.20.
We're going to get there at 2.20 in the morning.
As you can see, this is the map.
That's it guys.
We're here back in India.
Fourth time.
So excited.
God's own country.
Here we go.
I am beyond excited guys.
I mean, this is going to be amazing.
It's 2.30 in the morning
and I'm starting my journey in four hours.
Like literally in four hours,
I'm getting picked up and going to eat some food.
It's crazy.
All right, let's go through immigration,
get our bags and go to the Airbnb.
Wait for this guy.
Yeah.
You're my buddy dude.
Yes.
Hey, thanks for the cognac.
Yup.
Thanks for guitar always.
All right.
So good thing is that here in God's own country,
they have Uber.
So I'm getting Uber right now.
I'm just waiting for him right here at the arrival area.
This place is packed right now.
It's three in the morning and it's so packed.
Super hot.
Wow.
It is really hot.
International Terminal Pidipandram.
Hey, how you doing?
I'm good.
You're good, you're good?
Yeah, I'm good.
It fits, right?
Yeah.
Backpack comes with me.
Thank you.
And one thing you have to know is that Uber here,
most of the times the guys ask for cash
and this ride has cost me like 200 rupees,
which I don't know exactly what that is right now,
but it's really, really affordable.
I think it was like 35,000 rupees is like $500.
So this is like five bucks, something like that.
First impressions here in this city,
in God's own country is that it's really hot.
Feels like a jungle out here.
Very little lights.
We're going on a one way street right now.
And yeah, I'm tired.
Like I'm super, super tired.
It's three 30 in the morning.
I started my day off in about three hours.
We're going to hit up breakfast in three hours.
Crazy, crazy.
But I mean, that's the only way to do it.
If I was to sleep in till like noon or something,
I would waste half the day.
No point.
I only got a day and a half here.
So I have to make it count.
All right, so this Airbnb is a little complex.
I actually have to go through this like tiny alley
to get there.
And my, thank God my Uber driver is helping me
cause I have a big bag.
And there's actually a fire like in the middle of the alley.
My friend, there's a fire right there.
Oh my God.
Don't come here at three 30 in the morning.
It's actually like four in the morning now, but wow.
I think it's right here to the left.
He told me we're going to pass by dogs.
They're going to be barking like crazy.
Over there, here they are.
It's that one, right?
And that's it guys.
We are here in Tirebuburam in Kerala.
God's own country.
I am so pumped.
That was a super long day.
Something like 20 plus hours.
I still have the first flight like eight hours.
Great food, lots of leg room.
I mean, I really relaxed.
I love Qatar Airways.
You guys know that already.
I've done like, I don't even know how many journeys.
I think this is my sixth time going round trip.
Went to Armenia, went to China.
I went to India four times so far.
So yeah, a lot of time flying with Qatar Airways.
Now it's four 10 in the morning.
I gotta get picked up like at six 30 in the morning.
So what am I doing right now?
Probably unpack, take a shower
and go look for some coffee or something.
Cause I'm really, really tired.
I'm excited though.
I cannot wait.
You know, when you get to India, you just get so pumped.
Adrenaline starts flowing.
You just get ready.
It's like, oh man, I'm going to eat a dosa
in two and a half hours.
I'm beyond excited about that.
And I'm so, so, so happy I came to Kerala.
Kerala, God's own country.
So I hope you're as excited as I am
to explore God's own country.
I have 12 jam-packed days doing a road trip
from here all the way to Calicut.
Man, this is going to be an amazing adventure.
Lots of food, lots of attractions, lots of wildlife.
I mean, the scenery out here is incredible.
It's really hot.
It's winter and I can't even think
what it would be like in August.
It'd probably be like scorching 50 Celsius, 120 degrees
but it's all good.
God's own country.
Come here in the winter for sure.
And guys, if you love this video,
please give me a thumbs up.
Leave me a comment below and subscribe to my channel
for more awesome travel content.
I'll see you in the next travel food adventure
in God's own country.
Peace.
