Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Monday, July 30, 2007

Mansions at Kazhakootam

Last Sunday I was looking for a mansion in and around kazhakootam and I thought posting it here will be useful to everyone. I was basically looking for a mansion that is clean and close to techno park, obviously! I started my hunt by morning and the first place I visited is a mansion closeby to kazhakootam market. To give a more apt landmark kazha kootam market is behind Arya's hotel, which is again closer to the kazha kootam bus stop. You take the short road (galli) after the Arya's hotel and take a left to reach this place. The mansion is on right hand side. This is a average lodge where they provide rooms for monthly rental. The rent is 2500 without tv and they can give you tv with additional charge of 500 bugs. I did not like this very much so I proceeded with my hunt. By the way the name of the mansion is Al Arif.
Next I visited "Royal Guest House" which is little new and these guys charge 2500 as well. They do not have rooms for single person but they were willing to give the double room for reduced price. The actual price was 3000 for two people and they were willing to give it to me for 2500. This is again mediocre but not very great as well. I did not like the environment and the ambience over there. Moreover the construction of the rooms were not too great. But one thing about this place is there were steel cupboards for each and every room. Also the rooms in the first floor were cleaner than the ones on ground floor. I almost decided to go with a room there incase if I did not find anything better. You just go straight from the aryaa's hotel for 400 metres and you will see a board on the left which says "Royal Guest House".
Now I thought it's better to ask someone who already lives in a mansion. So I did call my colleague Arun Hari to know where he stays. He told that he stays about Aryaa's hotel and the rent is 1250. Oh gosh, I rushed to take a look at that. These rooms were above hotel Aryaa's and they served for the rent you pay. As it is little cheaper than other ones, the quality was also the same. It was not very clean and there was kind of a foody smell all the time since it is above a hotel. I also did not like the ambience very much. But if you are looking for the cheapest one, I think this is the place. It also has easy access to bus stop (just in front of the mansion + Aryaa's hotel). But if you are too much concerned about cleanliness like me, this is not the right place.
There was a kind of chaining reaction that happened after this visit which lead to two more mansions. I was talking to the guy at hotel Aryaa's and he pointed to me a bakery just opposite to the hotel. The bakery name is "Pravan" and they have rooms for rent too! You should learn from these people that you should not invest all your money in one business, yes he does real-estate is addition to his bakery business. K lets get to the stuff. These guys have rooms for 2000 rupees and they are pretty decent. All the rooms that I mentioned above and this one had attached toilet. The room was ok and it is just behind the bakery. They have a couple of rooms over there and it was not so neat. The advantage over other rooms is that it seemed little cheaper than other mediocre rooms.
Finally I visited "Indhra Prastha" - the place I liked the best of all. The place was so neat and calm. It is right opposite to the kerala electricity board. You go straight from Aryaa's hotel towards the direction of technopark and you will see this "Prastha" on right side. It is a very neat place and I love it. I parked my friends bike over there and went in to inquire about the rent. I was thinking it should be around 3000 bugs for a single bedroom. But to my surprise it was only 2000 bugs. The place was very *neat* and they had all the facilities that you need. They have a common tv, laundry service with ironing too. I liked the place very much. I will say this is the best of all that I have visited, which is cost efficient and close to the technopark. Its a very nice compounded environment.

Following will be my ratings (only for mansions that I visited):
Indra Prastha - number one
Royal Guest House - two
Pravan Bakery House - three
Aryaa's upstairs - four (for cost effectiveness)
Al Arif - five

By the way I decided to stay back at the home where my good friend Arun lives!!