Gotta love the Western Ghats

So I stopped counting how many times I was close to death on the way up from Allepy to Kumily. I believe it was maybe 10-15. Indian drivers go around hairpin corners with thousand foot cliffs at full speed with the beep of a horn. Its like playing chicken but you cant even see the car around the corner. If you are really lucky then there is no other car around the corner. If as usual there is a car coming and one hits its breaks while the other speeds up in case there is a collision. I think they speed up so you feel less pain as you fly over 20 rows of packed seats through the front window to your miserable and painful death. Hopefully you will either be reincarnated as something good or your bloated body thrown in the ganges so you will spend eternity in heaven. Neither of those options appeal to my tastes right now. Anyways, back to Kumily home of the Periyar tiger reserver. There are so many tigers that most of the rangers have seen 2 or 3 in there 20 years of working there. However, there are many other wonderful animals that we did see. We stayed at this great place where from outside our garden in the tree house you could see families of striped mongoose playing in the field alongside wild boar, kingfisher birds, small deer which were really cool and of course the ever present "wild" plastic trash eating cow. Kumily is super touristy but really quiet and pleasant which is not very normal for a tourist town in India. Martin thinks its because they make so much money that they don't really need to bother you. I didn't really care because they have the second best homemade chocolate next to Bocas Del Toro in Panama. The periyar tiger reserve was nice. We saw wild bison, boars, hundreds of birds including the rare great hornbill and a whole lot of elephant shit. I have seen and stepped in more elephant shit in the last 2 days but have not even come close to seeing an elephant. We also met this really cool Aussie guy who has an architecture firm and he builds a lot of hotels and even more importantly the main cinemas in India. He has even met the Hindi bollywood god Amitabah Bacchanan which is a big deal here in India. We went on a private trek with him and a guide and it was a great time. Since Periyar I have really met a lot of great people who all have really interesting stories and lives . We got really lucky leaving Periyar and this private car was returning to Munnar and the driver wanted to pocket some extra cash as he just dropped off some tourists that paid 1400 rupees a lot of money here in India. We agreed on 100 rupees each which is only about 2.5 USD and only 1 USD more than the scary and loud bus. It was a great time and not only did he drive safely but stopped for us to take pictures and grab a mango popsicle on the way. He did try to screw us a little at the end but that is expected in India and as long as you stay stern and remember that if you raise your voice most people back off here. Munnar is beautiful. We met this Croat guy Marco while negotiating for our hotel room and asked him if he wanted to squeeze into our room. He agreed and now I have a new Euro friend. After settling in the room we were set on climbing Ana mundi the tallest point in peninsular India at about 7,000 feet. We were let down to know that the route was closed because the highly endangered mountain goat the nigliri tar was breeding. It is funny that India would close down a mountain so some goats could copulate but its ok to throw human waste wherever you please and those streets remain open. I don't think I will ever understand. Instead we decided to check out our other options and ended up meeting some relaly great people. Adi (Israel), Daniela ( Zurich, Switzerland), Morr ( Israel), and Orshka (Slovenia). We joined them on a government tour of Munnar the next day after an amazing and cheap meal at some fancy hotel. It was great to talk to such a great group from all around the world. At one point before Mor joined us each person was from a different country (I am glad that mor did eventually feel well enough to join us). We had a blast being late, running through the tea fields, going on a terrible and elephant shit filled hike of the chinnar animal reserve where we didn't even see birds and ran out of water one hour into a three hour desert hike. I love hearing what people think of the US including from Israelis that the US forced Israel into the war with Lebanon longer than it wanted, that many serbs think America was behind the Balkan war and so many other things. But the best part about traveling is that nobody cares about that stupid stuff and you just enjoy the time you spend with everyone.


Some great moments from the last few days:

Getting into a rickshaw after our dinner in Munnar and realizing that our driver was pushing the rickshaw in front of us with his foot. This may sound wierd but it got wierder because we almost went head on onto an oncoming bus or truck. But hey.... Its India. That doesn't phase anybody. I am not sure Marco, Martin or I stopped laughing the whole way home.

My oh shit moment when our car almost went head on with another car coming around a corner and seeing the oh shit moment face on the indian guy we were about to smash into and then force him and us over a 1,000 foot rocky cliff to our deaths. I think that if I didn't wet myself on that one I should stay dry for most of India. Our private car driver just laughed it off and martin looked back at me and nodded. Thats all a situation like this gets in India, a nod and smile.


Going to the bathroom at the bamboo hut restaurant in in Munnar. This is what it entails. First you walk by 4 people jammed into an electronics shop selling light switches and wire from the the 1950s. Once you make it by them without knocking over a box you are told to hit #1. If you don't know that means hit the first light switch. I guess I didn't know because it took 5 minutes to find it. Then you move aside the shit and mud stained cloth that you are not sure why it is there. Then you open a door that looks like it was made for an LP (or midget if you are not PC) Then you step in old urine and water to pee in a hole that is the swimming pool for a massive cockroach that martin said he tried to avoid because he didn't want it to drown. They must not have cockroaches in Denmark because I don't think a little pee would hurt this disgusting cockroach which may or may not have run across mors schnitzel at dinner (The jury is still out on that one).

Me trying to eat a prickly pear off of a cactus. Not only did i get about 500 spins in my hand but I also was told after I got a really great looking one that the cactus pears in India are poisonous and I should not eat it.

Getting lost in the tea plantations of Munnar. This was great. They are really something to be seen. It is great seeing these grand mountains covered in tea plants cut out with intricate rows to collect the tea. We got lost going to a waterfall and ended up almost not reaching our destination before the sun went down. I am sure we were some sight wondering out of the forest in front of this grand view of the sun setting against the mist and tea plantations without shirts, panting and throwing the last of our water over our heads to cool us down. I am sure the indian honeymooners and westerners were having a good laugh but I didn't care because we made it. Our earlier hike from the tea museum was great. We walked up about about 300-500 feet of tea rows and sat under this huge tree and I took a nap while Marco read and Martin chilled.


I love Munnar.......

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