Blogs from Periyar National Park, Kerala, India, Asia

Well the journey to Periyar, back up in the mountains, was a long and uncomfortable one, for a change :-s This place is nice, got a really nice place to stay for a good price and I've been having adventures in the jungle with Mogoli (well Babu but I think of him as Mogoli! Since Aijan had to travel to Ernakulam imminently she only had time for a half day safari. Unfortunately the govnt controlled prices does not include a half day, and she would have had to paid a full days price for only half, and then have to somehow get back to the town by her own means... not ideal. Enough searching however revealed a market for 'illegal trekking' through the jungle...We were a little worried, especially that it might be a cop scam ... read more

Not me, I love the sun. Wherever we were, whatever country we were in, I had the sun. Maybe for a little while, Maybe for longer than usual, but... it was always there. - Portraits of a Sari ,Sari Phillips After our houseboat cruise we spent the night in Allepay , with a Indian dinner in an air conditioned resturant , the first one we have seen here. The next morning we took a bus through hairpin turns to the town of Peryiar where the national state park is. In the morning we went on a boat cruise around the lake on a ferry hoping to see some of the wildlife maybe some tigers and elephants that live in the park, but we only saw some boar and bison, no tiger spotting for us. We ... read more

We caught a rough looking ferry from Alleppey to Kottayam before changing to a rough looking bus to get to Kumily - the main town in the mountains leading to the Periyar National Park. Riding these uncomfortable buses can be challenging at the best of times, but it was really hot, crowded and took 5 hours. Just as we got underway our bus driver hit an auto rickshaw - he did not seem worried at all, but the owner of the rickshaw, pretty much dragged him out of the bus! There was much yelling before a policeman came and a group of men became involved (none of which had anything to do with it or were there to witness it!) and with much yelling and hand waving by all we were finally on our way again. ... read more

Almost immediately after leaving the boat behind at the backwaters, bouncing along in jeeps, we began to climb up into the Western Ghats (mountains). And as we climbed the temperature steadily dropped until it was as cool as it had been since leaving Shimla nearly six weeks before. It was absolutely wonderful to be cool for a change and even though it was overcast and humid, it was very pleasant, a bit like a misty summer afternoon in England. For the first time in India, I really felt that I was in the "real" India, fulfilling all my visions from childhood of what the sub continent was all about. Everything around me is a shiny green from the rain, with a riot of color coming from the people, buses, churches and flowers that seemed to be ... read more

18 March Up at 5:45, dazed and confused, and puttered to Periyar National Park. Our driver said he’d seen tigers crossing the road some evenings - but sightings are very rare. We did notice a deer sleeping peacefully on our way in. We arrived at daybreak. An English couple, two avid ornithologists, joined us. Our trek started with a view of the dense cloud rising from a bottomless pot of mist into a South Indian jungle. We saw loads of Great Indian hornbill, kingfishers - both brown and the regular blue sort. At dawn, a strange migration of a billion frogs all come from the lake and hop to the cool that the forest gives. David Attenborough, eat your heart out. We spied two birds of paradise with plumes extending beyond their tails; one was a ... read more

Our time in south east India came to an end with a lazy day in Kanyakumari, right at the southern tip of the continent. The seaside town was geared towards homegrown tourism and the street hawkers were much more interested in the groups of Indian tourists than us. Teenage boys lapped up the funky sunglasses on offer, whist families played in the sea, with the women splashing in the shallows in full sari. Then in complete contrast we headed up the south west coast to Varkla. This cliff-top town was almost completely dominated by us Westerners, with banana pancakes aplenty. The beaches kept us entertain during the day. Its was so nice to sit out in the sun and dip into the warm sea when the heat got to much. Once the evening draw in we ... read more