Blogs from Periyar National Park, Kerala, India, Asia - page 4

Dear Michael and Adrianne, First of all, let me express our sincere gratitude for spending your valuable time with us during the perfect performer course. It was a real experience for our students and us too to have a guest like you for the class. We expect both of you in future too. We take this chance to inform you that we are starting a new venture in the first week of Jan 07 at Magic Academy Research Centre (MARC). In MARC, we are organizing Traditional Indian Magic Show especially for the foreigners who cannot watch this kind of a show in their country. The show includes: Green mango trick where a mango seed grow into a lush green-branched tree in minutes Indian Basket: An ancient Indian magic proclaimed to be the mother of several modern ... read more

Wow! So much has happend In the past few days and we apologize for not keeping the blog updated on a day-to-day basis. It's hard to find internet cafes and today the entire country of India went on STRIKE! Ade and I spent the past two days cruzing around the backwaters of Alopy, Kerela in a massive Houseboat. It was a high-point of our trip! It was the two of us, alog with 3crew members and about 1000mosquitos. We relaxed, fished, played dominoes, and slept....all for about the price of a mid-range hotel (1night) in Las Vegas. The boat came with our own personal chef, and every meal was a feast. Why do I feel like I'm the only person in the world who ever came to India and gained weight???? It was great to see ... read more

Very little sleep last night. It was hard getting up. Our jeep was waiting for us up on the road, and the three of us got in. I, stupidly, forget my sweatshirt, and in the open-air jeep, got very cold. We huddled in the back as we bounced down the roads. By the time we got to the park gates it was already getting light out (about 7am) and there were a few other jeeps as well. We started driving into the sanctuary and our driver was really good at looking out for things to see, and turning his engine off to be quiet -- and just coasting. We stopped to see an elephant, but it was really far away and mostly hidden. You could just barely make out that there was movement in the shrubbery. ... read more

Today was another long day of traveling. We got up at 6am and got ready to leave. We decided to find our own way to the bus station and walked there. When we arrived we got some help on which bus to take. People were really nice on telling us where to wait and what bus to get on. We bought a pineapple cake to munch on when we got hungry on the trip. Our bus was one of the more beat-up ones you see driving around. It was warm out, but luckily the windows were open to provide a breeze. It was a long trip (8.5 hours) and my butt hurt a lot -- it was very bumpy and twisty going up the mountain. But it's beautiful here, so it was worth it. The ... read more

We arrived by bus to Thekkady (1 minute from Kumily) and as we are grabbing our bags to get off the bus, some Indian guy gets on the bus and asks us if we are Jill and Roy. We quickly realized that at some point, the driver from Munnar got our names while Anna recommended for us to stay at Klaus Garden. So we were locked into the ride - we jumped into the man's rickshaw and arrived at Klaus Garden which was, luckily (it's always luck), great accomodation. Clean and fairly priced, so we stayed. The founder, Klaus, is German/Indian, and his daughter and husband, who is German, happened to be at the guesthouse during our stay which worked out great for us. Shortly after our arrival and the arrival of a German couple, we ... read more