In Kerala - Nice!

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We're in Kerala now in Kumily/Tekhady
We spent 2 nights here so far, it's 9:30am and time to move on. This place is awesome!!! Yesterday we had a full "program". FYI - Program is what the indians call a schedule. Everywhere we go they ask what our program is.
Got here late on Jan 1st. Had an awesome roadside meal at a locals restaurant. Then drove through the plains of Tamil Nadu.
Beautiful countryside. Mountains with valleys, coconut and rice plaintations. People walking on the road barefoot, oxen carts, luxary buses. What a juxtoposition between the classes of people. But regardless of class everyone is very nice. I don't think I've come upon a nicer people yet in my travels. We hit a traffic jam in the mountain pass that stalled traffic for about 45min. I had the camcorder out and filmed all the cars, jam packed 2nd class busses, trucks, rickshaws, etc. Everybody smilled, waved and cheered me on. That was great.
In Kumily I looked up the Jungle Palace. Found out about this place from bloggers. Great place, great rates. We stayed at the guys brothers hotel - Wild View. Couldn't have done better. Sure beats all the touristy places that the guide books point you too. Funny that when we got here all of a sudden we saw white folks everywhere. But hey, this place is great. Spice stalls everywhere. Nice and warm. Kodai was too cold at night.
Started yesterday (Jan 2nd) with a 5am drive 3km to Perriyar Tiger Preserve to go trekking. All the Indian tourists we're lined up to go boating. Looks like you crowd onto a 2 story boat and pray to see animals. We got a guide for the 5 of us. Put on our leech boots. Crossed the lake on a bamboo raft, and started hiking. First excersise in a week. Great hike, misty forests. Saw a dead cobra on the trail. Place looks right out of the Jungle Book, except no temple ruins. Guide was great, showed us all kinds of wild herbs and spices, plus we saw Tiger marks in the tree. It's about a year old and where the Tiger marks his territory. Hike lasted 3 hours. I gave the guide my Swiss Army knife as a tip. Next went to Abrahams spice garden. Yep, it's worth it. It's the oldest garden. Saw all the spices. etc etc. Then saw the Kerala Martial arts exhibition. WOW!! knifes, swords, spears, fire. Cool fight demo. They say it's the worlds oldest martial art.
Dinner was so so. Problem was we ate at the whiteee tourist restaurant. Food wasn't the greatest, long wait. That's the 2nd time we had mediocre food at the tourist restaurants. We're just gonna go native with food. Much better. I've given up buying water and am now filtering it with my MSR backpacking filter. Sure beats buying all the plastic bottles that just end up as litter on the side of the road. Other Indian tourists really liked my filter. I hope more people start doing this so they can break the plastic habit.
Ok, 10am now. We've gotta go. Hitting up an ATM so we can pay the hotel. Gonna eat at a locals place that was recommended. Idli, dosa, sambar. Yummy.
Then drive to Alleppey and stay at the beach resort. It's 12km from town which is a long distance in India, so not sure when we can write again.
Namaste
Don

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Comments

[Pami]

Awesome !!!
Told ya ....you are gonna love it! Good luck with the next leg, be safe (oh by the way..I like that idea of water filter..genius!!) Enjoy all that sun...coz we sure are freezing our butts here in Denver :)