Weekend in Kumily

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Hi everyone! Its been a while since my last blog, but I have been quite busy. Last week we were finishing of the February addition of the magazine, so a lot of proof reading and editing had to be done. Hopefully it comes out okay.
We decided we would go to Kumily for the weekend. Kumily is a small town right next door to the Periyar Wildlife Park, and a good base for exploring the area. We didn't have to go to work on Friday, so we decided we would take a 5 AM bus to do the four hour trip so we could have a full day there, however, finding the right bus isn't always easy here! We spent almost an hour at the bus station asking "When is the direct bus to Kumily?", to which the reply always was "Next bus Sir, next bus", and sure enough when the next bus arrives, the same comment..."no mister, next bus"! Three weeks in India and I'm beginning to realise that schedules don't really exist!
When we arrived in Kumily, a guy grabbed us as soon as we got off the bus to take us to a homestay, and although we knew to be wary of people like him ripping us off, we managed to get two amazing rooms in a family's house, for only 150 rupees each (about 2 pounds a night). The owners were so kind, and when one of the girls was feeling sick, the mother nursed her all day, bringing her tea and stuff. For the rest of the day, we explored Kumily, and then we stopped off in a restaurant for a drink - it actually backed onto the national park, and we could see animals from where we were sitting. The restaurant didn't have a license to sell alcohol, so they brought us beers in a tea pot! Later, we took a trip in a jeep up a mountain, on the steepest road I have ever seen - if you could even call it a road! When we got to the top though, it was incredible. The views were like nothing I have seen before, and it was completely silent, something that is very rare in India. We sat there until the sun set - it was incredible. The sky was about 5 different colours at once, and it looked amazing on top of the green of the forests. Whilst I was watching it, I was thinking to myself, I may actually never see anything as beautiful as that in the rest of my life. It was amazing. The drive down the mountain was ridiculous - I think the driver thought it was a race! When we got down to the bottom we were quite surprised to be alive!
The next day was another early start as we decided to do a trek in the park early in the morning to try and see some animals. We crossed over the lake on a half submerged bamboo raft and then were led around for about 2 and a half hours by our guide, who constantly made animal noises as he walked! It was so funny! The scenery was really nice, and we saw some cool stuff - rare birds, and trees etc - we saw a myrrh tree actually. We were hoping to see a tiger, but we only saw its foot prints. Apparently its rare to see an elephant due to the size of the park, but our guide said for a tip he would take us into the "risky area" to try and spot one. He led us off into the forest, stopping every few meters, looking around him nervously, and saying "shhhh, very, very dangerous". At first we were a bit concerned, but after the tenth time we were warned to be ready to run we realised it was perhaps a bit safer than our guide made out. In the end we did see an elephant, although it was more of a case of trees shaking and a grey blob moving around, but still, it was a good little expedition. Later we went on a boat trip and saw an outrageously big snake! I didn't take too many photos, but one of the French girls is a photography student and she took some great photos, I will post her website when I get it.
On Sunday, one of the girls was feeling ill, so we didn't do much in the day, but we went for breakfast at a restaurant owned by a British couple, where you eat at there house. It was brilliant! They were so kind and friendly, and we had porridge, omlettes, fruit salad, freshly baked bread, yoghurt all for about two pounds. It was a great treat not to have spicy sauce and rice!
Today is my last day in Madurai. This morning I posted a package home, and as you might imagine, the Indian post office is absolutely chaotic! I have booked myself a bus ticket for midnight tonight, to Trivandrum, and I will go from there to Kovalam again where I think I will stay for two days before moving up the coast. I will try and find accommodation when I get there - hopefully I can find a place that does single room rates, because otherwise it can become expensive. I'm feeling quite excited to be going off on my own, as all the traveling I have done so far has been with other volunteers, although I will be really sad to leave the friends I have made behind. Hopefully they will visit me this weekend if I haven't gone too far away.
I hope all is well at home, keep me posted with news etc.
Love, C
xx
P.S my camera is out of battery, so i can't get photos up - you can see them on facebook for now. I will try to do them from Kovalam but slow internet might mean you have to wait for photos until I come home possibly.
P.P.S there are posters all over Tamil Nadu of a fat sweaty politician, and we were convinced just from the number of his posters that he was corrupt. Turns out he burned down a newspaper's office for writing a bad article about him! I really want to write about him, but apparently our magazine doesn't do political articles.

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