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Published: August 6th 2007
Kodai view
walk near hostelWhen we arrived at Madurai bus station we realised we had missed all the hourly buses and there wasn't another one for over 2 hours. After a quick run around the station we realised our only hot food option was the local shack across the street. In places like this there are no menus, the waiter told us the two choices on offer and we chose vegetable biriyani. It was absolutley delicious, really cheap and the service was fantastic. Every time we ran out of one sauce our pot was refilled and plenty of extra rice was dished out at no extra cost.
When we got back to the train station a station manager told Ade our bus would be full when it arrived and the journey would take 4/5 hours. Taxi men were offering really cheap fares and after a quick chat we decided it was worth the 500Rp for a 3 hour ride in a car with no other passengers. Our driver wasn't very talkative but we did get a pit stop for tea and toilet without being rushed. Turns out he was from Kodaikanal and had a fare to Madurai airport earlier in the day and so
Kodai path
made of roots! wanted to get a fare back home, even if it was only a third of the regular price. Suited us just fine!
We selected a place from the lonely planet which supposedly has great value rooms and good views. It wasn't lying! We had a huge room with table and chairs, big bathroom although no shower :-(, a fireplace and a porch overlooking the mountains and plains. Kodaikanal is a popular hill station for Indian families to holiday at. We landed during high season as it's really heating up down in the plains and we were there over Easter weekend. There is an international school there and so many teenage kids of all nationalities eating at restaurants and playing soccer, rounders and of course, cricket. At the centre of the town there's a big lake and we rented a peddle boat for an hour but ended up drifting around when we got lazy. It was much cooler up there and even chilly in the evenings, causing the jumpers to be retrieved from the bottom of the rucksacks - heaven. We extended our 3 night stay to 5 and even after some initial uncertainty managed to keep the same room.
Trek in Kodai
Tad nervous due to drop of doom.. Each evening as we sat out reading a guy would come around drumming up interest for trekking around the area. We'd turned him down at first but after we decided to stay on an extra two nights it seemed we should actually do something while we were there apart from read, eat, play games and sleep (I know, tough life!). We got up early on the Friday morning and set off with two Scottish girls. The trek was quite beautiful and we nearly got the camera stolen by some monkeys who thought we had food. Unfortunately our guide wasn't great and was soon nicknamed the "walking signpost". He led us without speaking, except to scab cigarettes from Ade, for 5 hours. We were quite tired and slightly lobster-esque by the end of it. The all inclusive day did include one masala chai though (3Rp worth)! We did meet an Indian man who gave us his number to call and 'share things' though and posed for more pictures with Indian teenagers and children. All in all a good day out even if somewhat over priced. We met the girls for dinner that night and had a laugh reliving the day.
Guru
Ade with large-haired guru During our stay at Kodai we played plenty of backgammon and a little bit of chess. Ash is not so fond of chess as it takes ages and she inevitably loses despite snippets of paying attention and a few decent moves. We also played out first game of Gin Rummy and discovered how addictive it is. Every night we played for hours. It's quite tricky to find beer and without a fridge we wouldn't have much use for it. It is easy enough to find whiskey though and it's pretty cheap hence our drink of choice while there.
In most restaurants, rickshaws, buses and shops there are framed pictures with flashing lights or strings of flowes around them. We had been mildly amused by them until we ate at a little diner with the funniest one yet. We managed to snap a photo with Ade and our new large-haired guru without attracting too much attention. We have also discovered how Indians alert other drivers and passers-by that they are reversing. There is no need for the standard bright red lights here, each vehichle has a ring tone attached to it and when the reverse gear is engaged the
Munnar tea plantations
hiding amongst the leaves cars sing. It took us ages to cop on why all the mobiles were so loud, it was the cars!
On the Sunday (8th April) we got a private jeep to Munnar. It was packed with 3 couples and there wasn't too much space for comfort. We were the only non-Indians in the car. The journey took over 5 hours and we spiraled the whole way down the mountains then across the plains for a bit and then spiraled back up the next one. The poor girl in the back with us had to stop the jeep 3 times to get sick and we had quite a few lucky escapes. The closest we came to hurtling off a mountain was when we were very close to Munnar, the road had no rails just a sheer drop with a stone mountain on the inside. It wasn't wide enough for two cars to pass and just as we were rounding a blind corner a huge truck came flying round the other side. Both vehicles stopped with about 20cm to spare and we had to reverse about 20 meters to let it pass. It was then we noticed the sign for the
resort down the lane, The Great Escape!
Munnar is an old hill station but still very popular with Indian holiday makers and we saw many signs in other cities advertising holiday homes there. It is surrounded by tea plantations which sweep over hills and down into valleys as far as the eye can see. It really is one of the most breathtaking things we've seen so far, so much so we booked ourselves on to two separate day trips around the area run by the DTPC (government). One concentrated on dams, lakes and a wildlife sanctuary for Nilgiri goats (easily could have been missed, the trip that is and also the goats although we did go on a 20min elephant ride) and the other was fantasitc. We stopped at a waterfall first and climbed all around it and the huge boulders down stream from it. Then we drove through miles of tea plantations and stopped at different spice areas. We saw pepper which grows like ivy up tall trees, coffee plants although it wasn't coffee season so they had no beans, lemongrass plants, sandalwood forests, cocoa plantation owned by cadbury's, sugar and cardamon. It was really pretty and smelled
Wildlife sanctuary n. Munnar
Viewing platform (no animals seen!) great too. After lunch, where Ash encountered the largest spider she'd seen yet on the toilet seat, we went to Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary. We had a mini trek to a watch tower but didn't see anything apart from elephant poo until we walked back to car. There we saw two separate groups of monkeys; the first were really cute grey ones with white hair and black faces, the second were little cheeky gremlin lookalikes who came right up real close and seemed quite menacing. We really enjoyed this day out.
We have discovered a common theme of theme of small talk with locals in the World Cup Cricket tournament. Previous to this trip Ash was ignorant of the sport and referred to it on many ocasions as 'the most boring game ever'. Over the past few weeks and many rule explaining sessions she has gained a certain appreciation for it. This may have initially been as Ireland were the underdogs making the super 8 but after the New Zealand game any real hopes of winning were convincingly dashed. We've watched every game like true Indians (or as much as we could before falling asleep, not of boredom of course,
Wildlife sanctuary n. Munnar (pt2)
Monkey on-route back from platform Monkey on-route back from platformbut of sleepiness) with Ireland or England playing and also the fateful Indian v Sri Lanka game that ended the dreams for this nation.
Across the road from our hotel, which was the very cheap, friendly and brand new SMM Cottages, there was a little restaurant we ate nearly every meal at and a lake where we rented a rowing boat. Ade commandeered for an impressive 2 hours and we took in the beautiful scenery and chilled out. While our boat was being repaired a disagreement broke out between a land owner and a cow herder. The cow herder was on the land owners land and was arguing that his cows were not damaging his crop. Both men were on opposites sides of the river though so it didn't come to blows.
Laundry is quite tiresome while travelling, especially larger items when we've no hanging space, so we've started using the laundry service provided by the places we stay in. It costs 10Rp per item (12p/17c) and it comes back really clean, dry and ironed on the same day. Definitely worth it!
After 4 nights in Munnar we started to make our way
to Kumily, home of the well known Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary and tiger reserve. While we were paying for our rickshaw the bus pulled up so we nipped over and hopped on. It had just come from Kumily so was taking a 30 minute break at a resting area and then coming back to collect passengers but we were allowed to hop on and wait if we wanted. This we did and ended up sitting on the bus for nearly 2 hours before it left Munnar. Trains in India generally keep to the timetable but the same rules do not apply to buses, especially private ones. Even though it's called a private bus, it is still a public bus just not state run. It stops at all the tiny bus stops and when on them there's no difference apart from colour. In some regions the state don't provide buses anymore.
Journey was nearly 6 hours and we arrived in Kumily at dusk. The touts were out in force so we picked a direction at random and started walking with the aim of finding a restaurant to stop and take stock. Ended up seeing a sign advertising Italian food 200 mts
away so we decided to take a break from curries and go for some pizza. Chrissies Cafe had a rooftop restaurant and a really laid back & friendly feel about it. After finishing our delicious meal we asked to see the rooms and we surprised at how reasonable they were. We were sold and booked in for 3 nights but ended up staying 4 as the Wigan match was showing live on the television in the common area. Wohoo! Pity it was a 3-3 draw but novelty of being able to watch the match live in India was pretty strong even if the commentary was in Hindi!
We'd read about a bar decorated in the British Raj era style so we went in search of it the night we arrived. It was very old looking and full of middle aged British people to add to the atmosphere. We drank beer and played chess and cards provided by the bar. After they'd closed we weren't ready for bed so wandered round the town in search of some more bars. We found a really dark place full of Indian men where Ash stuck out like a sore thumb. Sat right in
the middle anyway and drank 1 beer before it closed too so we went home.
The next morning we ate breakfast on the rooftop restaurant and were joined by 2 monkeys hopping from tree to tree outside. Ade had the camera out and was taking pictures until the monkey came right down and barred his teeth at him. Ahhh! We looked into the different options for visiting the Wildlife Sanctuary and decided on the trekking and bamboo rafting. It involved an early start and lots of walking but luckily, despite the rain, we didn't get attacked by leeches. We found out when we got back to the hotel that the week before guests there had come back covered in leeches as it was raining, yuck! We did see lots of frogs, wild boar, bison, guinea fowl, black monkeys and right at the very end we saw 3 elephants. We had 2 guides and a forest official with a gun (70 years old from the British Raj) for the day and they provided breakfast and a traditional Keralan lunch which was very tasty. They did warn us before hand that nobody actually sees tigers during the trek and we'd be
lucky to see elephants. Apparently some have seen them if you do the jeep safari as it goes through a different part of the park and covers a greater distance. While rafting we did see indigenous people with a temporary camp set up doing their washing and fishing by the side of the lake. We got back to the hotel after 9 hours of trekking roasting hot, wrecked and looking forward to another pizza.
Next stop Kochi and the backwaters of Kerala (back to the heat again!)
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jezmond
non-member comment
tea
greets dudes - glad you're having fun - can you tea leaf me a tea leaf if you pass by a plantation again? I would totally appreciate it. stay bad.