Thekkady

I left Munnar on Saturday morning for Thekkady in the Idukki District, an area known for it’s wildlife and spice plantations. It lies next to the Periyar Tiger Reserve which should drop the tiger bit as no one seems to have spotted one for a very long time.

It is normal to get 4 hour taxi rides in this part of the world and seeing as I didn’t want a permanent driver, that’s exactly what I did. It cost 1,600 rupees to get from Munnar to Kumily (next to Thekkady) which is about 27 yoyos or 23 Great British Pounds. Petrol and Diesel are cheaper here - 53 and 42 rupees per litre respectively but it’s still ridiculously cheap. Unfortunately my driver, yet again, didn’t know how to use his gears effectively and he didn’t appreciate the driving lesson I tried to give him, I mean from a woman and all that! (My Dad doesn’t like me telling him what gear he should be in either) The road is very windey and undulating and this driver was permanently on his mobile phone, not a plus point in my book of avoiding crashing on these kind of roads.

It was a very scenic driver out of Munnar. We began to descend and gradually the tea plantations diappeared and the palm trees re-emerged along with the fragrant spice plantations. The flora is so very green and lush with odd spots of brilliant colour, even the soil is a rich red and as the sun shone down from the bright blue sky, you instantly forget about the cold, grey, European winter.

Half way into the drive, we stopped at a small bakery/tea stall just outside the small village of Sheelakshmi for a drink. I’m beginning to get used to drinking this wonderful, sweet masala tea. It was here that I met an Indian couple who instead of saying “Where you from?”, they asked “Where do you come from?” I have given up explaining that I’m English, living in Amsterdam so I just say “England”. The wife said “Of course you are, you have the red, rugby rose of England on your t-shirt”. That surprised me but then again, they did explain that they had been living in Doncaster for the past 50 years.....

Some of the name places around here, make me giggle like a child. I love the name Pampadumpara on the SH19 road. I have also noticed that cement adverts by the roadside have given way to those advertising pipes but the cows persist in walking down the middle of the road.

I keep getting asked questions about home and the Indians have no shame in asking me why I’m not married and have no children. They aren’t the kind of people you say “Piss off, it’s none of your business” to so I’m going to start lying from now on and invent a husband who happens to be an astronaut and therefore is away from home a lot. I am liberal with the truth when they ask me what I do too but my driver this particular morning asked me if I was still studying which amused me as I finished studying over half my life ago. I laughed at the unintended compliment and immediately forgot about his bad driving.

I’m staying at a hotel called “Periyar Meadows” for 7 nights and it’s OK, the beds are again too hard and there is the incessant noise of guest slamming doors, two things I just cannot escape from in India. The first thing I had to do was haggle with them for the cost of wireless internet. Data is still very expensive in India and this hotel pays per KB rather than have anything like a monthly set fee for unlimited broadband. At first they wanted to charge me an absurd INR 5,500 for my stay which is not far off EUR 100! I finally got them down to INR 1,500 which is still ridiculously expensive but I have a lot free time here so I bit the bullet. The service has been brilliant though and I found out today that I am the first guest to ever spend 7 nights here

Kumily is strangely full of Tibetan and Kashmiri shops, selling clothes and jewellery. You can’t walk past one without someone trying to entice you to come and have a look which is hugely irritating. I am tempted to tell these people that tourists are more likely to look in their shops if they don’t get hassled. These shops are plentiful and only matched by the spice shops which give off a fabulous aroma as you walk past them.

There are a limited things to do here so I decided to stretch them out over the week. First stop was The Spice Garden which was an informative trip. A couple from Mumbai and I had a tour together and I think I surprised everyone, including myself with my depth of knowledge on Indian spices. I didn’t recognise all the trees and plants but did intentify every one of the smells. The garden itself was small but they still packed cardamom (black and green), vanilla, lemon grass, bayleaf, cinnamon, basil (4 types), ginger, lemon grass, mint, coriander, pepper (red, green, white and black), chilli (several types) aloe vera, curry leaf, clove, tobacco, cocoa, coffee, nutmeg, all spice and garam masala plants or trees in along with fruits such as mango, pineapple, fig, banana, yam, coconut, papaya and jack fruit all in the one place. They are also trying to branch out and have built a tree house home stay; keep rabbits; have fish ponds (with giant edible goldfish!) and even a tiny paddy field for rice.

The next day, I had one of those once in a life time experiences with my favourite animals, elephants. I had seen the brochure for Elephant Junction in Attappallam which professed to offer a 2 hour programme including a one hour ride through the forest, feeding, timber dragging, bath and shower but being sceptical, I thought there would be a big group of people, maybe 6 on each elephant and as was I really going to have that “close interaction” which they advertise? I am so happy to be wrong sometimes and in every way conceivable: One elephant, 2 handlers and just me, grinning away from start to finish of the whole 2 hours.

She is beautiful, she is a 25 year old Mum called “Meda” and we had a wonderful time together. As soon as I got my leg over her, sat on her neck and she started trudging out of the elephant park, I knew I was in trouble in two very different ways: My back was going to have big problems with the one buttock up, one buttock down motion and I think I had fallen in love (Don’t tell Barry). I popped some painkillers to sort the first problem out but the second.........

Poor Meda, I don't think she appreciated my boney arse on her back but I made it up to her by stroking her ears, scratching her hairy head and whispering sweet nothings to her.  We climbed up through the forest of pepper, mango, palm and bamboo trees, cocoa and cardamom plants. I don’t think the smile ever left my face, especially when she purred or flapped her ears against my legs. One of the handlers took my camera and started snapping away. Unfortunately their skills in photography are not quite as proficient as their skills in elephant communication but I did get one or two OK shots.

The walk was serene and an hour later, we were back in camp and I had a lovely cup of tea and Meda had a few of the 400 litres of water she drinks per day. She looked a bit hungry so I fed her a small snack of yams, just a kilo or two of her daily 350kg food consumption Her pink tongue is long and very thick and her teeth made short work of the vegetables. Good job elephants are herbivores or she would have had my arm. Then she displayed her strength by messing around with a big log, actually a 300 kg tree trunk, all expertly instructed by a little Indian man uttering words of fluent Elephant. Strong lass our Meda, most impressive. She has a mouth on her too, roaring away like a band of trombones.

After all that, she needed a bath, so we got into a paddling pool together and I gave her a good scrub with a coconut shell. She just lay down, enjoying it all, making me do the work. She didn’t return the gesture, bad elephant. Her skin is 2 inches thick so I had to work pretty hard for her to enjoy her complimentary massage.

I tried to learn some words of Elephant but the handlers couldn’t translate my English into Malayalam, never mind Elephant. Nevertheless, I got the message when Meda told me I stank and I needed a shower so I climbed onto her enormous back again, she stuck the end of her trunk into the water bath, had a good suck and proceeded to shower me with the cold water, over and over again.

Finally, it was time to get sentimental as I sat on her front leg and said my long goodbyes. We had had a good time, a special time and unforgettable time together.

When I got back to the hotel in the late afternoon, I sat on my balcony, over-looking Periyar Meadow, the sun was slowly falling out of the sky and I watched a group of young men playing cricket just below me. They shared the meadow with a number of cows, who took up fielding positions at long on and long off but most were in the field at cow corner.

I got an unexpected visit today, twice in fact. First Daddy and a couple of hours later, the kiddies of a cheeky monkey family who waltzed into my room after climbing onto the balcony. At least they didn’t attack me as I swore monkey profanities at them.

Today is 17^th March, St. Patrick’s Day and instead of toasting him several times with perfect pints of Guinness from Mulligans, I am having an earlyish night as I have a long day out tomorrow, bamboo rafting and trekking in the Reserve. The only way I’ll get through the day is with my friend Mr. Tramadol but looking forward to it all the same. This evening, I went to a  demonstration of kalaripayattu, apparently the oldest of all martial arts. It was OK, a bit odd and not spectacular. Dinner was much more fun with Brian and Sue, a couple I met last night and in fact the first non Indian people I have talked to since I left the Ayurveda place in Wayanad. They had found a good restaurant at the posh Muthoot Cardamom County Hotel down the road where we ate both last night and tonight. The ambience there is much more laid back which I miss. The food at the hotel has been fine but the bright lights, harsh lines and the echoing sounds of people eating (badly) is not nice and I find myself eating my breakfast with my fingers stuck in my ears. (More on food later)

I also crossed the state line today, wandering into Tamil Nadu and back again. Nothing to report from over there.