kerala day 4 and 5

Day 4

At 6:30am  Andrea, Zach and I (with some other hotel guests) went on a wake up trek. Our guide was so enthusiastic and was wearing a Chicago marathon shirt a guest had given him.  The hike was magnificent.  We climbed all the way up a huge hill and took tons of pictures.  I really believe these pictures will change people’s minds about India.  It really is beautiful in a lot of places.  I hope some of you will consider visiting me!  Kerala has billboards all over that says “visit God’s own Country”  The first time we saw it, I made a joke and said “oh, we’re in Texas”  ha!  I think if anyone visits Kerala they would believe in creationism.  How could the “big bang theory” create this?   We really enjoyed the hike!  Andrea saw a leech before it actually attached to her so that made her happy that she could prevent it.  Zach picked a lovely boquet of wild flowers for Nancy since she didn't hike with us.

 

We ate breakfast then waited for a jeep.  We talked to a German family that was staying at the resort and asked what places they had visited in India.  When they mentioned Mumbai we asked how they liked it.  You should have seen their faces!!!  Ha!  The man uttered “it’s.. umm.. interesting”.  Andrea told him it was ok if he didn’t like it- we live there and that’s why we are taking our holiday in Kerala.

We took another bumpy, crazy ride down the hill and headed off to Thekkady.  It takes forever to go even short distances here.  We stopped at our driver’s cousin’s house and it was a lot bigger and prettier than I expected.  It was off the main street on a quiet road.  He invited us in and we all took our shoes off to enter of course and I realize one of my feet has a lot of blood on it.  There is no blister or anything and it didn’t hurt but blood was soaked clean through my Teva.  I thought maybe a leech that had fed had crawled in there and gotten squished, but there was no sign of leeches in my shoe.  Several hours later Zach noticed his foot was bleeding and there was a small hole in his toe.  I scraped all the dried blood off to see if I had a hole and it just started bleeding and bleeding.  Good news is I am already taking the rabies shot and if it is a parasite maybe I can lose twenty pounds!!

We got to the Periyar Tiger Reserve that our hotel is in at Thekkady and found out that most things were closed.  At 3 pm.  Communism.  We couldn’t go trekking, the boat ride was sold out and we couldn’t wash elephants because of the weather.  We were really disappointed because we have to leave tomorrow and won’t get to see much.  We are going to try to get the boat ride tomorrow morning.  We walked around town and little then Nancy and Zach went back to the hotel to sit on the porch and take in the views.  Andrea and I explored little traveled lanes – it is our favorite thing to do.  My growling stomach led us on a hunt for food that wasn’t junk and we stumbled upon this man who had a restaurant.  There were tables set up basically in his backyard and he cooked whatever we wanted in the house kitchen.  He had an 11 year old son who came to talk to us and played his keyboard for us after my omelet and Andrea’s tea and toast.  Food and a Show!  The family was sooo sweet and the man made a point of telling us his place is mentioned in Lonely Planet J

Our driver knew we were disappointed that everything we wanted to do was closed so I guess he asked around because he called me and said the elephant washing was open from 5-6 so we could still make our massages at 6:30.  I started getting a cold yesterday and it is getting worse.  I went back to the hotel to rest while they washed elephants.  They showed me video when they got back and it looked like so much fun!!!  Bummer!  I am also missing out on the massage – afraid it might make me sicker. 

We went to dinner at a restaurant called Spice World.  The food wasn’t that great and the power went off.  Communism.  We went back to the hotel and blew a fuse trying to put the key in the socket.  In India, you have to use your hotel key to turn on the electricity.  Then you remove the key from the socket when you leave and the electricity stays off while you are out of the room.  The hotel guys came and fixed it lickity split and we went to bed. 

The hotel we stayed at was Ranger Wood Nature Castle.  I like to stay at hotels with royal names – in Kochi it was Fort Queen and in Aurangabad it was Hotel Winsor Castle J

Day 5

The power went off several times during the night and morning.  The driver called at 5:40 and Zach went to go buy tickets for the boat ride in the park.  The process to do this was so bizarre.  Zach paid for the park entry tickets then we had to take a rickshaw to get to the ticket place for the boat ride.  Rickshaws line up as early as 1am to get in line for the park opening!  We were lucky to get one near the front.  When the park opened everyone took off and we were in a rickshaw race!!  India loves their speed bumps and normally ricks come to a complete stop and roll over them to protect their precious money maker, but not here.  We were bumped and jarred at we hit speed bumps at top rickshaw speeds.  I have never gone that fast in a rickshaw!  The driver told us two people would have to get out to run to get to the ticket place.  Andrea and I were on the exit side so when he stopped we ran.  I thought it would be right there and we were running to get to the front of the line.  No! We had to run like half a mile!  Andrea tired pretty quickly and stopped running.  I slowed down but ran at a steady pace.  Indians don’t run much so I passed a lot of them.  I ended up third in line for tickets!  Proud of myself!  But we got there and didn’t see anyone at the counter and they told us we had to go somewhere else so people caught up to us.  By the time I got to the right place, Zach was there and we were herded into the fenced in line. Indians are famous for line cutting and pushing to get what they want so government officials here seem to try to contain them and eliminate some of it.  You had to fill out these papers with your name and address and where you are from   - they want account of everyone that comes.  We looked at our tickets and they BUTCHERED our names.  I was BobHiJo Staled  - the others had some funny names too.  The seats were assigned so you couldn’t get a seat by the edge to see anything and you couldn’t stand up, and you had to wear a life jacket even though we were going 2 miles an hour and we couldn’t stand up.  We couldn’t complain about communism out loud so we had a code word “tiger state”.  There were lots of people from Mumbai on the boat and they weren’t any happier than we were.  We all said we should not recommend this park to anyone.  We should have stayed an extra day in Munnar and then driven straight to Allepy.  Live and Learn. 

 One good thing did come out of the ride.  We met this family from Mumbai – they had the cutest daughters.  The wife was a mendhi artist – the person that does the intricate henna art.  The husband worked for Shell and was very intelligent, well read, and well travelled.  He asked us how Americans felt about Obama and he said he didn’t like Obama – said Obama stood for Originally Born African who Manages Americans.  Ha! Their daughters were adorable- one was five and one was eight.  They asked us tons of questions and told us stories.  The older one made the craziest face when I told her I taught math – she hates math!  She did teach me how to count to five in Hindi though JThe little one is totally going to be an actress.  I took a picture of her making a tiger face and her sister being an elephant.  Since there was zero chance of us seeing real ones on this boat ride.  We did see some pretty Kingfishers and some wild boar –but I can see wild boar along the Arabian Sea right by my house. 

After the boat ride we walked back down to the car park to meet our driver.  It was a much more civilized trip back – it did not involve me running or a rickshaw race.  We grabbed some breakfast and got in the car for the very long trip to Alappuzha (Allepy).  These winding roads were worse than yesterday I think. In India, drivers just honk when someone is their way and go where they want to even into oncoming traffic.  I definitely think a blindfold is necessary for a car trip here, especially if you are just coming for a week or so and are not used to it!

When we got to Alappuzha our driver didn’t know where our houseboat was.  He stopped multiple times to ask for directions. It’s hilarious to watch Indian conversations.  He rattles off the question and they just grunt and wave their arm and apparently now he knows where to go!  We finally found Ben’s tours and got on our houseboat.  It is really cute with two bedrooms and a big living area up front.  We have a boat driver and a cook who made us rice and fish for lunch.  I do not usually eat fish, but this was delicious. We travelled along the backwaters for awhile and stopped at a shack to buy prawns.  They were as big as lobsters and blue. 

  We sat up front enjoying the scenery when it started to pour and we had to put the flaps down.  I took a little nap and when I got up we were docked and the sun was setting.  I walked along the trail and found kids playing who wanted their picture taken and who wanted to take my picture.  Andrea, Zach and Nancy came down the trail and we walked toward music coming from a temple.  We found a little village and the people were so nice.  They told us “happy Diwali” and let us take tons of pictures.  The area reminds me a little of the bayous of Lousianna.  Water and land mix here and most of the people grow rice and/or fish.  I love the colors here.  In the States there are ordinances that say everyone’s house has to look the same and can only be certain colors – here houses are bright pink, orange, blue, lime green and yellow.

The cook said he had a surprise for dinner and made us turn out the lights.  He brought out their prawns beautifully cooked with a candle centerpiece made out of onion and tomato.  Dinner was delicious again.  Traveling by houseboat is the way to go.  It’s a floating hotel and we can ask them to stop where we want and we can watch the countryside go by.  It was cool to see the small boats travelling by candlelight on the pitch black water.  We played some trivia and black magic before going to bed.  Andrea demanded to know the trick to black magic – I am still trying to figure it out J  I checked my phone before bed and I had 10 missed calls!  Apparently Sumesh, our driver, was drinking with his buddies and was drunk dialing us!  When we talked to him, we tried to teach him what “drunk dialing” meant.