Tiger, tiger burning bright.. the quest begins

Trip Start Jan 17, 2010

Trip End Jul 17, 2010

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Where I stayed

Green View Home Stay Thekkady (aka. Green View Homestay)

(Thekkady hotels)

Flag of India Kumily, Kerala, India
Thursday, February 4, 2010

We made our way to Kumily via train (3 hours) then local bus (supposed to be 4 1/2 hours). Our driver was however, a maniac with a death wish. The road to Kumily winds its way through mountains with sheer cliff faces, amidst the tea plantations. Kanan and I had a special treat, a front seat view from over the shoulder of the driver. He went ludicrously fast; overtaking not only other buses on one-lane mountain roads, but also jeeps and cars much better equipped for the terrain. We almost killed 2 people (I'm not kidding), and what might ordinarily have been a mild case of motion-sickness on the maze like roads was replaced with sheer terror. We got to Kumily (our destination) an hour earlier than scheduled, and with our nerves in tatters.

It took us a bit of time to get over the experience, but the best Italian food we've had since being in India (not a particularly mean feat) and a discounted room softened the blow. We awoke next morning having booked a tour of a tea factory (these hills are the heartland of Indian tea-production), to be followed by a visit to a spice garden

Bamboo Rafting

. Both were excellent and illuminating - particularly the visit to the tea factory, whose production method (and indeed machinery!) hadn't changed for about a century.

The next day we booked ourselves on a Bamboo Rafting and hiking trip around Periyar National Park, thus initiating our (most likely doomed) hunt for tigers in India. The Rafting trip was great, in spite of a team of "guides" who said nothing for the entire seven hours. It was rather nice being paddled around however, and I jumped in the lake to cool off which made Kanan rather green with envy (see pics). The wildlife was excellent (despite the lack of tigers), and we got a real bonus spotting a herd of elephants late in the day. Abstaining as we did from tipping our "guides", despite a bit of group pressure the Indian in Kanan won through, we went home tired but happy, not to mention all the more determined in our tiger quest. We're leaving Kumily a day earlier than planned and heading to Munnar tomorrow for an abundance of tea-hills and more walking.

We're hoping for a smoother ride this time!

Kaa and Jo X

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