On the Beach

Arrived at Marari Beach yesterday - only 45 minute drive from Kumarakom, but our driver managed to get stuck in the sand on the last 100m to our new address.Thankfully there were a few people from our latest homestay who showed up to help him get out and to carry our bags to our beachfront room.

The beach here stretches for 20 miles or more and apart from palm trees and a few restaurant shacks, there is nothing in between us and the beach - unless you include the washing lines where our laundry was hanging today.

With a bit of prior notice, each of the restaurants can arrange for the supply of cold bottles of Kingfisher or Tuborg and we even have a fridge on the veranda to keep them cool.

Managed a couple of beers last night to celebrate Ireland's victory over Wales but due to the time difference, we didn't see the Scotland result until we woke this morning. Sounds like it was a pretty convincing win. Interesting couple of matches to come for Ireland - thankfully we will be home by then.

 Being here for the weekend is surprising since the beach which appeared almost deserted at the dawn is absolutely crowded at sundown - hundreds of local people waiting to watch the sun sink below the horizon. Understand that it will be a lot quieter during the week.

Think this guy was checking his crab & lobster pots

PS - had to look again at the website for our last homestay because it was so different from our expectations and discovered that the pictures on the website with only two exceptions bore absolutely no resemblance to the actual place. Perhaps the comment that their son had a degree in tourism management and had developed the website for them - obviously using pictures from some other place.

More Birds

Our early morning visit to the bird sanctuary was a little disappointing - despite assurances that there would be thousands of roosting birds, we mostly saw large numbers of egrets and purple heron and not much else.

Purple Heron

Great Egret

However we did manage to catch the only guide - Mr Mohandas - who helped to make the trip more enjoyable. In fact, without his help we would probably have missed the best parts of the sanctuary altogether since there were no signs or instructions to help find our way around.

Before we headed home for breakfast, we agreed to take up his offer of a boat trip on the backwaters, the lake and around the paddy-fields in the late afternoon where he reckoned we should see large numbers of other birds.

Despite our other reservations about the homestay, Mrs Varghese - or her maid - served a good breakfast with an interesting mix of Keralan and western staples: a plate of pineapple followed by omelette and toast and then Appum and Curry - all washed down with black tea. Set up for the day!

We strolled around the paddy-fields and canals for an hour or so before it got too hot and we retreated to the AC cool of our room.

Luckily the heat had eased a bit before we set off to meet Mr Mohandas and a very pleasant 2 hours or so cruising the canals and backwaters between Kumarakon and Ayemenen (the setting for Arundhati Roy's 'God of Small Things' which Linda is currently reading). Some parts of the village have no road access, so rely on the canals for all their supplies.

Loading bananas is hot work!

True to his word, we did encounter huge flocks of Egrets, Whistling ducks, Swamp hens and many other species including the Stork billed Kingfisher and Bronze-winged Jacana. As a final bonus, the boat dropped us right outside our homestay so we avoided the Tuk-Tuk ride home.

Stork Billed Kingfisher

Purple Swamp hens and Whistling ducks

Bronze-winged Jacana

Darter

By the time we had relaxed and 'showered' our dinner had arrived - a Karimeen (fish) curry with a green pea Masala - which was as good as the previous night.

Great reflections as the sun is setting

At the end of our trip

  

Kumarakom

For our journey from Thekkady to Kumarakom – about 120km and more than 3 hours – we had a driver who seemed to believe that blowing his horn would make the car go faster. I appreciate that the section that crossed the Western Ghats was, just like our previous journey, lots of up and down switchbacks and that the subsequent descent from 4500ft to sea level had very few straight sections longer than about 200m but hearing the horn every few seconds seemed a little excessive.

However, he managed the entire journey without a single phone call and brought us right to our destination, Backwaters Breeze Homestay, which is run by the very helpful Mr Varghese – a retired senior police officer with exceptionally hairy ears – and his very helpful wife. The Homestay is not much different from our place in Thekkady but should be fine for the two nights we will be here. Thankfully it has a working AC unit and a fan since the night time temperature will stay around 24C. A bit warmer than the 15C we have been used to for the last 10 days and a lot warmer than Newhaven which is forecast to be -1C tonight.

It was about 32C when we arrived just after lunchtime. With a minimal amount of unpacking we popped into the open air restaurant next door for some lunch – an excellent fish curry accompanied by rice, a couple of different vegetables and chutneys, and of the course the dish of Curds with curry leaves which I have managed to avoid whenever it has been served in the past. However, the lady who served us insisted that this needed to be eaten with the meal and spooned copious amounts over the rice on my plate before I could object. With thanks as ever to my Grandma’s training, I cleared my plate but think I will keep on trying to avoid it.

The main reason for coming here is to visit the Bird Sanctuary – just across the river from us – which is home to a huge variety of resident and migratory birds. We have a 6.30 start at the bird sanctuary in the morning so guess we will have to miss our morning yoga session. As we sit on the balcony looking over the river, we can see a line of trees in which hundreds or cormorants are roosting along with dozens of Egrets and Pond Herons.

The second reason for coming was to take a houseboat journey across the lake to finish up at Alappuzha in a converted rice barge. However that has proved to be impossible - despite what the various companies say on their websites. They are happy to take you for an overnight trip but bring you back to the starting point - which is also where they moor up during the hours of darkness. All in all it seemed a pointless exercise so we are planning an extra day on the beach at Marari instead.

May have to adjust my opinion of Backwaters Breezes after finding that the shower is only connected to the cold water. To wash with hot water we had to revert to the bucket and jug! On the plus side, the restaurant next door - which has no outside lighting - was happy to deliver a meal to us so we could sit and have our dinner on the balcony while we watched the sun setting over the lake.

A walk in the woods

For our second day in Periyar, we had booked a nature trek and having paid for four people - the minimum charge - we were pleasantly surprised to find that we had a guide for just the two of us and we walked for three hours without seeing anyone else other than the ladies from the local tribe sitting on the lake edge with their bamboo fishing rods.

Since all the early morning slots had been pre-booked, we couldn't start until 10.30 which meant that it was already quite hot but we were only in the open for the first hour.

Our guide - Naieem - who had been doing the job for 19 years did an excellent job - gave us answers to all our questions and identified every bird, mammal and most of the insects and trees that we saw.

No elephants today but we did see Nilgiri Langur, Bison, Sambar deer, a large family of wild boar and of course the Lion-tailed Macaques. We also added more than 20 new bird species to our list including a couple of different eagles and the Malabar Trogon - which is apparently a red list species.

Nilgiri Langur

Linda's favourite was probably the Alexandrine Parakeet which spent some time having a meal in front of her and posed for her photos.

Alexandrine Parakeet

Yellow-throated Bulbul

As usual with such an experienced guide, he was spotting things - such as the deer, which were standing staring at us - which we would have missed completely.

Sambar Deer

I'm sure I saw a tiger in there somewhere!

All in all it was a great experience and one that we would recommend to anyone - perhaps ahead of the rafting. And as if that was not enough, we noticed that the resort hotel in the reserve had a Beer Parlour and had the chance to cool down with that Ice-cold bottle of Tuborg which I have been thinking about since we left Newhaven - 16 days in and the first cold beer - that must be a record.

An Ice-Cold Beer

PS. With the fishing in the lake, the deer roaming in the woods and the curry for every meal it seemed the perfect place for my good friend Chris Jackson - a suggestion for your next trip perhaps?

Missing Photos

Once Linda's camera had dried out we were able to get a few photos which she had taken before I dropped it in the water. More to follow now that everything is working normally.

Red-whiskered Bulbul

Blue Tiger Butterfly

Giant Squirrel

Armed Ranger showing his softer side - picking flowers for the ladies in our group.

It was all going so well.....

Until I took Linda's camera while she got settled on the bamboo raft and managed to drop it into the puddle of water at my feet!

So the only photos thereafter were from my phone - which is a pity since we saw a small group of wild elephants and a couple of new birds including a couple of kingfishers which were happy to pose for photos.

On the trek into the lake - with a guide and an armed forest ranger - we had a great view of the Giant squirrel which is native to this area and spotted some more birds and some very colourful butterflies.

While we stopped to eat the pack lunch which they provided, I asked the ranger what he expected to use his 16 gauge pump action shot gun for, and as he explained that it was more to frighten off any animals that got too close, he also admitted that in 4 years doing his job he had never spotted a tiger himself.

It would have been a great day all round apart from the camera incident - and the good news is that once we got back to our room and Linda set the camera in the sun to dry out thankfully it worked normally again.

So in addition to me being out of the doghouse, there are a few more pictures to upload once the internet connection speeds up

Alcohol!!!

After the Kathakali Theatre show this evening we stopped at a little coffee place which we had noticed advertising Italian food - and Kingfisher beer. Unfortunately, they no longer serve Kingfisher but the pasta was excellent and they also served a pretty good Mojito - at about £1.50 each the're just a little cheaper than Indigo Yard. As you can see Linda definitely enjoyed her first alcoholic beverage in 16 days. Think we may be back there again fairly soon.

Moving on

After the calm and peaceful oasis of Kaivalyam, our arrival in Thekkady was a bit of a challenge. This is the gateway to the Periyar Tiger Reserve and National Park and a very popular stop both for tour groups and individual travellers.

The drive from Munnar was an interesting experience not least because our driver seemed to spend most of the time on his phone - thankfully switching to hands free for some of the more challenging switchbacks. Driving through the lower reaches of the Western Ghats, we spent a lot of time climbing and descending on road surfaces which were occasionally badly damaged by monsoon rains in previous years.

Our home for the next 4 nights - at Mr Suresh's Green View Homestay is not quite as comfortable as Kaivalyam but reasonably priced accommodation here appears to be in short supply. It seems that you either pay £70-200 per night for the upper end accommodation or £15 - 20 for the Homestays.

The National Park covers about 120 sq miles and there are currently 42 tigers in the whole reserve, so there's about as much chance of spotting a tiger as there is of finding a cold beer around here. There are only a limited number of spaces for the park activities everyday and there were a lot of disappointed people when we arrived at the park office on Sunday afternoon because they were only here for a day or so and most of the places had been booked up by the tour groups.

However we managed to get booked on a couple of treks in the park, starting tomorrow with a 3 hr trek and then a couple of hours bamboo rafting on the lake - which is probably the best chance to spot a tiger. Then on Wednesday we have a second trek to a different part of the park - with more than 330 bird species, wild elephants, monkeys and tigers there should be enough to keep us occupied.

Discussing the price of Cardamon and Pepper

Thankfully it is a little cooler here - in fact it almost felt cold when we were up watching the dawn chorus this morning. Great visit today to Abraham's spice garden where we got a personal tour and then bought some spices to take home directly from the man who grew and picked them.

This week's pepper drying on the roof.

Tea, Tea and more Tea

There are nearly 100 sq miles of tea gardens around Munnar producing some 22,000 tonnes of tea every year. While the area was first planted by a Scotsman - who else? - in about 1870, his business failed and it was left to an Englishman to plant the first tea plants about 10 years later. Remarkably a huge percentage of the original tea bushes are still producing today.

On our third day here, after the usual early morning yoga class, we  decided to visit one of the tea factories and at the suggestion of the retreat manager, we hired a tuk-tuk for the day to take us there and back with a couple of extra stops. 

Our Driver - Bala - did a great job and even though the tea factory was a bit further than we had expected it was a great way to see the surrounding countryside and to experience the traffic!

While we have seen a few Indian couples and one or two families here at Kaivalyam, I don't think we were prepared for the huge number of Indian tourists we met on the road to Madupetty and at the tea factory and every stop along the way. According to our guide at the tea tour, it is busy like this every day - although a little quieter during the monsoon.

Had to queue for the English language tour so Linda left me there with some new pals while she sat in the sunshine.

Having learned all about the tea making process and stopped for a photo opportunity at the nearby hydro-electric dam, we headed back into town with a short stop at the flower gardens where Linda was fascinated by the size and colours of the Dahlias.

We also took in the local tea museum and then decided to stop for lunch. Linda had notice the Pizza place as we drove through earlier and decided that after 2 weeks of nothing but Indian food for breakfast, lunch and dinner, it would be good to have a change - it may not have been up to Pizza Express standards but it still tasted pretty good. Had intended to take a picture as soon as it arrived but unfortunately this is all that was left by the time I remembered.

By the time Bala go us back to the jeep for our return to the hotel he had been with us for more than 5 hours. and covered about 50Km. When I asked how much he said the fare should be 500 Rupees plus a little more for the waiting time so he seemed quite happy when I gave him 1000 rupees ( all of £11).

Where did you get that hat?

On our second day at Kaivalyam, we started with the morning yoga session and then after a quick breakfast it was off in the jeep to the top of the hill where we met our guide Vijay and a hike to the top of the ridge above the retreat. He was an excellent guide with an exceptional choice of headgear:-

Our walking companions were a couple of  young American guys from Washington D.C. who seemed to talk non-stop to each other but had very little that they wanted to share.

An interesting selection of headwear.

It was a challenging hike - starting from the road at 4,600 ft we climbed a further 2,700 ft to reach the peak at 7,300ft. the first section was a continuous climb to about 6,600ft and then the rest was in shorter stages - of course there were a number of false peaks and a stop along the way for a cup of tea - before we were standing right on top of the ridge and could see all the way to the top of the Western Ghats and Ana Mudi - the highest peak in southern India at about 9000ft.

That's Ana Mudi in the top right corner

Interspersed with small patches of forest, the landscape is nothing but tea gardens - nearly 100 square miles in total!

Local history says that the first westerner to arrive was  Colonel Arthur Wellesley (before he became the Duke of Wellington) in 1790 with a company of troops in search of Tipoo Sultan.

my official photographer

From the peak, we headed down into the valley on the other side and walked through the tea gardens until we reached Munnar where we were very pleased to see the Tuk-Tuk waiting to take us back to the retreat.

Scammed!!!

While I have travelled a lot and worked in a variety of countries, I would have to admit to having been caught by a few scams over the past 40 years or so. However I was caught out completely by a mobile phone scam here.

When we arrived at Cochin, there was a mobile phone shop in the airport where it was possible to get a local sim card but it was 4.30 am on Sunday morning and I was tired and there was a queue so I decided that I would leave it till I got into town. Then, while we were at Cherai beach, I tried one of the local phone shops and found that I would have to go to a main retail office.

So, on our way from Cherai to Hinterland, I got the taxi driver to make a detour via a main retail centre (a bit like the EE shop on Princes St) for Idea Cellular - one of the local service providers who were reported to have good coverage across Kerala. I was served by a very helpful young lady who filled out all the appropriate forms, attached my passport photo, copied my passport and Indian E-visa, and explained that I would have to pay 229 Rupees for unlimited phone calls across Kerala for 28 days - including 500Mb of data - and a further 200 Rupees for unlimited worldwide international calls for the same period - all of which tallied with my research. She then took me across to her colleague at the cash desk who took the money. She  gave me a sim card which we installed in my phone and told me that it would take about 3 hours for the sim to be activated. As we left, she gave me a brochure type folder with 'your paperwork'. Feeling pleased with the result, we got back in the taxi and headed of to Hinterland and our first yoga session.

After 24 hours and still no connection and finding that the folder with the paperwork was actually  advertisement for another product, I asked one of the staff members at the retreat to help me solve the problem. After a number of calls to Idea customer care he reported back that the sim card had never been registered and that as far as Idea were concerned there had been no transaction. Then in conversation with the Hinterland Manager, I learned that this had happened with a number of others to his knowledge.

So, it appears that the very helpful young lady in the Idea retail centre along with at least one of her colleagues had gone through all the appropriate paperwork processes, taken my money, passed me off with an unregistered sim card and then binned all the paperwork.

I intended to go back and sort them out until Linda pointed out that it had only cost me £5 after all, that the taxi to go back would be about £15 and that it would probably be a lot of hassle particularly if they just denied that it had ever happened. So I have settled for writing to the Chief executive of Idea, also to the head of the local tourism board, and to the Editor of the Times of India which has at least made me feel better about the whole incident.

Our second retreat

While we had enjoyed our stay at Hinterland, we were both ready for a change of scenery and routine. So, after a last early morning yoga class, and breakfast, we were packed and ready for our taxi when he arrived. Although it was only 120km to Munnar, the drive took close to 4 hours on a very busy road. Thankfully the driver was quite careful and we arrived without incident at the meeting point above our next destination where we had to wait for the jeep to collect us and transport us the last kilometre down a very steep hill - in low range for most of the journey.

Kaivalyam is quite different from Hinterland; firstly it is a much more commercial venture and aside from foreign tourists seems popular for young Indian Honeymoon couples - who don't appear for the yoga classes; secondly it is much more comfortable - 4 star hotel levels; and finally while there are thousands of acres of tea gardens around the perimeter, the retreat itself is surrounded by woodland and a large cardamon plantation.

On our first day we managed to avoid the yoga altogether and went on an early morning bird-watching walk instead - added a few new species to our list - and then joined a walk through the spice gardens. While most of the planting - 60 acres - is Cardamon, there is also  Pepper, Nutmeg, Cinnamon, ....and even coffee. Our guide was very knowledgeable about the variety of plants and trees around the place and we finished up at the riverside in the valley below the property.

Probably a bit more water here when the monsoon comes

This place is a real oasis of calm - feels completely separate from the hustle and bustle of the world outside. It also serves excellent vegetarian food and I have enjoyed the daily cookery demonstrations in the kitchen - lots of ideas and tips for cooking veggie food when we get home - as long as you are happy with Indian flavours. I still reckon that it would all taste better if it was accompanied by a cold bottle of Cobra!

The missing photos

 

Emma - the emu- greeted us as soon as we arrived.

Even after 6 days practice, there's still a long way to go!

A more experienced yogi

Could be Christmas Dinner if the retreat was not strictly veggie.