inland towards the Wetern Ghats. It's incredible how nice and cool
the air was up there. We had a private taxi cart us around all
weekend which allowed us to squeeze 2 weekend trips into 2 days.
We left Friday evening and drove out of Kochin a way we had never been
before. It's election time now so the street were packed full of
supporters and speeches and demonstrations and weird jeeps with 4 foot
speakers blasting music or political propaganda driving around. We
past a crowd marching in all white carrying red communist flags and
chanting. Pretty bizarre to see, coming from America. The 2 major
parties are the Communist and the Congress parties. Our tour guide
told us that he thinks the Congress party will beat out the communists
this round. Mainly because the communists are very resistent to
change and development. Election Day is today so we'll have to wait
and see!
The sun was setting as we entered the mountains and the smells changed
quickly from those of the city to forest and dirt and rain. The air
was so humid and cool and there was mist everywhere. For a moment,
the drive actually really made me feel at home... driving down a back
road in the woods on a cool summer night after a rainfall. It was
nice.
As we got to Munnar, all you could see were the sillouettes of the
mountains with scattered lights and the stars. I could see the big
dipper perfectly from my window. The scoop was facing down towards
the earth... which I'm pretty sure I've never seen it that way in the
US (but I could be wrong). I told myself it was a unique experience
regardless.
Our hotel was awesome. Except we were expecting to walk out onto our
balcony and see the lush green hills only to find the next hotel 3
feet away looking directly into the window with a couple in bed.
Awkward.
The next day we spent hopping all around Munnar seeing the sights. We
hit up the Tea Museum which showed a cool documentary of the history
of the area. The rooms had all the british influence with heads of
animals that were hunted at the time. "A lovely room of death" as
Laura would desrcibe. Next we went to a national park and took a bus
up to about 1 mile in elevation and hiked around this area where a
really rare breed of goat hang out. We pet one and almost got butted.
At the boundary for where we were allowed to hike there was a sign
marking the area that said, "Here is the limit". So we obviously had
to take pictures dashing across it.
We saw a big damn with a lake and shopped at all the merchant shops.
It started to rain and ended up downpooring. We saw bees nest high up
in the tree tops and people selling huge jars of "honey" on the side
of the road... which we learned was actually just colored sugar water.
Rascals! Then we moseyed around a flower garden and hit the road for
Periyar, a four hour drive on this windy, narrow beautiful road
through the jungle.
Periyar is a wildlife/tiger preserve with a really cute town at its
border. We stayed overnight in the town and then got up at 5 am to
catch the first boat ride out on the river. 2 1/2 hours later... we
set sail. (I could go into the extreme inefficient use of time our
tour guide used, but I'll leave that up to Laura). We got to see some
wild elephants, bore and buffalo from the boat getting their early
morning river drink on.
Then we went on a guided 3 hour trek through the jungle. Our guide
was very nice, but tiny and had no weapons on him. Initially he said
that there wasn't any tigers in this part, and if there were it'd only
be at night. Then about an hour into it he said..."well, actually I
guess there are some tigers that come this way to hunt... but I don't
have a gun... haha". We were like WHAT THE.... But it was okay. We
saw lots of moneys and these crazy big deer that bark at you when you
startle them. Also lots of cool birds, a mongoose, swarms of
beautiful butterflies, elephant tracks and big holes that bears had
dug up to search for terminites.
Then we got to ride an elephant!!!! She was BEAUTIFUL...and 27 years
old, just like me!! Her trainer was soooo nice and said that he had
been with her for 12 years and that they were very good friends. He
would speak to her in Maylalam and she would do exactly what he said.
We asked if she had any babies and he answered, "Oh, she's not
married!" It was a lot of fun.
Pretty successful weekend. Long winded description. Enjoy the pictures!!
~Cathy
No comments:
Post a Comment