The Wilder Nest Idukki

... halte d'une bonne heure sous un abri bus car la pluie s'accentue mais nous attendons en vain car elle ne s'arretera pas de si tot. 100 km nous separe d'Iduki, sur lesquels nous gardons les yeux grands ouverts sur les paysages. Nous avons privilegie les petites routes de montagnes pour profiter des panoramas mais il nous a fallu 7h pour rejoindre notre destination, un bled sans interet...

... my towel and a sack of trekking socks, nothing made any difference, we had to go through the technique to become equanimous with the pain. Throughout the meditation sessions little old shiny, happy, Panda head Goenca would chant and sing and i thought he was a horrendous singer. The first time i heard him i could not believe that people were not cracking up laughing at his voice. He would also give some guidance and encouragement via a crackly CD played on a ghetto ...

... only to find ourselves on the NH49, which is the road that goes east through Teni and eventually to Madurai. To confuse the matter even more, every now and again we would see a sign for Kumily or Thekkady. We eventually ended up in Pooparai and found that there is a road from here to Thekkady, and it's 76kms. So the choices were carry on today to Teni, another 36 kms ...

... the day we went up to Ooty on the train, that disturbed me. At one of the stops I had nipped off the train to take photos of the engine. I was hanging around outside, stretching my legs, when I became aware of some jollity going on on the other side of the train. There were three young Indian girls, aged about 8 or 9, running back and forth between carriages. But then I noticed they were sneaking looks at a ...

... scene from all angles, the flotilla of boats headed slowly back to the jetty. By this time it was almost 9am and we were ravenous. Kumily: All that fresh unpolluted air does wonders for the appetite. Breakfast over, we called our driver to take us to some other places outside the sanctuary. Spice shopping in Kumily yielded several purchases of locally grown cardamom, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg; and some real vanilla as a special souvenir. Wish I had bought some more of the natural ...

... off with a wobbly lower lip! Happy to say I did pull myself together though, reminded my self I was 29, not 9. I spent the afternoon talking with the lady of the house. However, all got a bit freaky when she started asking me very personal questions about my love life - and I mean very personal. I managed to fob her off and changed the subject but I have to say I suddenly got very freaked out and thought I might have put myself in a strange situation! With the benefit of ...

Amy: I woke up and realized that Brent wasn't there. He had taken an early-morning walk around, but he came back for breakfast a little later. [Naresh: I wandered around the property. Highlights were a nice spider web and bottles of booze growing from a tree -they'd showed us on the first day that they enclose near-ripe fruits in plastic to keep the insects and birds away in a non-pesticide ...

... compelling we found the performance. We'd expected the kids to be begging to leave within minutes, but all three stayed happily in their seats for the entire ninety minutes. I'm pretty sure that Kathakali has no crossover potential outside of Kerala. Still, I was happy to see it the one time, and I certainly enjoyed it more than my six hours of Wagner in Vienna some years back. Plus, the bright colors make for some fun pictures.

... never do the tings they did with their face!Hand gestures and dancing on the sides of their feet all in time to the music.It was amazing to watch the two guys one dressed as a girl(no girls in Kathakali dance) act out a play about a maid getting sent to get treasure from heaven but falling in lust with gods son! 03/05/07 8:15am We caught a bus to Kochi and spent many frustraing hours in the trani station trying to figure out how to get tickets and when eventually we ...

... flew out again and they got married. If he did not like her when he met her I believe he could have said no but apparently they hit it off and are perfect for each other. They make a very cute couple when you look at them. By the time I met them they were in day 3 of the three day wedding and looked like they could barely stand up. I felt so badly for them. But still they had a smile on their faces - even if it was pasted. The morning ceremony was really the most important one - the ...