Green Woods Thekkady

... inside out. <br> Hollowed out. Will it be better that I stop thinking about beautiful people around me? Will it be better that I assume the camouflage of a cold-hearted cynical person that plays around with humor and defense rather than reveal my fragile heart to this unpredictable world which is full of vile and betrayals? Should I disarm my cynical façade and load off the anger, the ...

We decided to go by ourselves as the main transport was little TukTuks which are 3 wheelers and they only hold 2 people. It had rained heavily the night before our arrival so there were puddles everywhere. They drive like lunatics but almost safely. You can have cars coming at you from all directions but they seem to avoid each other. We negotiated for a price of $5US and after we had been going for about 5 minutes he pulled over and said for $10US he ...

... one of the highlights of South India for me so far.<br><br>After the spice walk, we went to the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary to take a boat cruise on the lake. The sanctuary has a lot of land and with the recent rains they were not predicting many animals to need to come to the lake, so we weren't expecting to find much. We saw a lot of deer and birds and bison and even saw one small group of elephants of in the distance. <br><br>When we ...

High with frustrations from a funeral I didn't completely understand, in a culture where I couldn't be consoled with a cuddle, or even a hand shake- "What would the others think"? I happily downed the extra strong Kingfisher, and marvelled at the laughter. This was soon followed by a 'Toddy Bar'. Several bottles of the local liquor later, and a litre of &#8220;White Mischief&#8221;, it was only natural that we all ran around ...

... we didn't get to see any big beasts as portrayed in the pictures that lined the little visitors' center (I seriously thought about taking a picture of the picture because that was as close as I got). I did end up getting my critter fix though because as we were leaving there were monkeys running around out in the wild just hanging out like any other visitor by the visitors' center. It was crazy!!! I've come to realize ...

... simple home-stays, corporate boxes with useful facilities, boutique hotels, evil chains with nasty food, etc. - and Cardamom County is definitely at the resort end of the spectrum. It is nicely landscaped and there are loads of staff to sweep up every stray leaf almost before it hits the ground. The restaurant team are very friendly, but veering towards the sort of friendly that makes you feel a little suffocated. We ended up having ...

... or 8a.m the next day. The only real peace found was in seva and being on stage with her. I still cannot comprehend how in the mist of utter chaos and pandemonium that once you sit near her all the suffering and thoughts wash away. It is undeniable that she radiates divine energy from her physical body. Even if non-believers watch her they can't help but be in awe of her amazing ability to never stop giving darshan hours upon hours-no bathroom breaks-no ...

... were heading right for us) we were braced to run! We would have spotted many more animals had it not been for an Indian family (including nan and grandad who suffered from severe flatulence!) who spoke at high decibals throughout and failed to understand the concept of keeping quiet! (It was quiet entertaining though thinking of ways to lose them in the jungle!)

... even a rare wild bison and boar. Also peacocks and rabbits. We had a private bonfire and fireside dinner this evening. One of the workers asked if we were just married. He thought Patrice acted like a new bride! Don't know exactly what that means. She wasn't behaving any differently than every day at home. Packing before bed so we can try for an early start back to Bangalore with a stop in Mysore City.

... phrases spewed from her over-glossed lips. "Ooh-la-la, that's tooooo much." "I have to ring my Doctor in Paris tomorrow, I have nausea." "My waistline's expanding, I usually do kick-boxing in Paris" At one point she said she was followed by a rickshaw driver for one and a half hours in Delhi while out strolling. You don't get many blind rickshaw drivers, I mumbled to myself. That evening we took a taxi into town and after an hour or so in an Internet café (where I subsequently ...