Hotel Himarani Thekkady

... Hotel men go and take them outside at 4PM in the afternoon and while watching this scene unfold the receptionist asks for my attention and shows me to the room.

The room is small and unclean. It is definitely not worth what I am paying for and I decide to try my luck elsewhere. S.Bathery is small and dingy, with rat holes everywhere. As I walk I see a morbidly obese rat trying to outrun (more like ...

... who I must be in order to receive such special service. He orders the 5 waiters around my table for things, and soon I dine on a three course meal delightfully scrumptious. The fish mole was by far the best fish dish I have had in Kerala. On the way back to the hotel, the streets have suddenly gotten full of men and boys, loitering and hanging out. I am talking like hundreds, if not thousands of guys, from 8 years old to 80 years old. It's not the weekend ...

... the rickshaws pulling over and hollering (like I said you get hassled everywhere), I run into an Indian woman who begins chatting me up. She tells me her son who has a family just killed himself (which I read about but I'll explain later), and she is in mourning etc. We end up walking into town together, finding out that I am Spanish places a gigantic grin on her face, tooth missing and all, explaining her daughter and granddaughter live in Barcelona. She immediately takes to me ...

... visit Topslip after 4pm as we cannot find any animals out.. Also we have to return before 6.30 pm otherwise we have to stay there itself for security reasons. For staying we have to book cottages in pollachi, so there is no staying back and we have to return. We don’t feel like giving up again, so thought of giving a try. To make us worth for that visit some wild dogs looks like wolf was in a group and could spot some bisons as well. The roads were absolutely horrible after ...

... drops; anti-tussin sore throat lozenges. Now I'm lost. I've skippd so many note writing nights that I don't know where I've been. So I'll start with today. We awoke in the Olive Brook Inn outside of Munnar, a hill station famous for its tea estates. After stopping to buy an armload of anti-cough drugs, we set off for Evrikalum National Park for a 20 minute hike up the hill to see Nilgiri goats and possibly other ...

... development and thick jungle to tea and spice plantations as far as the eye could see. After stopping at a church and seeing a local shrine or two, we hit the road. It was quite an experience seeing one of them; the shrine to the Virgin Mary is pelted by Rupee coins as passerby chuck them out the window. We finally pulled into Kumily and go to relax a little bit for the night. Rosalie had her 21st Birthday today ...

... yum. Got up at 5.45am to get the earliest boat in the reserve at 7am. Pretty much the same experience but with the added bonus of a herd of buffalo and Luke caught a glimpse of a howler monkey. No elephants. Enjoyed brekkie at a place called Wildernest, Becky had4runny egg yolks on toast mmmm and Luke ad cornflakes ad croissants yum yum yum. Packed up our stuff and Becky bartered hard for some Tibetan jewellery as our rickshaw waited outside to take us to the bus station. xxxx

... Self- the eternal) in everyone, and serve others as you would yourself. Anyway, a tall order, but I know Amma knows and lives this. I am not a saint. I am often confused and suffer just like everyone else, but when I glimpse that love that truth through grace alone. I can honestly say it's all perfect and everything is going to be okay. No matter who or where you are on your path, it's okay. Be easy on yourself. Love your self. I ...

... it. There was a lovely beach. Every morning there was a sarong man holding up his beautiful sarongs, on the first morning I thought he was hanging up the washing! We called him the "the washing man"! Every time you buy something you have to barter. Jack and I got ear infections, we had an ear steam, it was relaxing, but it didn't work, so we had to get antibiotics from the same doctor Daddy saw 12 years ago. We went to Hawah Beach, where we went to a restaurant and had ...

... Usha hold your breath....we saw 4 wild elephants! Right on the side of the road. Huge gray shapes in the dark. And two different types of deer. This morning we awoke to what we thought was more rain. Turned out to be literally a babbling stream. It is beautiful here. Well, they have told us our breakfast is ready, so we will sign off for now. We are borrowing the resort's computer. We will try to upload some photos. If not, we will do so tomorrow from Bangalore.