Jungle Village Thekkady

... that they are toying with me, so I refuse and get back into the rickshaw. I go to the hotel next door, a run down building with men hanging outside. I talk with reception and he goes to call and discuss it with half a dozen people. Already wary of what is taking place, my attention is distracted by a large group of men stumbling out of the restaurant, completely drunk. They seem to be arguing and pushing ...

Off on a train again. Heading up back into the mountains, this time to Waynard Nature Reserve. Train is much nicer than bus in my book to get around. I begin to notice a lot of stares from people, different than what I have encountered before. While foreigners are somewhat common in Kerala (which you still get stared at), as I leave the busy areas to go into more rural areas, those stares last longer and are more intrusive. As I completely understand the nature of ...

... a small team we started @ 2.pm with one guide (Guide is important as we know it from Mudumalai's trip) and headed towards Valparai by driving remaining 12 hairpin bends, the roads and the nature was absolutely no words to explain.

We have come across more than 40 hairpin bends but few are extra large hairpins so the govt didn’t consider those bends in count. The initial plan is to visit Balaji Temple but it was dropped. We reached Valparai @ 4pm its just a small ...

... someone to get hurt because it seemed likely with their quick movements but everything was well-timed and the demonstrations happened without injury. After the fighting was done, there was fire-dancing and jumping through rings of fire, and we had a fun time watching this show.

We went back to the hotel for a cooking demonstration in which they made a delicious spicy chicken dish that my mom was unable to eat so I got two and later had ...

... time to find out what happened to all that tea. The factory consisted of heavy machinery and an oven that was used to dry out the tea leaves. Not to mention, we were engulfed in the drone of machines and the heavy scent of tea, it was surreal. Tea is pretty cool and the tea factory was pretty neat, but we all know that only the British like to take their tea black and any good Indian will tell you that chai (Indian tea ...

... 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 ...

... another as if we were family and friends. True love is irresistible. Not even the (greatest evil or ego, as it were, can withstand it's glory). As Baba would say "Love is The strongest medicine", there is nothing it can't cure. The sooner we see each other as being an extension of ourselves, the sooner the compassion will come. Don't forget to forgive others all the time, and perhaps even more so yourself. Love yourself! You are stuck with you your whole life. If you can't ...

... did a 3 hour (5- 6km) night time trek with our new friends Matheus and Faheem. No tigers were spotted but we did see several wild deer one of whom made a loud cry when they spotted us to warn the others to flee. Amongst other animals we also spotted a large herd of bisson which stampeeded when they spotted us, luckily not in our direction (but it sounded like ...

... I guess when I saw the word "advanced", I thought of industrialization, modernization, and/or even the metropolis of the country. The city, by our standards, would appear to be impoverished to many people (at least those from the industrialized world). The buildings appeared to be very old. There was a lot of trash scattered about on the side of the streets, and there were not a lot of cars on the road-even though the traffic patterns were crazy! Most of the locals took the bus to work ...

... all. With frostbite setting in, we slid off the boat and while walking back to our taxi a crowd had gathered in front of us looking out across the lake. As we approached we saw in the distance a mummy elephant and her little baby, aaaaaaaaah. A little further up the road were about eight monkies swinging around in the trees. We began to wonder why we didn't just stay in the warm car where we'd have had a great view of some 'real' animals. Back at the resort that evening we tucked ...