Lakes & Lagoons Kerala

The bus gets crowded and hours later I step off in S. Bathery, the closest town to Waynard Nature Reservation. I get tell that this area hardly gets any foreigners and everyone looks at me like I am out of place. I get a rickshaw and go to the Regency hotel. Talking to reception, they inform me that they have doubled the room rate, and that the only room available is the deluxe room, out of my price range. I get the ...

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 ...

... jewel in South India's crown!

My kettuvallam (boat made by tying together of pieces of wood - there's not a nail in the whole structure!) bedroom was very comfortable and the shower room good. It's a sturdy vessel and altho' now converted into luxurious boats with modern amenities, they were once the primary means of transporting cargo here (Kerala's staple crops are rice, coconuts and fish), It rained all night but the day recovered well, from early the following ...

... s B*z*, Gre*t Bl*ck Woodpecker, Orient*l Bro*d-billed Roller, Nilgiri Flyc*tcher, Bro*d-t*iled Gr*ssbird *nd Nilgiri ...

... and somebody eating some straw from a pile of hay but i think they are just drunk on Amma's overflowing love. Once we were closer to the stage where Amma was hugging i could start to feel a presence from her and really needed to cry. There was lots of people on stage around her protecting her and helping with the ritual and you could only catch an occasional glimpse of her. We saw one guy who was helped off the stage as his legs had gone wobbly ...

... us the stretch from Allepey to Kollam. The ferry turned out to be for tourists and very different to the local one we had taken before. This one had plastic seats on a shaded top deck where you could sit and watch the river life go by. The eight hour cruise was quite beautiful and relaxing along the backwaters and time was spent admiring the life along the river and chatting with Australian Stusy and English Ben. At one point we stopped for a thali lunch and were ...

... didn't stop there; we were also invited to join them later in the week to visit a special temple in the forest where the deity was a stone; there was mention of elephants and other treats even something about forest children and their hostels. Well, since we were simply marking time until our departure for Sri Lanka we accepted what we thought might be two invitations. Most important we agreed where and when we would meet for the first event.

... ago. He is pretty big here and has a big Math (order of renunciate's) There were thousands of sanyassis there and it was inspiring. Amma was invited to give a speech (of course it wasn't ranslated and kind of boring, but the devotional erergy and food were sweet). It was a rather bumpy and uncomfortable bus ride there though, standing room only for many). I was exsausted upon returen to the ashram and rested. I slept a long time again and was upset I missed the 4:30am ...

... a 20 min journey for 20 rps (3 or 4p). We watched a Kathakali performance, a colourful dance drama, fab make-up and costumes. Great ideas to take back to school for mod-roc masks! Whilst the actors were doing some crazy eye jiggling, Bini nodded off and I managed to chuck water over myself. You can't take us anywhere, disgraceful pair!

... 10 hours for a restroom break, even after me asking repeatidly, were the main spoilers. but all in all, i made it and am enjoying kochi! im staying at a really nice families guest house and so far spent my afternoon getting stuffed on a wonderful omlet and other american goodies, which i had been craving, and walking on the ...