Mount Shelt Munnar

... views over the surrounding countryside, lakes, mountains and tea plantations. It was hot in the sun but we made it up there in time for a pleasant picnic breakfast of cold toast, jam, eggs and tea. The peak was covered in mist so it was a bit chilly and not much to see! On our descent, we wound our way sloping down the other side of the peak, and into the vegetation. Our guide had warned us of the risk of leeches so we all tucked our ...

... s great fun and very friendly. All the children want their photographs taken. Then we are asked into the next house, and the next one, and more cups of tea were made in each. The same group of people come with us into each house. The houses comprise one very small room as you enter which is a hindu shrine, then the main room serves as living and sleeping space with a couple of beds, a wardrobe and TV ...

... normally loves to eat, Cameron has shown little enthusiasm for food (unless you count ice cream) on this trip and his rallying cry to waiters has often been 'plain rice for me please!' This has been partly due to his allergy to peas and lentils and partly to the high chilli count which between them ruled out most of the dishes in North India. Anyway, hopefully all that was behind us now and at the Windermere he didn't even have room for ice cream. Well, not much...

... unknown to me, but upon arriving at the Siva temple i was greeted by the sight of seven elephants, decked out in ceremonial gear with several temple priests atop and rows of priests playing various drums and other instruments in front of them. This went of for several hours, and i left after a couple, only to find that there was also a performance of typical Kerala dancing in the Darbar hall ground behind, which occupied the rest of my evening. Very ...

... getting eaten or scaring the animals. Some people couldn't contain their excitement though and the park staff had to shut them up time after time. I shared my binoculars with the boy next to me as we looked at the various animals. Other times, I walked in and around the park, binoculars in hand. Once a wild boar passed within twenty feet of me. Another time, a Malabar Hornbill flew into a sapling a few feet from me. This was what I wanted to do--just ...

I met a least 4 people that told me :"You have got to go to Fort Cochin". So I went. And I was not very much impressed. Most of the time your fellow travelers are right but this time they were not... Yes the Chinese fishing nets are kind of neat, and different. But that's all there is to Fort Cochin. I also attended a Kathakali ...

... met three British girls and did a 22 hour tour of the palm tree fringed Keralan backwaters, which was definitely a highlight. Then we headed up to Kochi for a day, and then arrived in Munnar yesterday. One thing that's been on my mind lately is the idea of happiness. The thing that really blows my mind is that everywhere in the world, kids just want to laugh and have fun. Watching a kid play with a kite in Alleppey is the same as watching a ...

... a couple of occassions, it seemed the trance effect of the playing lost its hold and the snakes had a couple of good goes out our entertainer, which he deftly, but a little nervously, dodged. A small family came by to watch. Then, to the delight of all, one of the cobras decided to rear at the crowd and slowly made its way toward us. As one might expect, being faced with the nasty end of a cobra is a pretty exchilirating/ scary as **** experience. I backed away, Steve ...

... Planet destination and we found ourselves on the softest mattresses we had slept on yet. We slept hard, woke up, spent the day on Fort Kochi island with our new Portuguese friend, Nuno, and ended the evening with a Katakali dance performance that gave me crazy and drum-beating dreams. Oh yeah, and we ordered in pizza- Pizza Hut pizza, if you can believe that. It was one of the most expensive meals we've eaten (excepting the nasty cheese stuffed crab that ripped us off in Anjuna) and ...

... s industry would deliver. Jugdeesh would be yelled at and given more work. We'd accompany Shanty and Sonny to town in a circa 1950s beast of a car to perform tasks and obtain necessary building materials in an eternally frustrating and linear manner. In the evenings, we would sit around after dinner, talk about the last 10 years of our lives and get the occasional glimpse of Jugdeesh doing the Bombay boogie as he cleaned dishes in the kitchen. 'We'll open the day ...