Mickeys Cottage Thekkady

... morning to the before dawn prayer that lasts 15 minutes). I go see the local caves, which turn out to be overpriced and super crowded, much to my dismay (after climbing a mountain for an hour), so I return and try to go to the Wayanard Reservation (again overpriced). I arrive only to see it's also super crowded, so again I did not enter and after talking to the warden, he advises me to come at 6:30.

The ...

... 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 ...

... 2.00pm.

We just thought of dropping to Kadamparai power project although we don’t have the approval just to give a try as heard the architect was really marvelous and the canal is a must visit place, but our car petrol tank was showing down arrow and we don’t have bunks in that route. We gave up again and started towards Aliyur to fill petrol then Topslip. We reached sethumadai check post @ 4pm (the downhill of topslip) The forest officers were not suggesting ...

... as I had just finished writing the blog above about the other spider. Feeling faint I quickly close the bathroom door and curl under the mosquito net. That night my dreams are plagued with spiders invading my room. The next morning, exhausted from lack of sleep, I creep in to see the spider awaiting me on top of the toilet (seriously?). Oh Mr. Spider, why are you stalking me? I can't imagine a steady food supply in my bathroom. Won't you please go away?

... the day I signed on the ship. The romance, the affair, the human side of me should be hidden under a heavy blanket and away from sun rays. La passion, the fountain of joy and trouble all together. What a dilemma! Stop thinking romantically can be such a easy tool to alienate one from another. What a handy tool to be left out the drama, the commotion, the madding crowd. Locked up. Emptied ...

... be gone. Abraham, the owner, showed us around and he was very knowledgeable. He'd been written up in a book by Monty Don, a popular English author who wrote a book about 80 world gardens. He showed us the pepper vine (yes, pepper grows on a vine), walked through a cardamom forest, tried to guess what the allspice leaf smelled like (the guesses were clove and cinnamon), encountered cinnamon, cari leaf, bit into a ...

... to make up some sticks for walking. The only disappointment was that I didn't see a sloth bear, as it happens though they are very rare. I do identify with the sloth bear; it must be because we both like sleeping. The other thing I did in Periyar was take a boat trip around the lake in the park. The cost of entering the park is 300 rupees which is a bit steep and slightly more than the 25 rupees the ...

... ve arrived Two beeps: Back up Two beeps: Go forward Two beeps: Yo' momma Three beeps represents the emphatic form of any of the above messages, thus: Two beeps: Pull over Three beeps: Pull the #%^&@ over now, you #@!%@ To the rhythm of Edgar Allan Poe's The Bells: The horns! Beeping horns! Keeping time time time in a kind of frantic chime To the bumping and the swaying of the van. Pulling up behind a tik-tik in a ...

... whistle or bell means stop. Two means go. A constant hitting or whisting or ringing means its okay to pass or backup. I still haven't figured out what they do if it's not okay; luckily that hasn't come up. The conductor punches the rupee amount on a couple of tickets and hands them to you. They help you in all cases to get to where you need to go, waving at you when your stop approaches. In the buses and trains, you meet all kinds of people, depending on which bus ...

... next place we went to was very nice. We went to this nice beach, but first we had to go through these lovely stores. The sea was so warm; there were lots of sea snails in beautiful little shells. One day on the beach me and Jack were searching for crabs, we found quite a big one. It was really fun. The whole family made a massive sand castle. Daddy took me into the big waves, we did lots of jumps, and it was such fun. We had to go on a train, we waited for a while but then it ...