To God's Own Country

Prologue

The traveler that I am, somehow God's own country, Kerela had remained elusive for me for quite long. My only visit to Kerela had been a long weekend drive from Bangalore to Kozhikode in Dec, 2006. Even before we entered the Kerelan border marked by swaying coconut trees, I had formed two opinions of the place, its very Green and very Hot even in the month of December. Over the next few days the explorer in me was slowly drowned in the resort's swimming pool, as my friends refused to step out of the resort's oasis into the day's heat. When I did finally manage to convince them to accompany me to Kappad beach (where Vasco-da-gama had first landed), the deserted beach occupied only by local fisherman failed to compete with the beautiful resort, and everyone except me unanimously decided that the swimming pool was a much better bet for a good swim. When we finally left after spending three days in the resort, I felt as cheated as eating paranthewali gali's paranthas in a south delhi mall.

On this short trip, I carried back with me three misconceptions about Kerela :
1) Its too hot to be visited any other time of the year except Dec to Feb.
2) Being a coastal state, its tough to get vegetarian food
3) the place would generally fail to live upto its hype as the top tourist destination in India.

As it turned out, I was pleasantly surprised to be proven wrong on all three accounts :)

Anyways, to cut a long story shot, I decided to take full use of two holidays at Diwali, to plan a full week trip to Kerela (22nd Oct to 30th Oct). After going through my Lonely Planet and couple of other travel books, it seemed it was almost a no-brainer to arrive at the list of places that I wanted to visit. These included Wayanad, Munnar, Thekkady, Kumarakom, Alleppey, Varkala, Kovalam and Thiruvananthapuram (trivandarum). I had to drop Wayanad as it was bit out of way and increased my traveling distance considerably. Second decision was to choose between a self-driven circuit from Kochi to Kochi, rent a cab from kochi to thiruvananthapuram, or to use public transport to get around. As I failed to get a reasonable deal on either a bike or a self-driven car, and I wanted to keep my trip adventurous without going overboard, I opted to rent a car for the first four days, and to do on our own for the remaining five. The tentative itinerary started looking something like this :

Day 1) early morning flight to Kochi - drive straight to Munnar(127 km) - sight seeing by car
Day2 ) Plan a trek to Atthukad waterfalls, visit Matupetty dam
Day 3) Early morning drive to Thekkady/Kumily (90 km) - bamboo rafting on Periyaar lake
Day 4) Explore kumily - kumily to Kumarakom (120km) - bid farewell to cab
Day 5) Kumarakom, hire a houseboat to go to Alleppey.
Day 6) Alleppey
Day 7) Alleppey - kollam tourist cruise (8 hours) - to varkala by bus (30 km)
Day 8) bus to kovalam (60 km)
Day 9) trivandarum - evening flight to delhi

Over the years, both Vasu and I have realized that we like a bit of unpredictability during our trips. To achieve this, we generally stay well clear of any organized package kind of trips and we try to use public transport whenever possible to get around. But planning on your own, takes a fair bit of research to come up with the places you want to visit, tourist-traps you want to avoid, modes of available transport with route-maps and timetables, and a list of hotels you might stay in. I enjoy the planning part almost as much as the actual travel, and it really makes me look forward to being in the places I am reading about. The reward of all this effort is that we can plan an itinerary suited exactly to our taste and in the process save a bit of money as well. Also, public transport may not lead to the most comfortable or fastest way of traveling, but it allows us to explore the places more closely and throws in unexpected surprises, sometimes good and sometimes bad, but unforgettable all the same. To the same end, we also avoid making advance hotel bookings unless we are traveling in peak tourist season (which again we try to avoid) or traveling with parents. This allow us flexibility to stay longer in places we like and leave the places we don't like sooner than we had planned.

So my advance preparation included, booking a flight to Kochi with return flight from Trivandarum (@10K per person), first night hotel booking at Munnar ( Ayur county@1500 Rs recommended by my dear friend Deepak), and a cab to pick me up from Kochi airport and take me to Munnar, Thekkady with a final drop at Kumarakom from makemytrip @5700 Rs. Apart from this I collected information about the places from books & internet, heard first hand accounts of my friends who have been there, and printed maps and information that may come handy.

Day 1 (22nd Oct) - The Journey begins - Destination Munnar

Our journey began with an early morning flight to Kochi. The flight was pretty uneventful except for the fact that it was actually an international flight going on to Dubai, and there was some confusion when we were suddenly pointed to immigration area for departures. As it turned out there was almost a back door entry for such flights and we found ourselves in the duty free zone without going through immigration. As we walked out of Kochi airport, we were expecting someone from Makemytrip to meet us at the arrivals. This was my first experience with any such agency, and immediately I had to regret it, as we spent the next 15 mins trying to find anyone looking for us. Finally, I had to call makemytrip office, who were completely clueless. They gave me the number of the local company, who put the blame on makemytrip saying that they do have a booking but for a week later. Thankfully, they offered to send a car over, and after an hour of waiting or may be more, we were finally on our way to Munnar.The journey had started on a bad note, but that is not always such a bad thing, as I believe that on a long trip something or other is bound to go wrong and sooner the better. Thankfully, that was it, and the next 9 days were going to be the most amazing. Irony being that the problem occurred on the planned section of the trip, and the unplanned ones went smooth as silk.

Enroute to Munnar, a couple of my misconceptions were proven wrong straightaway. The weather was surprisingly nice and we stopped for a delicious vegetarian banana leaf meal, that would leave us literally licking our fingers ( actually they didn’t give any spoon so there was no other way). A vegetarian meal, served on a banana leaf, consisting of rice, sambhar, rasam, papad, pickles, butter milk and two vegetable preparations of the day. This was followed by a dessert called payassam, banana chips and some fresh bananas. A king's meal that costed us 50 Rs per person. As it turned out the vegetarian food was one of the best we had anywhere in India, and when I did try some fish it was equally delicious.

After a most satisfying lunch, we started the beautiful drive to Munnar on curvy roads flanked by impossible greenery on either side that threatened to engulf the road if not kept in check. The generous amount of rainfall and plenty of sunshine ensures that there is plush greenery anywhere you go in Kerela. Our driver for the trip was Verghese, a friendly fellow from Kochi who spoke decent Hindi. Only trouble was that as soon as we landed in his car, he also became our tour operator directing where we go, where we eat and where we stayed. I am sure this would be appreciated by lots of tourists, but being directed is exactly what we hate most. So, our tour started right away. We stopped at couple of waterfalls on the way. Then Verghese took us to a Spice Garden on the way. There were conducted tours for 100 Rs per person, where a guide showed you around and explained the intricacies of spice plantations. It was a nice experience but seemed too touristy and crowded. At the end of the short tour, you could buy locally produced spices, home-made chocolates, beauty products and health related products. I had a strong suspicion that the drivers get a fair amount of commission from the sale, as everyone was strongly motivated to convince their passengers to stop there.  I cant comment about the quality and pricing of the products, but the home-made chocolates were really yummy. After that Verghese had planned an itinerary for us that included Kathakali dance performance, followed by Martial arts performance, followed by full body massage, followed by dinner at Munnar town - all this even before we landed at our booked hotel for the day :) We decided to say no to Kathakali and martial arts show as we felt tired after the long drive, but were tempted by the massage option.

A few kilometers before Munnar town, the haphazard greenery gave way to manicured tea plantations on either side. The tea plantations with uniformly sized plants form a green colored carpet with dark criss crossing walking paths forming delicately beautiful patterns. Most of the tea plantation in Munnar is owned by Tata. The surroundings are beautiful, though Munnar town itself is quite uninspiring. We went straight to Mayura massage center, where both of us settled for a 90 minute massage + steam bath package that costed us 1000 bucks each. Massage was pretty relaxing, though I have nothing to compare it against, this being my first experience. Yes I have been to thailand and No I was not brave enough to go for much more tempting Thai massage. Guess my Indian roots made sure, the first one to roam his hands all over my oily body had to be a guy. Anyways, I was satisfied that I was finally doing something on a trip which was good for my body instead of the usual punishment that it goes through under harsh sun, bitter cold and dusty roads.

We wanted to try Sarvana Bhavan for dinner, but our driver again managed to lead us into a restaurant of his choice. No doubt he got some paybacks from the restaurant (may be a free meal), and I am equally sure he got some commission from the massage place. He was disappointed to know that we already had a room booking. Otherwise, he would have got us a nice, cheap room at a friend's hotel, he said. It was almost 9 and started to rain by the time we reached our hotel at Ayur county which was located at a very pretty location, but too far from the main town to suit the needs of travelers like us who just needed to spend the night. It had been a long day for us and we only had energy for a quick bath before going to bed. Munnar being a hill-station can get quite chilly at night and we had to ask for extra blankets to make sure we slept cozily. Our original plan was to reach the hotel at lunchtime, and we could only manage to get there at bedtime. Already we were not going to plan, and this only meant that it was going to be a fun trip....

Day 2 (23rd Oct) - Exploring Munnar

We woke up early on Sunday to a beautiful morning. There was a slight chill in the air but the sun felt great.We decided to have our breakfast out on the terrace which had a lovely view of the surrounding tea plantations. There was a signboard at the resort which pointed to a short trek to a lake downhill. I would have loved to spend some time exploring the picturesque surroundings on foot but our driver Verghese was still in charge of our tour planning and he was already ready with the car.

The first stop for the day was a waterfall on the way to Munnar town. I felt the one we saw on the Kochi-Munnar route was more beautiful than this one, as the natural look of the waterfall was spoiled by some high fencing. Anyway, Verghese got a nice opportunity to wash his car, while we decided to walk ahead and take a stroll amidst the beautiful tea gardens. 

Enroute, we also stopped at a quite location between the tea gardens. We decided to venture into the plantation using the narrow walkways that workers use to pluck tea leaves by hand. A short walk away there was a big rock that we climbed on. We sat there for some time, enjoying the lovely view and cool breeze coupled with warm sunshine. I felt really peaceful, so different from the maddening Delhi crowd. I could have spent the whole day, just sitting there, doing nothing at all. Meanwhile, Vasu and I started dreaming about owning a small house in that lush greenery.

Next we stopped at the Flower Garden which had an amazing collection of flowers and decorative plants. I would recommend it to all nature lovers. Vasu was completely mesmerized and wanted to bring back all the beautiful plants with her. Although she couldn't carry any plant, she did carry enough motivation to create a nice little collection of her own in our house along with a small kitchen garden in front. Then Varghese took us to an elephant camp, where you can take an elephant ride through tea plantations. Vasu refused to ride any elephant for fun as she believed it was against the dignity of such magnificient creatures. Obviously Verghese failed to see her logic and tried his best to convince us to go for the ride, but its almost impossible to make her give any ground in such matters.

After that we went to the Mattupetty dam. The road goes right over the dam, with the reservoir lake on one side of the road, and the dam gates releasing water on the other. We also took speed boat ride on the lake which lasted around 20 minutes. The driver did his best to make the ride more adventurous than it needed to be by taking frequent sharp turns.

Next Verghese wanted to take us to Echo point and Eravikulam National Park. But by this time we had enough of the touristy circuit. Our original plan was to spend the night at Munnar, and leave early morning for Thekkady. Instead of the normal boat trip on Periyar lake, I wanted to do the full day bamboo rafting + trekking trip organized by Ecotourism Centre. I figured it would be difficult to reach in time for the bamboo rafting if we leave in the morning. So we decided to take lunch in Munnar Town and leave for Kumily after that. We insisted on going to Sarvana Bhavana for lunch and were well rewarded with a delicious south indian thaali for only 50 Rs. By the time we finished, it had started raining.We were told later that there are two monsoon season in Kerela, June and July when it rains non-stop, and October when it rains every evening.

According to Google maps, Munnar to Kumily is around 90km with a traveling time of 2 hours.We learnt that the time suggested by Google needed to be multiplied by a factor of 2 to arrive at the actual time it would take to travel between any two places in Kerela. The road from Munnar to Kumily twists and turns for almost the entire route. The route seemed even more greener in heavy rainfall. It took us almost four hours to get to Kumily and it was already dark by the time we got there.As we entered Kumily, it seemed the only reason the place existed was for tourists. It was a small strip of hotels, spice shops, tour companies and souvenir shops. We decided to stay at Coffee Inn which was recommended by Lonely Planet. I really liked the small bamboo hut which was quite secluded and peaceful. We booked the hut for two nights at Rs 1000 per night.

After that we went to Ecotourism Centre to book our bamboo rafting tour, but were disappointed to learn that there were only 10 seats out of which only one was remaining. We left our numbers with them just in case there was any cancellation, and went to have dinner at Chrissie's Cafe. As we waited for our pizzas, we started talking to a foreigner who had taken the bamboo rafting tour that day. Her experience had not been pleasant though, mainly because of too many leeches in the forest. She said she is generally not too worried about one or two leeches, but this was really nasty. She had bite marks all over her legs and some leeches even managed to crawl up to her back. So many leeches were getting into their shoes, that she and her friends had to walk bare-feet. I could empathize with her, having gone through the same ordeal when I attempted a trek from Chakrata to nearby Tiger Falls during monsoons. The hotel owner had tried to warn us about the leeches but we had acted tough and ignored his advise to go by car instead. We had barely managed to cover 1 km, and already I must have pulled atleast 50 leeches from my legs. We had to beat a quick retreat and when we finally managed to reach back, I had another 6 leeches hiding between my toe fingers which had gone all red. Now listening to her experience, we thanked our stars that we were saved from a similar stunt. I guess bamboo rafting would be the best way to explore the lake, but due to rains, this was not the right time for trekking.We played a game of chess before the pizza arrived. Pizza was quite delicious and we ended up ordering one more. After that we walked back to the hotel and nestled into our hut for a good night's sleep.


Day 3 (24rd Oct) - Periyar Lake Safari


With bamboo rafting out of the way, we slept till quite late in the day. In the night, I was woken up by the sound of what seemed like rats running around the space between the roof tiles and wood ceiling. Except that they seemed much bigger than rats. The guy at the reception told us that a family of civets had taken refuge in that cottage. So we got to share our cottage with wild animals - pretty cool. After getting ready, we felt like having Idli for breakfast but it turned out that Idli was easier to find in Delhi than in Kerela. We ended up having Dosa instead. Till then Verghese had arrived with the car, and we drove to the sanctuary gate. Unlike most other National Parks & Sanctuaries, there is no jeep safari inside Periyar. Rather, the most common way of touring the Sanctuary is through boat trips organize by KTDC or Forest Department on Periyar Lake. Other option is to join treks organized by Ecotourism Centre.

The forest department at Periyar has come up with the most hilarious and frustrating system. First, you are supposed to buy individual and vehicle entry tickets at the sanctuary gate. 3-4 km from there is the ticket office for the boats. Now entry to the park doesn't guarantee that you will get a boat ticket, and when number of tourists is more than the available boat seats, this system creates such a mad rush for the boat tickets, that you don't know whether to laugh or tear your hair off. To top it off, there is no advance booking, even for the same day. The tickets are given only for the next available trip. This chaos is at its worst for the 7am boat because it has the reputation of offering best sighting opportunities. Also, there are KTDC boats, which cost 45Rs and Forest department boats which cost 15Rs per person. The boat timings are 7am, 9:30 am, 11:30am, 2pm and 4pm. Out of these, 7am and 4pm trips are for two hours and rest are for an hour.

We were spared the worst of this chaos today, as we had arrived at the gates around 9am hoping to catch the 9:30am boat. After buying the entry tickets, we drove till the car parking. The boat ticket office was around 500m from there.Since the forest department boats were closed for maintenance, the only option was to go for KTDC trips.There was a decent size queue for the ticket and before our turn came the 9:30am tickets were already gone. Since 4pm trip was for 2 hours, we tried to get those instead of 11:30,am but no advance booking was allowed. You are required to fill in the names, age, address and other details of all the passengers in a form. The operator at the ticket counter then takes ages to get all this information into a computer, before you are finally issued the ticket. I am not quite sure, what the department does with all this information. It was disheartening to know that even in the most literate state of India, the Government departments continue to work in the most inefficient way possible, with no regard to the convenience of the people.

After getting the tickets, we went near the lake to wait for our boat ride, which was still 90 minutes away. We saw couple of bamboo rafts being pushed into the water, each carrying 5 people. The rafts were just few pieces of bamboos tied together that  looked too small and delicate to be floating with 5 persons on aboard. It sure looked fun but I was sure they would have a hellish time trekking back with all those leeches waiting to suck their blood. All of the people abroad the rafts were foreign tourists and I wondered if all those Indian tourists waiting for the boat were too scared or too smart to be traveling by rafts instead.


With so much time to pass, we were thoroughly entertained by a group of monkeys who just wouldn't stop monkeying around. They had so much energy and they kept screaming and running around and chasing each other, it looked like they had a bottle of whiskey each. They kept everyone occupied with their antics till it was time to board the boats.




There were two types of KTDC boats, double decker ones, and smaller ones. We were glad to find ourselves in the smaller ones which got us nearer to the action. Finally started our safari, which was a pleasant experience, with lovely views of the lake (which was much bigger than it appeared initially). The animal sightings were limited to a couple of wild elephants, a herd of sambar deer and a group of wild boars, all of them seen from pretty far off. Besides that there were numerous varieties of birds in the the lake. Highlight of the trip came when a small tortoise popped up on top of a submerged tree trunk to give us a pose before jumping back into the lake.


When we got back to the parking, Verghese was now where to be found, so we decided to walk to the gate through the forest. We had gone only a kilometer when we spotted our green Indica coming towards us. Verghese clarified that he thought the ride was for two hours. We told him we didn't mind the walk at all. We had another satisfying banana leaf meal, which was by now our staple diet.

After that we decided to pay a visit to Abraham's Spice Garden which was heavily recommended by Lonely Planet. Verghese tried to persuade us to go to a nearby Spice garden instead, but by now we had enough of his ideas, and stuck to our original plan. But on the way, he did manage to convince us to buy a couple of tickets for the Kathakali Dance performance in the evening. Abraham's Spice Garden was around 5 km from Kumily and from outside looked similar to the one we had been to in Munnar. But am I glad that we went there because it turned up to be one of our most memorable experience in Kerela, highlighting the fact that a little bit of personal touch can go such a long way in making a routine experience so special. We were also lucky to have Mr Abraham guide us personally around his 54 year old, 1-hectare garden. For the next one hour, our senses were on over drive, as Mr Abraham made us smell, taste and touch a variety of herbs and spices, starting from cardamom, cinnamon, cocoa, clove, ginger, vanilla, curry leaves, and a lot of aromatic flowers and leaves. I was also brave enough to try a small green pepper which was pretty hot. I really enjoyed putting fresh cardamom seeds into my mouth. Mr Abraham also seemed pretty pleased in finding a knowledgeable audience in Vasu, and shared his years of experience openly. Though Vasu was more interesting in finding out names of every other plant, and how fast they grow, and how they are used, I was content with smelling and tasting everything that Mr Abraham declared safe enough. 


Later, Mr Abraham was kind enough to invite us to his home, and shared stories about his garden, about how Abraham's Spice Garden was voted in the top 8 most interesting plantations in Asia by some book. He also mentioned that though he gets plenty of foreign tourists, most of the Indian tourists are actually redirected to other plantations that sell products and give commissions to drivers. He also showed us a lot of wood carvings that he carves out of some red wood as a hobby. Some of them were pretty good including Gandhiji and a swan. We also talked about relevance of traditional medicine system in modern times. He said that Ayurveda is more a way of living than a medicinal system, that needs to be followed everyday, rather than only when you get sick. Most people of our age don't have that much patience and hence go for allopathic medicines which give fast result. A lot of medicinal herbs were part of their daily cooking which combined with pure surroundings enable him to live healthy.We had spent quite a lot of time but hadn't had enough, so we went back to the garden with Mr Abraham's permission, to get a final taste of cardamom and a whiff of all the lovely smells.

Since, we had some time before the evening dance performance, we went to Shanthigiri Ayurveda. The place is recommended by Lonely Planet and was also recommended by Mr Abraham as a nice place for Ayurvedic treatments and massages. Since Vasu has a back problem, we consulted a doctor who prescribed a whole bunch of medicines and a back massage for her. We ended up booking massages for both of us after the dance performance. From there we walked to the Mudra Centre where dance and martial art shows are held. We reached the show 30 minutes earlier to see the make-up. We were the first ones to get there, and for a while were worried that we might end up being the only ones present. The performance was in a small hall and we were seated on the first row which was touching distance from the stage. A male performer was applying green paint and other make-up to his face. After that he was helped by a couple of guys to arrange folded plastic sacks around his waist which acted like a frame for his costume. It was an intricate and time consuming process to get ready for the performance. To be honest, I didn't have high expectations from the performance. I felt I would not be able to understand or appreciate the classical dance, but I actually ended up enjoying the show. 



The fact that they spent fair amount of time explaining the dance form proved pretty useful. Kathakali is  the classical dance form of Kerela in which the actors narrate a story usually from epics like Ramayana in a dance form. All the actors remain mute, and the narration is accomplished by facial expressions, and hand and body movements. The green face represents a positive character and red face represents an evil character. One performer first demonstrated a series of facial expressions conveying different emotions like love, hatred, lust, anger and so on. Then he demonstrated various hand movements. We were told that performers undergo special facial muscle strengthening exercises since childhood, and we could see that they really needed that. After the demonstration, the actual performance started. Leaflets explaining the story were distributed before-hand which enabled us to follow the narration pretty much. Overall, it was a nice learning experience and I would recommend tourists to experience it atleast once.





After the dance, we walked to Shanthigiri for our massages. I really couldn't tell any difference from my earlier experience in Munnar. They pretty much seem to follow the same technique everywhere. After the massage, we picked up the medicines for Vasu and also a bottle of massage oil. The whole package amounted to 6-7 half litre bottles of dark colored liquids.I was not too amused by all that weight we had added to our luggage so early in our trip.  It was beginning to rain lightly as we walked back towards our hotel. On the way, we purchased some more home-made chocolates and some masala tea oil, from the spice shops which dominated the whole market. We also had a light dinner, after which we retired to bed early, as we had planned a very early start for the next day.....


Day 3 (24rd Oct) - Periyar Madness




I am trying hard to control my emotions as I think back about the madness of the events that took place on that Monday morning. I had an idea of what to expect from my friend Kshitz,'s experiences, who had visited the place a week ahead of me. I tried to save myself by first trying to book a bamboo-rafting trip and then by exploring the option of 4WD jeep tour around the park. But since no vehicles are allowed inside the park,  I failed to see any point in traveling around it. Even then my sixth sense told me to skip it, to lie comfortably in my bed instead. But having gotten there, I had to experience the 7am boat ride on Periyar Lake. I took comfort in the fact that it was a Monday morning and not exactly weekend.


Anyways, we got up at 5am and were at the gate entry at 5:20. Already, there was a queue of about 15 cars ahead of us but that didn't seem too daunting. I left Vasu in the car, and went to the ticket counter braving the early morning chill. I stood in the queue which had around 10-12 people ahead of me. Things were looking ok so far and I afforded myself a sigh of relief. I had expected the ticket counter to open at 5:30am but at 5:45am I realized that the actual time is 6am. Till then, the queue behind me, as well as the number of cars, had started to look alarming.  I noted down our car number which was required to get the entry pass. At sharp 6am, the counter opened and immediately resulted in the chaos that happens in any queue in India. Soon, there were scores of drivers, handing over money and their car numbers to their friends who were ahead in the queue. I couldn't believe that the forest official didn't stick to the most basic protocol of giving only a single vehicle entry ticket to each person. The guy immediately in front of me ended up getting tickets for 6 cars and by the end of it he was confused which ticket belonged to whom, and how much money is to be returned to whom. Still, by the time I got the ticket, I knew that if we leave now we would easily get the boat ticket inside. But what would be the fun if the department made it so easy. 


I learnt that the gates to the park would only be opened at 6:30am. That means first  everyone present there would  get the gate ticket, and then the gates would open and there would be a mad race to the boat ticket counter. Till then, a lot of drivers had already started breaking the queue for cars, and started parking their cars in front of the gate in a haphazard fashion. A lot of people actually left their cars and hired autos, which could sneak more easily to the front of the queue. When the gate opened at 6:30am, my worst nightmare got true. There was a mad panic as everyone tried to get ahead of one another. On the narrow stretch of 4 km, cars were literally racing each other inside the forest. I could imagine that when these cars stop at the parking, people would be literally  running to the ticket counter. I was feeling so pissed at this sorry state of affairs that I kept cursing myself for letting us into this madness. But having gone so far, I was determined to see it to the end.


As the cars stopped at the parking, people rushed out and started running, literally like mad dogs. The aunties who couldn't run themselves were urging their husbands and even kids to run. Even foreigners, saw no alternative but to run. I was determined not to participate in this madness, and started walking briskly. But then I saw myself overtaken by people running from behind. And that did it for me, I said run, run as fast as you can. Now 600 m can be quite long, specially if you have never run in your life. With half-marathon training behind me, it was no big deal for me. But mid way, I could see almost everyone stop, panting for breath. It was pathetic to see even 20 year olds, struggling to run. Again and again, I felt that all these people have been reduced to the level of racing dogs, because of the mis-management of the forest officials. All they had to do was to sell both the tickets at the gate, and then whoever comes first gets the ticket. Why this stupid chaos ?? With these thoughts, I kept running, and kept overtaking one person after another. When I reached the counter I could see only a handful of people ahead of me. I collected the form and filled in our details.


As the people caught up, there was a competition for forms which were in limited supply. People were literally snatching the forms from the hands of forest guard. Someone told me that there are only as much forms as the number of seats in the boats. Those arriving late started fighting with the authorities. Some parents even pushed their young kids to go to office and request for forms. It was amusing and disturbing at the same time. I wonder if we can see such mismanagement and total lack of civic sense anywhere else. Now those who had got the forms, started complaining about the mis-management, and those without it started complaining and fighting. A guy even threatened to go to court, if he is not given the form immediately.  But ultimately they were left with no other option but to wait for the 9:30 am boat.


Though I got the tickets, I found myself really irritated after all this. It hurts me to see people being treated with such disregard by the authorities. On the boat we were asked to wear life jackets, that were the most uncomfortable life jackets I have ever used in my life. It was almost like someone has wrapped a 6inch thick thermocol around your body. On the bright side, our seats turned out to be the best possible seats on the boat, the front ones on the upper deck. After all this effort, we really didn't have any better sighting than the previous day for the first hour of the ride. I was beginning to think, it would have been so much better to be sleeping in the hotel instead.






That's when our luck started to change. We spotted a couple of wild elephants quite close to the bank. They were spraying red dust over their bodies with their trunks. As the boat turned towards them, we saw 4 adult and 2 baby elephants join them. It formed a good group and we had plenty of time to shoot as many photographs we wanted.






Then on return we spotted a pack of 3 wild dogs guarding a kill. It was the first time we were seeing wild dogs in their natural environment. All of us were in a much better mood now. It also started raining which made the scene even more beautiful. In the end, I would have to say that even though the initial experience was a nightmare, it was almost worth it in the end. But I do sincerely hope that they do something to get rid of the madness.

After the safari, we left for Kumarakom which is 120km away, and took us nearly 3 and a half hours to get there. Verghese dropped us at Tharavadu Heritage Resort which had pretty good reviews on trip advisor. It was time to say good-bye to Verghese and the first section of our Kerela trip. Although, the first 4 days had been pretty good, I had the feeling that something better is awaiting us. After all Kerela is better known for its backwater experience. Also we were without a car now, and without a concrete plan, in a small backwater village. Things were beginning to get more exciting....