Periyar Tiger Reserve

So, I unfortunately have to preface my post with some bad news. On our first morning in Alleppey, our camera spontaneously decided to delete everything on the memory card. So we lost everything from Periyar and Cochin, as well as the vast majority of our photos from Costa Rica. Sad! As if that wasn't bad enough, we just found out that we have apparently also lost the camera cable, so we can't upload any more photos until we get back home and can buy another one. Hopefully our camera doesn't decide to freak out on us again, since we have no way of backing them up now. So anyway, my apologies for the lack of photos. On to the post.

It seems like every time we take a bus somewhere, I am awed by the beauty of the scenery; everywhere we've been so far has been beautiful in its own unique way. Our bus from Cochin to Kumily (the town next to Periyar Tiger Reserve) took two hours longer than expected, for a total of seven hours, but I didn't really mind. We wound our way up hills that were perhaps the most jungle-like that we've seen so far, thickly forested and soaked by the monsoon; water trickled down every patch of bare rock in sheets or gushed out in waterfalls. The area is renowned for growing spices, and every now and then I would be hit by a sudden whiff of cardamom through the window.

By the time we got there, the day was pretty much over, and we allowed ourselves to be guided by a guy who showed us his card and claimed to work for the government (he didn't) to a hotel that we ended up staying in, mostly because it was dirt cheap. After a night there, we knew we had to go somewhere else: the bathroom emitted a powerful, and strange, odor - the closest we could come to placing it was something like moldy onions - the hot water was so limited that there was barely enough for one person, and the sheets were visibly dirty, and when we asked for clean ones, we were told there weren't any. Awesome. So, the next day, we checked into a nice, clean homestay, whose proprietor was very friendly, if unexpectedly giggly. It may have cost us almost twice as much as the last place ($5 each per night!) but it was definitely worth it.

Our first full day, we ventured out into the town, to find that it was practically deserted in the off-season, with most of the restaurants and hotels recommended by our guide book closed for the season. But, undeterred, we settled down for breakfast at a French bakery (where we were informed, unfortunately, that they only have baked goods during the busy season) and then headed on a tour of the area. We visited a tea factory, where we were shown a surprisingly interesting Powerpoint presentation followed by a tour of the facility itself. Tea powder carpeted the floor and the smell of tea was overpowering. Afterwards, he let us taste a couple of different varieties of tea, which were really good, even without sugar. We then headed to a spice garden, and were taken on a very cool tour - although the garden was fairly small, it had a huge variety of plants, and the owner explained what all the plants were and what they were used for, and let us taste everything that was edible. It was really neat to go through the whole tour and have the guide continually pick leaves, flowers or fruits for us to taste or smell. One of my favorite discoveries of the day was that cinnamon leaves taste AMAZING! They taste like cinnamon, but sweet! Also, we discovered a new kind of fruit, called a rose apple, which is a pretty pink fruit that tastes a little like watered down lemonade. It was really refreshing and tasty. At the end of the tour, our guide showed us the carvings he'd made of tree roots, and plied us with a seemingly never-ending supply of small, delicious bananas - I think I ate 5 of them before he relented.

After that, we went to a performance of a traditional Keralan martial art, called Kalarippayat. It was an interesting mix of short, choreographed fight scenes with different combinations of weapons, and gymnastic feats like kicking a ball that hung 8 feet off the ground and jumping through fiery hoops. Afterwards, we went down to take a closer look at the weapons, and they actually let us hold them and pose for pictures. Before we left, the performers wanted to take their picture with us. Only in India could you meet the cast after a performance and they want to take their pictures with you, rather than the other way around!

We then headed to dinner at, basically, the only other restaurant in town that was still open. Shortly after arriving, we were greeted by a sixty-something Italian lady sitting at the table across from us, who recommended the fish. Since she was eating alone, Jordan invited her to join us, which she did. We had a great evening thanks to her; she was hilarious, and kept us entertained all night with an equal mix of interesting conversation and funny anecdotes. After several hours, we reluctantly said goodnight and headed back to our homestay, as it had gotten quite late.

The next day, we went for an elephant ride through the forest. Although Jordan and I have ridden on an elephant once before, it was a different experience this time, as we were sitting directly on its back, rather than in a palanquin on top of it. It was fun, and it's always amazing to be up so close to such huge animals. Although I tried my best not to, I couldn't help feeling sad for them, though; they are such complex, intelligent creatures and their lives were reduced to carrying tourists across the same path many times a day while their handlers prod them with sticks. I tried to content myself with the fact that they seemed to be treated gently, at least much more gently than I have often seen them treated here, but I kept finding myself thinking about that episode of Samurai Jack with the woollies (I expect only Caleb and Jordan to know what I'm talking about here).

The rest of the day was pretty relaxed; we spent a few hours at the internet cafe, and in the evening, Jordan and I headed out to a Kathakali performance. Jill sat that one out, because it was the exact same performance she and Jordan had gone to see in Cochin. I won't go into detail about it, since Jordan already talked about it in his post about Cochin. I really enjoyed it, and took a lot of great pictures and videos (which unfortunately got deleted along with everything else).

On our last full day in Kumily, we went on a guided trek through the park in the afternoon. Before we started, our guide handed us anti-leech socks for us to wear - another tourist we'd met had described them as "christmas stockings," which turned out to be very accurate, as they were just two pieces of fabric, cut out roughly in the shape of a boot and sewn together, and tied at the knee with a drawstring. We laughed at them, but soon we were extremely grateful to have them.

The path diverged almost immediately after we set out on our hike. Our guide counseled us that we could take the open path by the lake, or the path through the forest, but that the forest path would have "little bit more leech problem." Fearing no leeches, Jordan suggested we take the forest path, which Jill and I agreed to. Our guide then began searching around and picking up sticks, handing one to each of us. When I asked what they were for, he told me they were for scraping off leeches. So, with a bit of trepidation, we headed into the forest.

Within a minute, we saw our first leech. The leeches here are small, but they inch along the ground creepily, and when they're not trying to get somewhere, they stretch upward to their full length and wave their little mouths around in the air in a most hideous fashion. We all pointed and laughed, went "Eww!" and went on our way. But soon the horror hit us: we realized the entire path was crawling (or more appropriately, squirming) with leeches. I looked down to inspect my feet, and found about a dozen of them already climbing up onto my shoes, squeezing underneath my toes, and a few of the more adventurous ones were making their way up past my ankles. Jordan and Jill looked down to find themselves in a similar situation, and for a few minutes the three of us hacked savagely at our feet with the leech sticks, trying in vain to remove all of them. After being assured by our guide that they couldn't bite through clothing, and thus were no danger to us unless they managed to creep all the way up our legs, I was able to shrug it off and continue on the hike, more or less unfazed by the squishing I could feel under my feet and occasionally between my toes. Jordan and Jill had a tougher time of it, though, and although they both eventually got over it, I think they may have regretted choosing the forest path.

The hike itself was through beautiful forest, and we did get to see some non-leech species of wildlife, most notably gaurs (Indian bison), wild boars, black langurs, and a bunch of different species of birds that we hadn't seen before, including jungle fowl (wild chickens, which are just as silly as domestic chickens) and white-bellied treepies. The way back was by the side of a lake, which was very serene, and thankfully leech-free. Somewhere in the back of my mind I'd held out some tiny shred of hope for seeing a tiger, but of course, we didn't. Our guide told us in the twenty years he'd spent working in the park, he'd only seen them eleven times.

That night I had yet another encounter with blood-sucking parasites, as we found ourselves swarmed by mosquitoes when we sat down to dinner. I'd been bitten the least over the course of the trip, and I think the mosquitoes decided to even the score that night. No one else really got bitten, but I left the restaurant with (we counted later) almost 40 mosquito bites on my legs. It was just...just the itchiest. Ever. But, I did my best to ignore it and we spent our evening watching silly Indian TV and snacking.

The next day, we slept in unexpectedly late, and found ourselves having to rush from breakfast to the bus station, only to make it just in the nick of time to catch the only bus all day that was going to the right place. It was a particularly hot, cramped, and uncomfortable ride, but I was feeling pretty sick that day, which I'm sure didn't help. But, we made it to Alleppey, and found a hotel to rest in while we made arrangements for a relaxed and enjoyable couple of days on the water. I'll have to write about those later, though, because this post has gotten too long already!