Wandering through God's own country

We took advantage of our first long weekend in India to visit the neighbouring state of Kerala, which is also branded as "God's own country". As a godless person myself, I'm not sure what God had to do with any of it but you could easily see why someone would think the divine had a hand in a place so beautiful.

Drifting through the backwaters
Our trip started with a trip on a houseboat winding through the backwaters of Kuttanad, which streaches from Kollam to Kochi. We took off from the town of Alappuzha (or Allepey) on a boat made of plaited palm thatch named Anjeli. These houseboats are big tourist business in Kerala and whoever first though of converting old rice barges into tourist cruise boats created a big industry. The boats these days can get quite large and luxurious, and much to our amusement, we even passed by one that claimed to have a "rooftop swimming pool"!

Houseboats in Allepy

We spent a lazy afternoon drifting through the labyrinth of lakes, canals and rivers, while being well fed and attended to by the on board cook, server and captain. It felt kind of indulgent to have three people attending to the two of us but we weren't too demanding as we simply lazed in the heat and enjoyed the view.


One of the highlights of the boat trip was getting to see rural life in India on the shores. Many families live along the shores and you often saw them bathe (with their clothes on) and wash their clothes at the water's edge.

Towards nightfall we were moored at a riverbank that was about 1 km away from a church which happened to be blaring music at an incredible volume. At first we weren't concerned as we often passed by blaring radios during the course of the day and assumed the music would stop soon, but although there were brief pauses, these were only so that they could switch the CD.

As expected, once the sun set the bugs and various nocturnal lizards (geckos mainly) came out, which made dinnertime an adventure. We were served dinner in the open on the deck as bugs were increasingly attracted to the lightbulb above. I have never consumed a meal faster. In fact, I didn't even get to touch my glass of water before a moskito promptly drowned in it, and I'm sure despite my best efforts, I probably ended up ingesting some 'extra protein' that night.

Sleep that night was complicated first by the unrelenting humidity and heat (from which we finally got relief when they turned on the AC), and the blaring music. Even in our room with the door shut, we could hear the music at a ridiculous volume. The clubs on Richmond St. at home don't have anything on Indian churches!

The music finally stopped at around midnight only to start up again at 5 am. I believe this is the first time Pete and I have woken up together with the words "You gotta be joking". Here I was thinking I would wake up to birdsong!

At breakfast, we finally asked our server what the deal was with the music and were told that there was some sort of festival/celebration going on during the long weekend. The music was finally shut off at around 8 am, at which point we were on our way back to Allepy.

Not so lucky
Back at Allepy we met up with our driver and headed off towards the town Kumily and the entrace to the Periyar Wildlife Sactuary (know as Thekkady). The winding roads through the hills towards Kumily took us through some beautiful scenery as we passed by hills of tea, cardamon, and jackfruit and rubber trees.

At the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary we had originally planned to take a boat tour of the park but as this was a long weekend, the tickets were sold out and we took a three-hour nature walk through the woods instead.

Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary

The walk turned out to be really great as we got up close with nature rather than seeing it from afar on a boat. Our guide was very knowledgeable and was able to show us wild plants (tumeric, peppers, jackfruit) and a few monkeys from afar. However, we weren't lucky enough to see elephants or tigers. As the guide said, "Only see animal if lucky."

The longest journey
From the Periyar Wildlife Santuary we had an unexpectedly adventurous ride to Munnar. Our driver had warned us that it would take 4 hours to travel the 100 km to Munnar but Pete and I didn't think much of it, until the pavement ran out on our mountain road. Thankfully some version of pavement resurfaced eventually; nonetheless the slow journey through cliff hanging, unlit mountain roads with two-way traffic when by all sane standards it's only wide enough for one, was the most stressful journey Pete and I have experienced.

When we finally arrived in Munnar, we both wore ridiculous shell shocked expressions as the words "that was insane" ran through our heads. I have a feeling we will have many such tales to tell before our Indian adventure ends.

The hills are are alive with the green of tea
The next morning we woke up to the beautiful hills of Munnar where vibrant green tea bushes cover the landscape. Our driver took us on a mini-tour of the area as we stopped by scenic spots along dams, rivers, and flower gardens.

Tea plantation in Munnar

View from dam in Munnar

Kerala is a fairly rural place and we quickly realized that as much as we're rare species back in Bangalore, we are quite the sight here as Pete and I are repeatedly approached by locals who are curious about us and who inevitably want to take a picture with us. We must have had our pictures taken dozens of times that day as the tourists became the attraction!

The tourist as the attraction

Our last stop in Munnar was the tea museum where you learned the route tea takes from plant to pot. I also purchased a bag of what the museum shop clerk claimed to be the best orange pekoe tea to try. (It's quite nice actually.)

Close enough to smell the salt
From Munnar we headed off to Eravikulam National Park, our last sightseeing spot of the trip. Our driver dropped us off at the entrance and told us not to line up with the locals but to head straight to the top of the line and buy our ticket. We were somewhat hesitant about this as there was a long line up and it felt wrong to elbow our way to the top simply because we're foreigners, but the guard by the ticket counter just waved us right up. We of course quickly realized that our ticket also cost roughly 15 times that of locals and we were paying for the privilege of front of the line service (no Amex needed).

Our tickets got us a bus ride up towards the top of a mountain where we were dropped off to continue up further on foot. During the ride up, the driver briefly stopped to point out an elephant mother and child walking through the valley below and we caught our first glimpse of wild elephants! Unfortunately I was not able to get photographic evidence of the pair.


Eravikulam is known for having peculiar bushes that flower every 12 years (next flowering scheduled for 2018) and for having one of the world's rarest mountain goats, the Nilgiri Tahr, which has the unusual characteristic of being absolutely mad about salt. Park visitors used to tempt the goats out with salty treats but they've since cracked down on the practice. Pete and I were ready to concede defeat on catching a glimpse of the salty goats when one just walked right out into the open. (I maintain it was my inherent salty nature that did the trick!) I was able to get up close and personal with the goat (which was quite unfazed by all the attention) and got some great shots.

Nilgiri Tahr (aka salty goat!)

Not a bad shot if I do say so myself! National Geographic here I come!