Perryar Tiger Reserve and Wildlife Sanctuary

Once our time in Munnar was over, we then separated from our friend Neil as he left his passport in Cochin (if you ever read this Neil, your a plonker!), caught another scary and hairy bus to a place called Perryar. Leaving our bags with Jamie, Andrea and I went off to find a place in a village called Thekkady, which was right on the outskirts of the perimetre of the wildlife sanctuary. We found a nice basic guest house with good views. Booked the rooms picked our bags up with Jamie met back up with Neil after he had been travelling all day and moved in.

The sanctuary is approx 777 square kilometres, with lots of wildlife and a huge man made lake nearer to the entrance. Its guides and rangers are members of the tribes that have always lived inside the area, but they used to be Poachers. So when the land became protected they told them that they can either work as rangers or be thrown out if they carried on the poaching. You can guess what they chose.
We also met up with a guy we met in Arambol called Mark, who we stuck with the whole time we where in Perryar.
While we where there we booked ourselves on to two types of trekks. One was a Border Hike, which lasted from 8 am to 4 pm. We saw all types of birds and butterflies. Plants where pointed out like pepper, cocoa plants, wild lemon, and it was very informative. But we saw no elephants and we also learnt on this trip that there where only between 40 to 45 tigers in 777 s k area. Plus even the rangers only see them once every few years, so god knows how they know that many are there, as they dont tag any of the animals. duh!
Really lovely trek though with amazing views, and i felt very well excersised after. We where all saying that we where ready for a challenge, and it pushed us a little (but maybe not enough). The trees out here are amazingly huge, which was one of the enjoyable things, plus we saw MONKEYS!
The second trek was a mixture of Bamboo Rafting across the man made lake then trckking then rafting back.
Really really hard on the arms, but i was determined to do it all for myself, even on the way back and Jamie couldnt be bothered to have his own paddle he offered to take over I soldierd on and refused to relinquish. We where paddling for a good hour eachway in the hot sun, so i was very proud of myself, plus all the 3 or 4 hours of trekking in between.
We where much more lucky aswell on the wildlife front too, we saw Wild Boar, Giant Squirrals (3 feet high), giant sized birds called Honeybird I think, that made a very loud swooshing noise when it flew by, Gaur, more monkeys and a family of 6 Wild Elephants!!!!
I cant explain the amazing feeling I got when we saw them, Ive never seen Elephants in their own habitat before and it blew me away. It was all worth it in the end.

During our stay aswell we had a few good movie nights as we hired a t.v for our room. one night when Mark and Jamie went to watch footie at marks, Me Andrea and Neil got loads of munchies and watched Lemony Snickets and Madagascar in one sitting. Then another night had the 6th star wars film on. So we had a nice few homley nights in.

Couple days after we left Perryar Jamie and I separated from Neil and Andrea, (as she was going home and we where meeting back up with Neil a day after) to have a little romantic treat, and book a house boat to ourselves to do the Backwaters of Kerala.
we had our own Chef, Captain and a spare guy (theres always a spare guy in India for some reason). It was lovely. the boat was big enough to have our own bedroom, living room, it also had a kitchen and a spare Bedroom.
I cant tell you how relaxing it was to watch the world go by nice and slowly when you have been in this country for so long. it was 24 hours so we moared up in the evening was served an amazing dinner and drank beer together.

And so I come to the end of my story so far, we led onto this place we are in now Vakala and our flights leave Trivandrum (just an hours drive south of here) on the 1st of Febuary.
I will say this has been one of the most hectic times of my life, but also the most enjoyable. I have become a much more in control of the things happening around me, and I am not scared of all the commotion this country has to offer.
People say India is one of the most difficult and scariest places to travel, and I would have to say I was petrified before I came here. This country though has an effect on you, and I love the way It makes you see the funny side of it all, and then you realise that there is nothing to be scared of. So now I can happily say that no its not the scarriest and most difficult place to travel in, and it actually is pretty straight forward when you know how to get information.

I will say this though GOD BLESS THE LONLEY PLANET GUIDE!!!!!!!!!

TELETUBBIES LAND!!!!!

The end of India 2

After Cochin, we then took a bus onto a place called Munnar. After a long an terrifying journey round the curvy mountain roads at around 40 to 50 k an hour (even on the bends!) we made it alive.
Munnar is famous for its endles and seemingly vertical tea fields. The town itself was an absolute dive though. Nothing to it, and even though alot of tourists go there, was not geared up for them. Westerners seem to go, stay only one or two nights while they do their long day trecks.
As soon as we got their though it became apparent that it was also very expensive to stay accomadation wise. We spent nearly 6 hours looking for a place to stay but ended up back at one of the first places we saw! doh! Only, we ended up sharing a big room all together. (by that piont the group was down to 4, Jamie and I, Neil and Andrea)We where on the floor with spare matress they gave us, and they where sharing the double bed. Cosy!
We stayed there a few nights, during which we organised a Treck up into the tea fields and up further to one of the highest hills in the area.
Really great day, and it was led by yes a rickshaw driver who moonlighted as a tour and treck guide! nice bloke aswell. during the day he invited us all back to his family home where we met his large family. we all agreed it was some of the best curry we have had in India, and the wife kept on putting more and more on our plates. We all sat around eating while the wife, 3 daughters and wifes sister, plus all 3 or 4 young sons and our guide stood watching us. they where all very smiley and genuine people. At the end the young daughter grabbed me and Andrea, and started combing our hair and putting fresh flowers in.All the girls seemed to be smitten with us by the end, I had two of them fighting to have their arms linked with me when the photos where taken.
When we said goodbye, it was such an occasion with lots of warm hugs and kisses. I cant belive we only spent an hour there! It was like we where family by the end of it. So sweet.

1.A sighn in the street that reminded me of long conversations over dinner with my father...eh dad.

2. chinese fishing nets that we spotted along the river side in Cochin.

3. Architechture of Cochin.

The end of India

well hello everyone!!!!
its chook here at last. jamie and I at the moment are chilling out on a beach again for our last week in India.
Yes the end has fallen on our first stage of travelling. India has been our home for the last 3-4 months and what laughs, cries, frustrations, euphoria we have had. We have made some life long friends here, and met some quite unsavoury characters, plus some right nutters!
The beach area we are in is a place called Varkala in Kerala. It has white and black sand, with a huge red cliff facing out to sea. All the places to stay are up on top of this cliff, and we have a very nice room, apart from the little ants nest in the making just outside our door. Clever little buggers. Jamie swept the dust mound they made on the floor away when we left for breakfast this morning, and by the time we made it back, they had made another one!
Its quite interesting watching them work, bringing all their little bits of food into the nest in perfect order. Their like a real live version of the borg off star treck!
Jamie being Jamie though spent his time yesterday whacking all the queen ants trying to get home. all I could hear from outside our room was WHACK WHACK...."you little bastard!" over and over again, which gave me and Neil a little entertainment that evening.
Anyway enough about the ants, since we left Arambol, we have been travelling around Kerala. We left to go straight into Cochin (fort cochin) after a very long train journey(gotta love those trains). The place itself was very pretty, having still retained the colonial portugeuse quality to the buildings and steets....... but having been to the real down and out rough dirty authenticly Indian places before, I did not feel like I was in India anymore (no toto either). Plus It was stupidly expensive to stay and eat. So we only stayed a couple of days.