Kerala

Our arrival in Kerala was as perfectly not stressful as we could have wanted. We had never dealt with an Indian travel agency before, or really any kind of travel agency. However, Kerala Adventures was a great way to go. The company owner met us at the airport, introduced us to our driver, and handed us our hotel vouchers for the week. All we had to do was ride along and we would get anywhere we wanted to go.

We went straight from the airport to our hotel in Munnar Hills, one of India’s biggest tea producing cities. We couldn’t get much of a look at the scenery on the way in because it was nighttime, so we weren’t sure what it would be like the next morning. We were staying a place called silver tips; an old movie theatre transformed into a hotel. It was very nice, had a real bed (our first in India), room service, A/C, and hot water. All of our favorite things. The next morning we found out that Munnar Hills is one of the most beautiful places we have ever been. The hills are covered in tea plants wherever you look, creating the most interesting rolling hills. That afternoon we took a hike up the tallest mountain in South India to see an endangered mountain goat, and explored the local village with an exquisite vegetable market.

We left the next day for Thekkady. On the way there we stopped at a spice garden, where a small family ran a business giving tours of their garden and selling its products. We were also able to stop and ride, feed, and bathe an elephant. It was definitely a highlight of the trip. When we arrived at our hotel, The Elephant Court,  we went for a very short swim in their very cold pool. When we arrived they had mentioned a Jacuzzi, so we went and asked about it. “Oh yes, give me just a minute,” said a fellow working there. A couple minutes later jets along one side of the pool came to life. Not really what we were looking for, but we hung out there for a few minutes so as not to seem ungrateful.

Our morning in Thekkady was perhaps the most exciting morning of the trip. It started very early, when our driver came to pick us up at the hotel and take us to the entrance of Periyar Wildlife Reserve, where it is possible to see wild elephants and tigers. We got to the ticket counter at about 5:45 and there was already a bit of a line. Our driver walked to the front of the line and shared a few words with the fellow first in line. When he got back he said “I need 600 rupees, my friend will buy the tickets.” Sweet hookups. Our goal for the day was to secure two seats on a boat that would be our best chance of seeing wild animals. It became clear that it was going to be a race when our driver got us an auto driver for the trip from the park ticket counter to the boat ticket counter. At 5:59 our auto driver turned and said “hold on tight” as he started to rev his engine, in sync with all the other autos waiting at the gate. At 6:00 the gate opened and we were off. Autos generally feel like they are going to fall over or fall apart on regular trips. When we were in a Mario Kart style race for three downhill, curvy, speed bump littered kilometers, it was indescribably thrilling. The driver never stopped flooring it; every speed bump was a ramp, every sharp curve a glimpse at death.

When we got to the end of the race track the foot race began. The road ended about half a kilometer from the ticket counter. I (Colton) got out and started running as fast as I could in flip-flops, not sure how many people were close behind me. Though the Indian tour guides I was racing did this every day, most of the fellows in front of me slowed down about halfway there. The only guy that beat me started the race on a motorcycle, so he had a very significant lead going into the foot race. We got our boat tickets, and waited excitedly to board. The ride was nice; we saw bison, boar, antelope, interesting birds, and monkeys. Tragically no elephant sightings, but our hopes were not incredibly high to begin with.

We left that afternoon for Kovalum, where we would stay overnight at a hotel on the backwaters to catch a houseboat the next day. The hotel had a nice pool and a great view. We even got to see an Indian flying fox as we were swimming. We relaxed for the day and then were picked up the next morning by a houseboat that would take us on a tour of the backwaters. It was a really neat boat with a crew of three, and we had traditional meals for lunch, dinner, and breakfast the next day. While we aboard we were able to catch a glimpse of life on the backwaters that we would have been otherwise unable to see. People’s front yards led up to the twisting waterways that we were exploring, and we could see them washing clothes, dishes, and catching the water-bus to school and work. It was a fascinating time.

We spent the last couple days of our holiday at Varkala Beach, our first and possibly last chance to swim in the Indian Ocean. It was a fairly strange beach, with shops up and down the beach’s red cliffs run by (or at least catering to) hippies. No other place we have been in India has had a larger Western crowd, from college age to old folks. The water was wonderful. It was a great temperature, and was very different from the Pacific or Atlantic in wave style. The first 50 meters had lots of small, constantly crashing waves. Further out there was a sand bar that shallowed to about one foot. Beyond the sand bar it got really fun. From the sand bar out to as far as you could see it was perfectly calm, except that every 25 seconds or so there was a massive wave. I started body surfing and was at it for a little while, but the waves were so big I was quickly exhausted. Getting destroyed by those waves over and over with swimming-pool calm water in between was an absolute blast.

Then we flew home and got to see all of our little sweetums again.