An Evening Of Kathakali

In the evening we went to a performance of Kathakali - a traditional dance, usually danced by boys around 16-18 years old in the Hindu temples. They train for six years to perform in these performances which take place during celebrations and festivals. They dramatise old stories with eye movements, facial expressions, foot movements and a special language made up of twenty something hand movements. When combined, these movements tell the story whilst loud banging and singing play in the background.

The performance we saw was only 45 minutes with an hour of preparation beforehand, where the actors would put on their makeup and costumes on the stage. Then they do a demonstration and explanation of the intricate hand/foot/eye movements before starting the performance properly.

The evening was incredible. The actors dance around the stage with such passion and dramatic expression, that by the end of just one hour their eyes are red and streaming with tears. Usually the performances go on all night. Thoroughly enjoyable!

Our Trek Into The Wildlife Park

The following day we did a one day trek into the tiger reserve. Luckily it was just Stu and I on the trek with the company of two local guides - one to lead the way and the other to go at the rear - for safety. We went in with the full expectation of not seeing any wildlife - much like our jungle trek in Bolivia. The animals are all far too clever to allow some clumsy, noisy humans to stumble across them. Anyway, we'd seen plenty of wildlife outside the park during our stay to satisfy our need to see exotic animals. Also our guides warned us that it was very unlikely that we would see any animals, only insects and birds would grace us with their presence.

Immediately as we started our trek, it was clear that elephants frequented this place regularly as there was heaps and heaps of dried elephant dung. Ten minutes later, we came across more fresh dung and our guides informed us that the dung was from last night, and so one could be close by. Literally, a few minutes later we were blessed with an elephant sighting. He was in the distance, alone and chewing on some bamboo in a really thick part of the jungle. He was very difficult to see, and we could only really make out the flapping of his ears and the odd movement from his trunk. Not good for photos, but it was great to see him, even if just a glimpse.

After 30 minutes we stopped for breakfast and tea, before making the climb in the sultry heat up a steep hill to the top of the escarpment. Here, we were blessed with great views of the reserve, although we couldn't see to the other end of the park - a mere 750km away!

We walked down into a clearing, where the smell of rotting flesh began to fill the air. Just over the other side of a small stream, the carcass of a bison lay rotting. The animal had clearly been the dinner of the tigers and our guide advised us that the carcass was 20 days old and that this was a usual spot for the tigers to feed. I was hoping that was as close as we were going to get to see the tigers and I certainly didn't fancy being their next meal!

After an hour or two, we came once again to a clearing and as we walked through the bushes, we came across a family of elephants happily feeding at the bottom of the hill. There were 9 elephants in total, two of which were babies. We crouched down and watched in awe as the realisation hit us we were watching wild elephants, in their natural habitat. It was really special.

We moved across the clearing and settled down for lunch, away from the elephants. Stu and I watched the midday heat rising from the dried out lake as we let our lunch go down. A few minutes later, one of the guides came rushing to us and called us over. We followed him to view the elephants again by the little water left in the lake. They had just had a bath and were cooling off with mud on their backs. This time we were much closer and got some much better shots. We were quite in awe.

The rest of the afternoon, we wandered back through the thick woods to the tribal village and then onto Kumily. We thanked our guides for being so great and set off home, exhausted and exhilarated.

Lions, Tigers and Bears

Our first two days at Kumily we came across wildlife heaven. From the crazy family of monkeys on the road into town in the mornings (they even read the morning paper!) to the roaming street cows chewing on the rubbish on the way home, we were blessed with sightings of wildlife.

Our first full day in Kumily and we had seen monkeys, wild cows, lizards (large and small), a chained elephant (not very nice), squirrels, crazy green frogs, a preying mantis and a snake. Even in our cottage we managed to dance around the room a couple of times, between the resident scorpion and rogue rat! We were doing well on our hunt for wildlife!

Cardamon, Pepper and Tea

We ventured inland towards Kumily to sample the spice gardens and tea plantations of Kerala. After a treacherous 4 hour bus ride, squashed in-between Stu and two other Indian ladies on a seat made for three tiny Indians, we arrived at our destination. At least this time, I had Stu with me!

Kumily is a small town where the tourists are shipped in for only two reasons: spices and tigers. The region is home to the cardamon and pepper plantations of India as well as Periyar Tiger Reserve. Our first stop was the spice gardens. Unfortunately we had picked a rather poor guide, but he did have two thumbs on each hand which made for a welcome distraction when he couldn't answer our questions. We still managed to come out of our tour a little more knowledgeable about how spices are grown and harvested.

Some interesting things that we discovered:
Cloves - actually a flower stamen, which when in its raw form is actually a natural anesthetic. Our tongues went numb from only a small drop. These are very good for the teeth and gums.
Cardamons - grow at the bottom of a large plant that look like bull rushes. The cardamons are dried for cooking, but the fresh seeds can be eaten raw for a really intense flavour.
Pepper - grows as a vine up a supporting tree. The different types of coloured pepper actually come from the same plant, they're just harvested at different times and treated in different ways.
Cinnamon - chew on some bark for some really lovely flavours. It's also really good for your teeth and gums.

The same morning, we went to a tea plantation and factory. It was quite a whistle-stop tour, but it was interesting to see how the tea was made. The particular plant we went to used a wood burner to roast leaves. The leaves were then made into smaller leaves or powder and graded as to it's strength and flavour. Quite fascinating, but with all the talk and smell of tea, we really wanted a cup. Unfortunately no tea tasting and no tea shop - the communist Keralans are missing a trick there!