Our main reason for visiting Wayanad was to see Asian elephants in the wild.  We chose Sultan Bathery as our base, in order to plan a quick safari to the local forests.  After searching for tours on TripAdvisor, I discovered a guide, Sabu, who was highly recommended for his customization of treks, village tours and animal safaris, to your interests.  With less than 24 hours notice, he was able to fit us in and take us on an all-day excursion to explore the local area.  We had to hire both his guide services, as well as a jeep driver to take us to the various destinations.  Our day started with a drive along the edges of some local game parks in the hopes we might spot some elephants along the periphery, without having to pay any entrance fees.  We spotted plenty of deer, but no trunks, so a reserve visit seemed inevitable.

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After getting our fill of the Kerala coastline, and the sticky heat that comes with it, we were ready for some mountains and a cooler climate.  As we drove East out of Alleppey on our first tourist class bus, I reflected on the people I had watched.  One of my favorite sights, unfortunately never photographed, was of the young girls in uniform heading to and from school.  Almost every young lady wore their hair in two braids, parted down the middle, black and shiny, straight or curly, with two matching ribbons tied into two big bows at the top of the braid, near the crown.  The color of these ribbons would compliment the school uniform, whether they be sky blue, or marigold yellow.  It was a look from the past, old-fashioned and innocent, making me wish for a similar style amongst little girls in the US.  Another look that made me smile, was that of the bandy-legged Southern Indian man.  Often darkly tanned, and barefoot, with a short skirt, exposing the full length of his skinny legs.  This “skirt” was a sari-like plain cotton fabric, folded high, or tucked between his legs like a loose diaper.  It looked very comfortable in the humid heat, although I always feared that the wrapping would come undone, leaving the poor man completely exposed.

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I have had romantic visions of the Kerala backwaters for over a decade.  Ever since I first learned that you could rent a houseboat that looks like a kettuvallam (rice barge) to tour the back rivers in, eating Southern Indian food and sleeping on the water, I have wanted to experience this part of India.  However, as most wonderful adventures go, popularity only increases demand, and changes what was once a unique and peaceful journey into a fiercely competitive and touristy trip down water lanes trafficked by hundreds of like boats.  We learned that the amount of house boats available to rent had increased substantially in the previous years, with more than a 1000 boats now operating in the region.  Despite the fact that there were so many boats vying for your business, the price tag had also increased.

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Let the battle of the beaches begin!  I’m sorry if all these photos of us sweating it up on a lovely South Indian beach bring envy to those of you slugging through a Northern Hemisphere winter.  We recognize how fortunate we are to be chasing an endless summer.  Our first stop for some restorative Arabian sea breezes brought us to Kovalam, south of Trivandrum.  Our bodies were still adjusting to the humidity after a month of dry desert weather in Rajasthan, and getting used to frequent applications of both sunscreen and mosquito repellant.  Unfortunately for Dan, what he may have assumed to be a mere physical reaction to the extreme heat, ended up being far worse.

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After Kochi, we visited Kovalam, Varkala, Kollam, Alleppey, Munnar, Athirapally, Wayanad, Mysore, Hampi, and Southern Goa…so much to write about!  However, I am going to skip ahead to the near present to tell you about our trip to North East India over the Christmas holidays.  This was the one part of our Indian adventure that had a fixed schedule.  We had purchased our tickets to fly to Guwahati before we even left the US, as we were joining our good friend, Gavin, on a trip to his parent’s hometown, Shillong.  We had been greatly looking forward to our reunion, as well as an introduction to his family and a part of India that is less visited by many travelers to this country.

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