Another morning we all got up early as we were supposed to go Thekkady today. Left hotel at 8:30 AM and with help from a few people we managed to reach Thekkady by 12 PM and, checked in at the hotel Lakeshore Inn. The hotel was ok.... although it was not as good as it was in Munnar but still it was ok...
We reached our room, got freshened and then we went out for lunch. After roaming around for about half an hour in search of some good South Indian Restaurant someone recommended us a restaurant saying that they serve pretty good North Indian food. So we decided to go there, but later it turned out to be a wrong decision. We somehow finished our food!
Then went visit Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary, supposedly the home of tigers!!!
Due to some recent accidents in the sanctuary, many of the activities were closed with a committee investigating the cause of accidents [:(]. So, we decided to have a bit of adventure by ourselves by walking to the Periyar Lake. It was a bit scary walking alone on the road with the jungle on either side of us. Fortunately/unfortunately we didn't come across any wild animals except some monkeys!
Tired after day walk in the Periyar, we called our driver and proceeded to the nearby spice plantation area where we saw plants of various spices that are being grown in the area that includes Cardamom, Coffee, Cloves, Black Pepper etc. Without a guide, it was fun identifying the plants!
We came back to hotel and rested for an hour or so and then went out for dinner. The dinner was slightly better than lunch but still not so good as we have had in Munnar....Then we roamed in the market and Pushp bought a Michael Owen t-shirt (so much for being an Arsenal fan!!!).
We returned back to our hotel room and slept for about 3 hrs as we have to go for Night Safari in Jungle, one that we had booked for the 1-4AM time slot. The starting point was near our hotel so our driver was happy as we wont be bothering him at night :P.
So at night we got up and reached our starting point at 12:50 AM, and after waiting for a few minutes, we realized that it was only we three who were in that group for that slot. So with a guide and a guard and a torch to see around, we started our trip into the jungle. During our walk, we saw Sambhar Deers many times and a Baby Leopard, who was out to drink water at night.
After walking for an hour and half we stopped by at some point. Till now we were walking in plane area, but after that break the scary part of our trip started when we entered the dense woods. It was dark out there, with some tree trunks grown in different shapes and a slight rustle from the woods was enough to scare anyone. Besides this, watching the body language of our guides during their discussion, it seemed that perhaps they had forgotten the way back and they were just searching appropriate path to go out. In the darkness of woods, I sometimes felt that perhaps my torch batteries were about to be discharged as I felt a few times that my torch was dimming. Neways our guides somehow managed to get us to correct path (if they forgot it earlier) and we were out of woods at appropriate time (4 AM).
During our this trip, we also clicked some pics, a few of which turned out scary due to some lighting effect....... hehehe
We reached our hotel and found out that our hotel was locked. The hotel guard was fast asleep inside. After knocking at door for about 5-7 mins he finally woke up and opened the door. Then we reached our room and slept for a few hours to start our next day in house boat.
We reached our room, got freshened and then we went out for lunch. After roaming around for about half an hour in search of some good South Indian Restaurant someone recommended us a restaurant saying that they serve pretty good North Indian food. So we decided to go there, but later it turned out to be a wrong decision. We somehow finished our food!
Then went visit Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary, supposedly the home of tigers!!!
Due to some recent accidents in the sanctuary, many of the activities were closed with a committee investigating the cause of accidents [:(]. So, we decided to have a bit of adventure by ourselves by walking to the Periyar Lake. It was a bit scary walking alone on the road with the jungle on either side of us. Fortunately/unfortunately we didn't come across any wild animals except some monkeys!
Tired after day walk in the Periyar, we called our driver and proceeded to the nearby spice plantation area where we saw plants of various spices that are being grown in the area that includes Cardamom, Coffee, Cloves, Black Pepper etc. Without a guide, it was fun identifying the plants!
We came back to hotel and rested for an hour or so and then went out for dinner. The dinner was slightly better than lunch but still not so good as we have had in Munnar....Then we roamed in the market and Pushp bought a Michael Owen t-shirt (so much for being an Arsenal fan!!!).
We returned back to our hotel room and slept for about 3 hrs as we have to go for Night Safari in Jungle, one that we had booked for the 1-4AM time slot. The starting point was near our hotel so our driver was happy as we wont be bothering him at night :P.
So at night we got up and reached our starting point at 12:50 AM, and after waiting for a few minutes, we realized that it was only we three who were in that group for that slot. So with a guide and a guard and a torch to see around, we started our trip into the jungle. During our walk, we saw Sambhar Deers many times and a Baby Leopard, who was out to drink water at night.
After walking for an hour and half we stopped by at some point. Till now we were walking in plane area, but after that break the scary part of our trip started when we entered the dense woods. It was dark out there, with some tree trunks grown in different shapes and a slight rustle from the woods was enough to scare anyone. Besides this, watching the body language of our guides during their discussion, it seemed that perhaps they had forgotten the way back and they were just searching appropriate path to go out. In the darkness of woods, I sometimes felt that perhaps my torch batteries were about to be discharged as I felt a few times that my torch was dimming. Neways our guides somehow managed to get us to correct path (if they forgot it earlier) and we were out of woods at appropriate time (4 AM).
During our this trip, we also clicked some pics, a few of which turned out scary due to some lighting effect....... hehehe
We reached our hotel and found out that our hotel was locked. The hotel guard was fast asleep inside. After knocking at door for about 5-7 mins he finally woke up and opened the door. Then we reached our room and slept for a few hours to start our next day in house boat.The Houseboat day.....
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