Through Saneesh we had booked to go on an all day bamboo raft trip. The rafting was to be about 3 hours of the day intermingled with some hiking in the jungle. We were up early and got in a prearranged rickshaw at 7:30am. After a brief stop at the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary’s official ticketing office where we paid for our entrance fee for the park, we drove about 3 kilometres into the park. The driver spotted some deer lying down amongst the trees...let’s hope that’s a good blessing.
We saw this massive turtle:
But it turned out to be the gift shop:
Down by the water, we met four foreigners, two German women and a couple from Australia. They were bamboo rafting as well. The couple in their mid 40s, Peter and Sarah, had recently been to Sri Lanka and raved about the place...hmm, another one to add to the list?
We were called into a ranger hut and sat down in some chairs as we did the defacto “signing your life away” waiver form and then were presented with these most curious “socks”. Naomi and I knew that we would be given these to prevent leeches from making a tasty lunch of our ankles but I think we were both surprised at the size and shape of them. They looked like the Christmas stockings of General Patton. Same size and shape of a stocking and in a light camouflage green. Needless to say, after putting them on everyone felt like they were riding the wave of fashion.
The army stockings:
Looks good Naomi:
Working my "Blue Steel" look:
Trying to hide the dorky feeling by smiling:
There were supposed to be ten people on the trip and there were only six of us present so someone was running late. Eventually an Israeli family of five turned up and the culprits for the tardiness were obvious, three young teenage girls. The rest of us were waiting outside just recounting the “Murder in Munnar” in the Greenview Guesthouse story when one of the men in the hut called out to the couple staying in the Greenview (the one in Kumily of course)...that was us! Naomi and I entered the hut and they asked for our tickets. Unbeknownst to us, on the back of the tickets a different date was written, for the 15th and not today, the 13th. To make a long story short (you probably wish I did this more in the blog), there was a ticketing mess up and we would have to try and reschedule for tomorrow. Defeated we removed our snazzy socks, said goodbye to the others and left.
In order to cut our losses since we were already in the park we decided to go on a boat ride. While sitting for the boat at a picnic table, we had the usual “Can I take your picture?” question posed to us by a young Indian man. No problem, we’ve been enjoying this paparazzi business on this trip. Then, seeing the man’s success, many others flocked over to us. I was surprised at the speed this one old woman traveled at to get up next to Naomi. She was smiling from ear to ear as many pics were snapped. Too funny I thought, these people come into a wildlife park and we’re the main attraction!
The first of many pics snapped of us:
So it was only fitting to get one back:
Naomi soaking it all in:
Damn monkey stole our potato chips! (the bag is the light green bit)
As everyone began to board the boat, we took our time walking down the small peninsula to the dock. As we attempted to get on the large double decked boat we were told we had the wrong tickets. No, not again! Well not so bad this time, we were just at the wrong vessel. There was a small boat tied up on the far side of two other large ones that was also going out.
The walk out to the boats:
Looks like they really like to pack them in:
After some seating confusion (when isn’t there in India?!?), the boat pulled away from the dock at a slow pace. Indians tend not to be good swimmers as childhood swim lessons don’t seem to be the norm here so many don’t know how to swim at all. So I wasn’t surprised when I saw many of them putting on or at least having a lifejacket nearby. We had heard through Saneesh that a couple of years before a boat capsized and over 40 people drowned! It shouldn’t have come as a shock to Naomi and I when we were forced to don our massive, WWII circa reddish orange life vests. We were a bit defiant at first asking whether the guy enforcing this rule could actually swim himself. He said he was a lifeguard so I guess yes but we were both a bit miffed about being constrained in the jackets. Poor Naomi couldn’t even hold her camera properly with two hands!
Everyone's starting to get suited out:
From whence we came:
Damn, we had to put these monstrous pillows on too!
100 year old petrified trees:
Tranquil waters:
Another boat on a tour:
The boat ride lasted about half an hour and never ventured far from shore. We did spot some wild boar far in the distance but all in all it was a bit of a disappointment, especially since we had expected to be on a bamboo raft. Oh well, we did get entertained by a troop of monkeys around the information and ticketing buildings. Two of them were drinking from a leak from a water faucet with a hose attached. Twice they knocked the hose from the faucet causing an irritated gardener who was watering plants around the corner to return and fix the problem. Other monkeys were sitting on a motorbike while another had stolen a ceramic bowl with a Tupperware lid on it and we enjoyed watching him figure out how to open it up. To his dismay, there was nothing inside.
Arriving back:
Naomi modelling her new pants:
Some monkey business:
Glad it's not my bike:
Live to ride...Ride to live...
While leaving the park we finally saw an elephant! I was so ecstatic that I had to kiss it:
Since it was only midday we decided to walk the four kilometres back, got our tickets sorted for bamboo rafting tomorrow and went out for some lunch at Chrissie’s (yum, another pizza!). It was a shanti afternoon as the clouds with some rain rolled in.
This big black monkey was feeding in a tree near our balcony at the guesthouse:
But Naomi missed it as she was napping:
Then she went out shopping and missed this gorgeous sunset:
That evening we tried another restaurant, Ebony’s. Cute place but our pasta dishes, although edible, were about the quality I used to make in first year university. At least it was another place that served beer, of course also billed as some kind of food item.
Tomorrow hopefully we'll go bamboo rafting for real!
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