All Boys India Trip 09: From Munnar to Kumily

We were back into the van at 0900 to leave Munnar and head to Kumily which is a small village of 30,000 people right beside Thekkady, the forest preserve with approx 700 sq km of wild animals. It is most known for it’s wild Tigers. Mr. Sashi got us there in about 4 hours. It was only about 110 km in distance but the drive was extremely slow due to some horrible road conditions. At times we were only doing 10-15 km/hr over major potholes. We finally arrived in Kumily and headed straight for the “HomeStay”, a Bread and Breakfast place that is owned by the brother of my friend Koshi, from Bombay, who had hooked us up with the great Club Mahindra Resorts. It was a nice place with his home on the main floor, an outside staircase to an upstairs with 3 bedrooms, each with their own bathroom. There was also a central living room as well as a small kitchen/dining room with a table, chairs and a fridge. An outside terrace as well as rooftop terrace had places to sit and relax. An elephant camp was about 100 feet down the road.
After lunch with the family, Mr. Sashi took us to a different elephant camp then the one right beside us, one with a 2 yr old baby elephant. A quick elephant ride followed by some pictures and we were off to a tour of a Spice Plantation. We then came back into town and walked around for a while before supper with the family at the HomeStay.
Day 2 in Kumily, we were booked for “Bamboo Rafting” from 0800 – 1700. Mr. Sashi drove us 4 km into Thekkady to the park headquarters. After signing all the waivers, our guides got us together and we actually started off about 0900. Our group included another couple from Canada, a couple from England and a French girl by herself, 9 of us plus 4 guides and an armed Park Ranger. The Canadian couple, both in their early 20’s, had finished over a year of teaching English in South Korea. Apparently it is a very well paying gig! The British dude was very funny, reminded me of Hugh Grant every time he talked. The French chick was kinda weird and James thinks she plays on the other side of the field if you know what I mean! After walking for more than an hour through riverbeds, plains and forest, we stopped for breakfast. They made us chai and fed us bread, jam and bananas. Another half hour of trekking finally brought us to our Bamboo Rafts, literally big bamboo sticks tied together with primitive seats on top. With all on board, everyone’s feet were actually underwater. We paddled across a lake for about 1 ½ hours. It was stinkin hot, no shade except for our hats. We used sunscreen, but that night, you could easily tell what spots had been missed! We spotted several wild animals, deer, bison, boar, monkeys, wild dogs, birds, and two separate groups of wild elephants. It was actually pretty cool. We parked for lunch and the guides took us pretty close to one of the groups of elephants, close enough to hear them moving around. We got some great pictures. This group actually had 2 little baby elephants so our guides were pretty careful, we couldn’t make any noise and had to stay down wind of them! Then they fed us a really tasty Indian meal, rice, curry and some vegetable dish. We hung out in the forest after lunch for about an hr before the long paddle home. This was not quite as hot as before, but still pretty uncomfortable. We then had to trek back to the park where we started. This whole deal cost us Rs 1,000 each or US $20. Not bad for a full day outing!
That night after supper, we left Merv down talking to Zach, the owner of the place. Merv ended up staying down there until 0030 and Zach asked Merv to stay an extra day to meet some people and speak with them. The next morning, after much thought, Merv stayed and the three of us piled into the Toyota with Mr. Sashi and headed to Kumarakom where the houseboat was waiting for us…