The Spicy Day

The early morning serenity at Periyar Lake

Just like yesterday, today was travelling for most of the time; travelling on waters and travelling on roads. After getting few hours of sleep, we went for an early morning boat ride on Periyar lake. The lake is a part of the Periyar Tiger Reserve in Thekkady and came into existence because of a manmade dam across the Periyar river. It was 7:30 am and we got on the upper deck of a double decker boat. The one and a half hour ride was full of pristine scenes with few glimpses of wild animals. We could see an elephant, a bison, a couple of deers, few birds and a herd of wild boars during the visit; not to forget the plenty of monkeys in the reserve. Although we couldn’t sight much animals as we expected, the picturesque, layered views of the surrounding hills, combined with the chilly breeze made up for our serene and calming morning.

We returned to the hotel after the boat ride and headed for a spice plantation tour after breakfast. The spice tour was unexpectedly amusing for me, especially because some of the spices and their names were very familiar to me. Our tour guide, Abraham gave us an interesting spice tour; we could clearly see his passion for fruits, flowers and spices. We saw interesting plants and trees like red bananas, jackfruit, starfruit, cardamom, coffee, cinnamon, mint, tulsi, bay leaves, curry leaves, pepper and rubber trees, nutmeg, rose apple, cocoa, lime, lemon, papaya, golden bamboos and many more.

Then it was time to get in touch with the majestic creatures – elephants. As a Hindu, we worship elephants in the form of Lord Ganesha and getting to feed these wise giants was a blessing for me, albeit I was a little scared. The one I fed was named Ashoka and was a baby of 15 years of age. She was still young and bouncy and was jumping with her large feet while I caressed her trunk. We could see her trying to pull her hind legs from the chains to be closer to us. It was visible that she and the other elephants were trained by the riders. Although there has to be a middle ground in summoning the beast and caring for them, the chains in their legs made me feel uncomfortable. Still, the human skills of encroachment and establishing rehabilitation centers are the truth for now.

Me and Ashoka bonding up!

We headed towards Kochi after this, with beautiful views of hills covered with tea plantation. The road was lit, with colorful lights and festivities throughout which kept me from closing my eyes during the seven-hour ride, and also the fact that this program is ending soon. I could already picturize myself in Iowa City, praising the beauties of South India and missing these weeks so much! I just hope to get the best out of these remaining days!

The tea gardens of Thekaddy