Kerala Diaries - The Final Journey

My second and final day at Thekkady started with a morning safari ride. This included driving up the rough roads on the hills and getting a view of the various flora and fauna that were present in the city. At first, we began with the smooth road from my guest house towards the first checkpoint at which we would make a stop. But before I went for the trip, because I noticed a few monkeys in the guest house area doing their monkey business as usual. But I could only get a single shot of them since they were camera shy.

On the way towards the first checkpoint, I had hoped that the experience would be much better than the park visit. Although I knew that in the evening it would be an entertaining day, I wanted to make sure that the first half of my day wouldn’t be a pointless trip. And well, I must say, the entire experience was worth it. The driver showed me a few coffee, pepper and local spice plants and also explained to me how tea was the most common plant grown in Kerala because of which most of the plants that I was seeing on the hills were tea plants. The road was smooth up until we reached close to a river flowing on the hills and we moved upwards to reach the first checkpoint. The view all along the road was breath-taking.

On top of the hill, the driver explained to me that if I would have taken an early morning safari ride, I would have been able to see some animals including elephants and birds and during rare cases, even tigers drinking water and moving along the stream of the river down the hill. But for that, I would have to be up at 5 am. Although I did miss my chance to see the animals, the hill was still filled with luscious green to satisfy my eyes. Post our first checkpoint, we moved along the rough road towards the villages and also an old abandoned British fort along the road. We reached a second checkpoint where we stopped and I took some more photos of the surroundings. Finally, the safari was over and we started returning back to the mainland wherein we took a different road but it was still filled with the greenery that I had witnessed on the way to my first checkpoint.

The driver then took me to an exotic plants park to help me understand the kind of plants that grew in Kerala. Out of the many plants that were shown and how useful they, my interest lie in only one of the plants – coffee and especially the coffee seeds that were grown locally and the powder made out of them were sold across India (one of the packets was purchased by me as well).

After this visit, I went to a local elephant park wherein they were breeding ‘trained’ elephants that give tourists and visitors a ride on their backs. Here’s the thing though, when I had visited Sri Lanka a year before that I didn’t have a good experience in the elephant ride back then not because the elephants didn’t move around much but that they weren’t being treated well and had injuries that were clearly visible on their bodies. This time as well it was no different wherein the elephant was being hit hard with bamboo by the trainer, the saddle that was being used was bound tightly by chains and it was visible on the back that many red ants were dwelling underneath the saddle and am pretty sure it was hurting it. Close to the pickup point, I could see other elephants being trained for rides along with an elephant calf that was tied by a chain. While I smiled for the camera, I decided not to take any further rides on elephants that day and would also recommend others to do so. Whichever way the wild animals are tamed, I doubt there is anything right or ethical about it and they should roam free in the jungles while we watch them from afar.

Post this, I returned back to the hotel to have lunch and take some rest before the evening shows. It again started raining and then I got slightly drenched on reaching the academy for the Kathakali and Kalaripayattu shows. The Kathakali show was mindblowing for me as well as the viewers present. The act was about a romance story between a king and a queen and the way both the actors emoted was just amazing especially the one who was acting as the queen. He expressed so well with his eyes and face that it didn’t feel for a single moment that there was a man acting like a woman.

Next up was the Kalaripayattu show which was equally amazing. With young and experienced fighters on the stage, one wouldn’t be able to differentiate if the fighters were simply putting up a show or were acting. Whenever I see a fight scene in movies or series, it is always disappointing for many reasons. Firstly, the fighters move very slow and the choreography shows in the way they fight even if it’s a one on one fight and they are using a particular martial arts technique. Secondly, most of the fight scenes don’t really aim to actually cause serious harm to the person and finally, there is no tension that the viewer can observe wherein you aren’t able to predict who will win the battle. But that wasn’t the case when I saw the show that day.

The fighters were moving fast and if they had carefully choreographed the moves, it couldn’t be seen as I know that even a single inch of change in their moves and it could cause serious injury to their opponents. They weren’t using any fake weapons and sparks were flying as they connected their swords, the bamboo sticks were making loud thud noises as they connected and the knives could have easily cut them had they not been cautious. Even the fire show that they put up could have caused internal damage upon gulping the petrol or fuel in their mouths. The bamboo sticks that were lit on fire could have burnt them had they not handled it properly. This was a real scare and a real enjoyment to see such talented men from southern India put up an exciting show for the audience despite the availability of the internet and in today’s age of social media.

Post the show, the fighters were taking pictures with the audience and I got a chance to take the same. One of the pictures was a little too intense for me to not get embarrassed about.

And that’s how I wrapped up my final day in Thekkady and with a bang as well. The very next day I had to leave for Kochi to catch an evening flight to Hyderabad and then to Mumbai. Upon leaving my room and heading towards the bus stop, I was recollecting all the memories from my entire journey from Munnar till Thekkady, how I traveled and witnessed the splendid hospitality and beautiful environment of Kerala. It wouldn’t end there as well. When I got onto the bus, my guest house manager had called me and informed me that I hadn’t given the room key back to them. My bus had already started off and the guy they had sent to the bus stop was too late to catch my bus. I informed them that I would courier the key back to them but they asked me to pass the phone to the conductor to know the route that the bus was going. It will be hard to believe but en route, the guy actually traveled to one of the bus stops and was waiting for me to give the key back to him. They didn’t want me to spend any extra money in just sending the keys back to them and with the help of the conductor, I was able to give the keys back and have one less thing to worry about.

On the way, I clicked a few more pictures of the trees in the surrounding before resting in the bus.

I couldn’t believe that my first solo trip was such a successful and enjoyable experience. Despite the initial hiccups, the rest of the journey was enjoyable and absolutely memorable. I proved to myself that I could not only take care of myself but definitely plan well financially and keep myself prepared for the next time I do a similar trip. I traveled to different cities on my own with a little help from others and could sustain myself without any hassle. From planning the weeklong trip, utilizing my own finances to a good extent until I needed help from my mother, and then finally be able to return back home without too many issues was self-achievement that I was extremely happy about. And I couldn’t wait to return back to Mumbai and describe my journey to my family and friends.

The bus that I had taken though was moving in a separate direction from the airport and I had to get down midway. Sick and tired of doing any more bus travels, I decided to take the Kochi Metro to reach close to the airport. I must say the metro train reminded me of the Mumbai metro service as it was clean and a smooth ride to the station I needed to get down on. From the station, I took an auto ride to reach the airport which was only 5-10 mins away. The auto was very spacious to keep my bags and I didn’t want to take an Uber or Ola ride as it would have been costlier.

My flight was slightly delayed and took some final breaths of Kerala’s fresh air before getting onto the flight. After changing flights at Hyderabad and landing in Mumbai, I was glad to be back home after a week but I would definitely return back to Kerala for another experience but maybe this time with someone accompanying me. Until next time God’s own land! Bon voyage!