Kerala Diaries: Thekkady

With my time coming to an end at Allepey, I was looking back at the days I spent and came to the realization that my trip would slowly come to an end. Getting on another KSRTC bus towards Thekkady, I felt much more relaxed and refreshed. This trip certainly taught me a few important lessons and also helped me calm my nerves and mind from the daily work life stress that I had been experiencing for a long time.

As I traveled, the weather changed from the slightly hot and humid conditions in Allepey to a much cooler temperature with winds blowing upon my face. In fact, midway through my journey, it started raining as we climbed up the hilly road. It came as a surprise for me considering that I knew it wasn’t the monsoon season. But the rain was short and all that I could see was the return of the green and luscious environment of the hills.

On the way, I also witnessed a rally by comrades of the red flag as well!

This time, I decided to take as many pictures and videos from my travels on the bus as possible to make up for the lack of it from my previous journeys.

Upon reaching my destination in the evening, I settled down in my room, breathing in the cool and pure air. While it wasn’t as cold as Munnar, the weather was cool enough for me to not utilize the AC service that was provided. The guest room manager was in awe that I reached the destination alone on my own. He even asked me how I did it. While I answered him that I just did it, it helped me go through a much deeper insight. I delved into how I managed to move across the state on my own while I was eating dinner that night. There are a few important reasons that I was able to achieve this. Firstly, I familiarized myself with the transport system of the state very quickly. All thanks to the KSRTC buses, the conductors at the bus stations as well as Google Maps, I was able to figure out how long it would have taken me to reach my destinations. I was also very careful to not get lost or side-tracked while traveling. Keeping my bags close to me, being vigilant at all times and with a bit of luck, I was able to move across cities and visit tourist spots without any hassle and any unfortunate event taking place. I would also like to thank the people of Kerala for being helpful and being kind towards me. It definitely reminded me of the spirit of Mumbai wherein everyone wants to help each other in times of need.

I had two days on hand to explore Thekkady and know it much better than Munnar and Allepey. On the 1^st day, I hadn’t planned to visit any place for personal reasons and didn’t want to do anything. But upon my mother’s insistence, I decided that post-lunch I would at least visit one place. This was the Tiger Park that the room manager had mentioned that I could visit. For the same, there was a separate bus ticket that was provided for the ride. Now, when you hear there’s a Tiger Park close by, you expect to see some tigers at a distance. But that wouldn’t be the case.

In place of the tigers, I witnessed many monkeys roaming around the waiting area for the ferry that would lead us to see the tigers in the jungle close to the river streams. And well, while some were close to being violent with the visitors, others were just doing their monkey business.

Once on the ferry, I did see a huge snake close to the river stream but other than that, there wasn’t anything much to view other than the jungle trees (which by now I had gotten used to seeing) and deers.

I was hugely disappointed because along with me, none present on the ferry got to see any tigers at the park! Instead of Tiger Park, they should rename it as a monkey and deer park because they were in abundance and were the only ones we could see. It was definitely a trip that I could have avoided.

As I moved back to the bus ride that would take me back to the pick-up spot, I got down midway close to the guest house and asked the manager if there were any other sites that could be visited. He mentioned about the early morning safari that I could take and also a close-by academy wherein Kathakali and the traditional Kerala martial arts Kalaripayattu acts were held every evening. While I booked the tickets for them, the hotel manager, as well as the auto-rickshaw driver, helped me get in touch with a jeep driver who would help in the safari trip. The auto-rickshaw driver had also mentioned about a cheap spa wherein I would get a good massage. He had known that I had come alone to the hotel. But I was cautious and didn’t entertain him for it. My room manager also laughed about it when I mentioned it to him.