Today was by far our most skrikerith journey of our lives. Five long hours of death defying overtaking on a mountain road that makes Chapmans Peak Drive look straight and wide. Then add some thick fog so that you cant see past a metre or two.
Alas, that did not deter our lovely driver Aji.The hooting just got louder and longer.
Hells bells, that was one of my top 5 worst moments of my life. With clear signage of which toilets were Indian and which were European, we took deep enough breaths to last us as long as we needed only to find two massive buckets in the middle of the bathroom and then another one in the actual toilet, but no toilet paper.Then to add to our hellish, albeit exciting trip, we stopped high up along a mountain pass that was really breathtaking with all it’s greenery and a supernatural fog to take a toilet break. Down some creepy stairs, deeper into the fog to a landing that had a beautiful view of a valley covered with trees and jack fruit, around the corner to … dum dum dum, the toilet.
Seriously?? It was a mixture of panic, fear, disgust and confusion but we managed to get out of there only to be charged ten rupees for the experience.Finally, we arrived at our destination, by the grace of all the gods, Nancy’s prayers and jesus handles. This place is so beautiful, we staying in little mock-tribal huts with wooden thatches. There are trees and spices and plants all over the place with little descriptions underneath.
On arrival we were greeted by 4 staff members, of which one of them put a beautiful recycled necklace on made out of all natural materials and a cup of cardamom tea. Its so calm and peaceful here. But now it’s time for an afternoon nap.
It’s now about 21h30 and we’ve just got into bed after yet another eventful day. We went to see the Kadathanadan Kalari Martial Arts, which is acrobatic combat drawing heavily on yoga and ancient knowledge of the human body.
These guys have been training for years and years and one wrong move looks as though they might actually loose a limb. It was an incredible act to watch and action packed and just when you think they couldn’t actually do that, they do something even more crazy.
After the show it was time for us to venture out in the streets of Kumily on foot. With the sun already down and the skies opened up for the monsoon rain, we were not deterred. We trudged on with our umbrella’s trying not to get knocked over by a bike, car or bus. Suddenly, the next dare. Everyone said, don’t eat the food from the locals, so what do we do, walk straight into a restaurant and order local food and a beer of course. Tell you what, the food was delicious. How safe it was I can only tell you tomorrow.
They don’t have TV’s or radio’s in the rooms here and we’re in the middle of a botanical garden and I am in love with this place. We can hear the frogs, crickets, guinea fowls and the soft rain falling. Okay, off to learn more about Ghandi, sleep tight all.
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