The sun.

It's really quite strong here, unsurprisingly. And gets very hot when you're in it, even up here in the hills at nearly 2000m. I still get a better tan in Wales though.

And I've seen some beautiful sunsets. The last few nights, now being alone in the mountain palace, I've sat out on the front porch (the most idyllically placed porched I've had the pleasure of perching on) quietly watching the sun go down over the valley and the honking town below.

(Seems to be quite a party going on in Gudalur town tonight with India Republic Day being yesterday.) Thankfully, I do have Jimmy, my ukelele, to keep me company. Once it's too dark for anyone to hear, he's been strumming out the odd tune for me. He makes me very happy. Sunrise over the valley is pretty special too, slowly bringing colour to the forests below and up the hillsides. It's exciting to think what wild animals might be on their walk to work. I find it a bit less exciting to think about when I'm running alone though.

Another sunrise I was lucky enough to have was on a house-boat, moored up in the Backwaters of Kerala; a vast and beautiful area of paddy fields, canals, coconut palms and narrow strips of houses all in what seems like a massive shallow lake. We spent about 10 hours on one a few weeks ago (me and my 4 travelling buddies). The boats are like huge bumble bees floating on the water. And there really are swarms of them.

We tried to get one with a certification to say it follows certain environmental standards, but I'm not sure that went beyond being able to opt out of air conditioning. It was an experience though, and very beautiful out on the Backwaters. I got up early to see the sunrise and have some quiet (the fan in our room sounded a bit like an airship, of the loud kind), and before all of the house-boat generators started up. I was going to attempt some yoga too, but the palm trees didn't hide me as much as I'd hoped. I get enough stares being white, let alone being white and stretchy. (A bit of sunrise.)

We missed sunrise at Kanyakumari: the cape of India. Apparently the sunrise is the only good thing about the place. Unfortunately, we found this out after we'd been there, along with the fact that it's a s**t hole and not worth a visit. I didn't mind it as much as my co-adventurers. It was so ridiculous it was amusing. It's described as a "peaceful friendly village" (or similar) by our favourite and frequently incorrect travel guide (the LP), but it was one of the most hectic places we'd been to. It's meant to be a quiet place for contemplation, or that's what it was for the widely-respected Indian philosopher, Vivekananda. To celebrate his life there is a temple and memorial site on one of the island off the coast that he used to meditate on. It has probably thousands of tourists walking around it every day, and they are not quiet tourists. They also don't know how to queue. But perhaps it's only the British who do.

We watched the sunset in a specially created park with about half of south India, and a cockerel. Unfortunately we didn't make it up the sunset viewing platform, beautifully designed to look like a multistorey car park, in time. But it meant we were available for photographs. Though after a day of having our souls slowly drained by Indian tourists wanting images of dirty white youths (if we're still classified as such?), we refused and wandered back to our "Tourist Hotel".

Hopefully I'll have some soul left when I return to cloudy Blighty, but I don't think I'll have much of a tan.

Presents three.

I received three wonderful gifts yesterday.

At midnight, I unexpectedly had a knock on my bedroom door (the supposedly scorpion-free bedroom) and in came my friends with the best birthday non-cake I've ever had.

A delicious Indian watermelon, laced with vodka, with my name etched in and a candle burning on top. It was very special and extremely delicious, and much healthier than double chocolate chocolate cake.

Secondly, a plate of fresh flowers.

Although I love being given flowers (makes me feel very mature and appreciated), I'm quite against the principle of pumping larges amounts of resources into growing such a short-lived item with only an aesthetic value. There are lots of different arguments though, as with everything. But my friend's Daddy picked some heads off some invasive plants they have growing in their garden and arranged them on a little disposable plate (that they are keeping for multiple uses). My most ethically-pleasing gift of the day.

My most wonderfully random gift was two fresh carrots.

My, they were tasty. I have next to no idea who the person was who gave them to me, but I was stood at the edge of what seemed to be the public toilet spot, having just used it, at the start of a walk I went on yesterday, and this smiley man came walking up to me waving two shining "Carrots! Carrots! Wash....water." Strangely, I only realized how random it was when my friend came out of the bushes and asked where I got my carrots from. I think it was an omen. Thank you, Mr Smiley Carrot Man. I hope the good will comes back to you. I fed the green tops to a very happy cow, with a bell and decorated horns (see photo - apart from the decorated horns - must've been another one!).

And some other special people cooked special food and took me to special places. I'm a very grateful slightly older Lyd.

The Scorpion

This is the name of my friend’s Dad’s car. I’m not sure why that name in particular. It’s a big four-by-four, shockingly has seatbelts, and the boot both opens and closes without the door falling off. I got to drive it back up the hill from the town at the bottom of the hill, Gudalur, a few nights ago. I only stalled once, avoided most pot holes, and managed many a sharp bend, of which there are many on the winding hill road. And, I didn’t use the horn at all. It wasn’t quite as much fun as free riding down the same hill in the sunshine past lush green tea plantations on the back of a motorbike (without a helmet), though.

The scorpion is my animal of the day. This morning, as I was getting dressed, I pulled out my bra from my back pack, and there, minding his/her own business, was a little red scorpion. I thought it was dead to start with as it looked pretty crushed, but then it suddenly came to life. I didn’t really want it to be there, unfortunately, so after assessing the situation at arm’s length, I set it free out of my turret window. (I’m sure Rapunzel never had these challenges to deal with.) So now I’ve had to leave the turret and move downstairs, away from direct roof exposure....and the scorpion reigns free. Apparently I should have killed it and not let it go and make other scorpion babies. Next time.

On the topic of slightly alarming local residents, I had dinner with the local snake-catcher the other day. He’s relocated 400 snakes from homes in a 5-mile radius of Gudalur within the last 2 years. Gosh. He said the trick of catching them is putting them off balance by lifting their tale. Easy.

Oh, and rats. Apart from being nearly everywhere, in the first guesthouse we stayed in, during Wedding I (as opposed to Wedding II which starts on 10th February), we found a dead rat floating in our shower bucket. I did wonder how it quite got there (and when anyone last stayed in the room, bar frogs and live rats). We decided not to look in any of the cupboards at that particular guest-menagery.

Hmm....what other wildlife? Today we saw some elephant poo. I’ve seen quite a lot of elephant poo around the place. I also saw porcupine poo and potentially sloth bear poo (but it looked suspiciously like porcupine poo to my untrained eye). I’ve also seen rat poo.

One wonderful wildlife experience I had, very fortunately whilst in the presence of Bat Woman herself (who incidentally is also a renowned Croatian dance queen), occurred a few weeks ago on the rooftop of a homestay on the edge of Periyar Nature Reserve. The manager of the homestay came and told us just an hour earlier that we MUST go to the roof and see the “Bats! Bats! 6:40!” at 6.40. So we went up at 6:40 (or probably more like 6:38), in case we had actually heard correctly. And woe-behold, first a trickle, then a whole sky of bats silently flew over our heads as the sun went down behind the hills. It must’ve lasted for about 30 minutes. It was so wonderful. The bat was definitely my animal of the day on that day.

(See bats and sunset opposite.)
Who knows what it will be tomorrow.

And....

....for the first time in my life, I've seen proof to support a long-standing myth of my Daddy's: there is sometimes an ice-cream van at the top of the hill. (Technically it was an ice-cream rickshaw that I spotted precariously perched on the hillside. And the ice-cream was almost certainly more like foam too. But still.) Fact: Anything is possible in India.

I'm actually chilly.

I've been a bit too busy sweating in the last three weeks to write. But now that I'm in the mountain-like hillside palace of the Prince of the Tigers, I am feeling much more temperate and at home/on holiday in Wales.

A photo of the view from the palace balcony (with wedding decorations up).

Nilgiri Langur monkeys, wild chooks, more birds than I would have a hope of identifying even if I were a birder, and many other rustly things are all about the palace, especially at sunrise and sunset. And there are deer, leopards, wild boar and much more around, although I've not seen them yet. And scorpions - I didn't imagine I would be wearing slippers on my feets in India. It's a bit of a Magicland away from Magicland, Minstead.

And this is where I shall sit and do my PhD for a little while ahead. Hopefully with only elephants to distract me.

More of the adventure, sweat, 'queues', pineapples and peoples of the last few weeks soon. For now, I shall ascend to my turret. I wonder if I will be able to sleep without the sound of a hundred rickshaw horns racing past my ears.