From Fort Chochin we headed down to Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary which is situated in the Western Ghats. The Western Ghats are amazing... I always feel the most at home and comfortable when I am surrounded by mountains and these bad boys do not disappoint. We stayed in by far the best place I have stayed looking right onto the sanctuary and with a killer view from the roof. The one thing about Indian wildlife preserves is they do not trust you to walk anywhere around... I was disappointed by the fact that I could not just take a wander in the woods. Adventure tourism really has not made its way to India... I did see a ton of monkeys... Even a pair doing it!!!! 

This is the only evidence I have found of tigers in India. Dem tigers be out there somewhere...

The ladies surprised me with an elephant ride which was pretty awesome. The best part was at the end we got to wash the elephant and I gave her a bunch of hugs and laid on her belly! I have been close to elephants but never scrubbed behind ones ears before!

Monkeys in the throws of passion

Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary

 We made it from Peryar to Munnar which is a huge tea plantation area... I believe there are 150 different plantations here. This makes for an amazing scenery on the epic mountain background that is the Western Ghats. I had a great time in Munnar other then the fact that the huge range of temperatures I have been through lately has left me a little sick. 

FML... So hard

 Views from Munnar... so peaceful, and quite! A big change from other parts of India

I like bark...

 ... and trees... yeah trees

In Munnar we thought ahead and planned a day tour through Kerala Tourism which is a pretty reasonable way to actually get to see things and meet some new people. The guide took us through the mountains letting us off to wander through some tea plantations; unfortunately they were not working that day as it was Sunday. Still really cool I had no idea what tea looked like when not in a jar all dried up like. 

Tea planations

By far the highlight of my day was the two hour trek through the mountains. Truly nothing compares to standing on the edge of a mountain looking down at the scenery below... I think I love the Western Ghats and I am stoked to add one more range to my list of mountains visited!

Our guide to use to a sugar cane processing "plant" where the turn the cane into small brown balls of sweetness...

From Munnar came the longest ugliest mission of my journey so far. Munnar to Varkala = 13 hours on public buses = a strange desire to consume a lot of beer as soon as possible when the journey finally ended. Not much to say about the actual journey other then I really resent fat people who take public transportation and like to ride with their elbows in my face. But it was cheap and you got to do public transportation in India if not for the economic value at least for the reaction of old Indian people when they have to sit beside a girl with tattoos and dreads!

Christmas time in Varkala...

Christmas Day!

Varkala marked the end of my Southern excursion and it was quite a nice end to that. Varkala is super tourist I wouldn’t say there is a lot of Indian culture to be had but it was nice to lounge in restaurants drinking beer and listening to the surf... Sounds like an alright Christmas to me!

From Varkala I took a train to Tirvandrum and caught a plane up to Bombay and so begins my mission up North!