We spent the first few days in the city of Cochin on the southwest coast. One thing we did was to give some money to this "snake charmer."
We gave him 30 rupees (about $.60) and he played his flute while this snake bit him on the arm. It was pretty creepy. Apparently these guys go out to the forest and catch the snakes and then pull out their teeth. Its not a good life as a pet of a snake charmer. I heard that they usually only live for about 6 months after being caught. This was the only snake charmer we saw. I think they're more common farther north.
After our days in Cochin, we drove into the mountains and to the town of Munnar. It was very beautiful there. The mountains were rugged and there were many spectacular tea plantations. Here is a picture of a tea field.
Also near Munnar is Eravikulam National Park. Here is a picture of Kelly and Ryan enjoying the view.
The park is famous for the endangered Nilgiri Tahr. We saw several of them, they are like small mountain sheep and they aren't very afraid of people. There are also elephants and tigers in the park. Luckily we didn't get trampled or eaten, but saddly we didn't see any elephants or tigers here either.
Actually, later in the day we did see some real wild elephants though. It was really cool to see them in the wild. We saw three of them from across a large lake.
As you may have guessed, we ate a lot of good indian food. Actually, I think we both stretched out our stomachs a little. We kept eating these huge meals and then we'd already be starving again by the time we got to the next meal. Here's a picture of me paying the price for eating so much.
That picture is taken in the Periyar National Park and Tiger Reserve on our jeep safari there. We didn't see any tigers or elephants here, but we did go on a nice hike in the jungle. At one point I think we were very close to some elephants, we could smell them. It reminded me of smelling elk in the Rockies. We also saw this monkey there.
We actually saw several monkeys there and it was awesome. It was really cool to see them happy and wild in the jungle. They showed off their athletic tree climbing as they leaped and swung between trees, we loved it.
Also near the tiger preserve, we went to a "spice garden." There were spices all over in this part of india, tons of cardamom and pepper. The spice garden was a place set up for tourists to walk around and learn about the spices. We saw cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg trees; vanilla orchids; coffee and cocoa; tumeric plants; rubber trees; and jackfruit, coconuts, and papayas. It seriously felt like it was run by Willy Wonka, everytime you turned around there was a crazy new plant. Here is an elephant (not wild) that passed us in the garden.
After that was our "backwater tour." Just inland from the coast is a large network of lakes. It has become big industry to take tourists out in these lakes on houseboats. This picture of Ryan enjoying his coconut explains a lot about the experience.
After the houseboat, Ryan headed south to relax on the beach and Kelly and I had to catch a plane to Hyderabad for her conference. On the way to the airport though, Kelly and I had time for a quick visit to the beach. Here is Kelly enjoying the view of the Arabian Sea.
The last picture is in Hyderabad. The city is historically Muslim and here is a picture taken in the old Golkonda fort there.
