I know it’s been a bit quiet on here of late and I must confess, it’s because I've been doing a bit
of travelling – and I plan to do as much as I possibly can, while I can, and
while I'm still based here in France. I was actually a bit reluctant to turn
this blog into Deb’s Travel Diary….
But for those who are vaguely interested, I’ll keep updating as I go along …
and of course Bize stuff, as and when….
So, in January, I took myself off to India for 12 days. Again,
it was a last minute spur-of-the-moment decision – those long winter months/short days,
you know. It was to Kerala state, in the south.
I don’t know why I thought it would be any less hot and humid
just because it was winter in the northern hemisphere. I guess I hadn't checked
just how close to the equator it was. My least favourite
weather – hot and sticky! But it was all good and I thoroughly enjoyed it, and a really nice
group of 15 people on the tour.
Kerala was a good place for my introduction to India – a few
facts: the richest state in India, highest literacy rate (95%), lowest
population growth, highest life expectancy and lowest homicide rate! I think we were sheltered from some of the realities of the poverty that exists in other parts of the country, as we saw none at all, and we did cover a lot of ground. The people
are lovely and the food was good, though I probably won’t be cooking curry for a
while.
As a respite from the heat, we did spend a few days up in
high tea-growing hills. And I managed not to get sick until the last day. So
all in all, it was a great short break away from the cold.
Having said that, we’d
actually had a very mild winter here in the south, and it’s feeling very spring-like at the
moment, with a lot of plants and trees already with green shoots.
Below, a few photos of lovely Kerala.
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| There are a lot of converted rice barges, now being used mainly for tourist cruises. Two days and night cruising the beautiful Backwaters was rather special..... |
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| The Backwaters link to the open ocean so a lot of the fishing boats are moored away from the fishing ports. |
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| Casting fishing nets at one of the locks in the Backwaters |
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| A morning trek through Periyar Wildlife Reserve. There are tigers there, but we were assured that there was a 99.9% chance of NOT coming across one, and we didn't! |
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| ...but we were very lucky indeed to come across some of the wild Asian elephants that still live in the Reserve. A special experience. |
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| Rubber tree plantation |
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| Tapping a rubber tree for latex |
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| Visit to a spice farm: Cardamom plant |
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| Cardamom flower and developing seeds |
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| Nutmeg |
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| Pepper |
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| Tea plantations at Munnar |
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| A lot of the tea plantations are extensively planted with Australian grevilleas (Silky Oak) for shade. |
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| Chinese fishing nets at Cochin |
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| I just happened to have a birthday while I was away, and I was treated to cake for the occasion .... |
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| .... and confetti..... |
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| Lots of meals like this one ..... breakfast/lunch/dinner! |
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| And the odd splurge on these ....... |
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