a new kind of hobbit

We took the overnight bus from Pondicherry to Madurai, knowing we could find some good connecting buses heading west from this Manchester-esque city. I’ve become quite the pro at sleeping regardless of the circumstances, if anyone wants any tips, let me know…when we arrived at the bus station, we took a toll, asking bus drivers and workers where we should head, the top result: Kumily. And off we went.

Kumily was an undiscovered oasis! Everyone in the town was friendly and inviting, we stayed at a hostel right on the edge of the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary, waking each morning to sounds of a multitude of birds, water buffalo and boars. Kumily is a mountain town in Kerala and extremely well known for its tea and spice plantations so much of our stay was focused on becoming tea and spice snobs.

The next stop on the itinerary was Fort Kochin, where we joined forces with Lauren and her sister Mikalea for a few days. One of our main reasons for heading here was to take a backwater tour via a remarkably hobbit home looking houseboat, and that is just what we did. We had two crew-members who came with us and cooked our meals with fish caught off the back of the boat, I even swallowed my pride and ate seafood at every meal...it was a pretty big deal. I am not sure how to adequately sum this experience up in words, so I’m going to let pictures do the talking.

While in Kochi we also spent quite a bit of time wandering the streets and watching the ancient Chinese fishnets be put to use..