Arriving in Kumily

| Previous | First post | Next |

The Periyar area, in which Kumily is located, is one of the pretty places of Kerala. The main reason for going to Periyar is to experience the 800 square kilometre national park. The park is protected and hosts a number of endangered species. Apparently, there are about 50 wild tigers left, though no one has ever seen one (slight exaggeration). There are also wild elephants and a number of different types of monkey.

Riding your motorcycle in India
On our way to Kumily, we came across the family in the photo below. The preferred means of transportation for an Indian is a two wheeled motorised vehicle; either a moped, a scooter or a motorcycle. The most common motorcycles are low powered, 100 to 150 cc, Hondas, Yamahas and a number of Indian brands. For some families this two wheeler is their only, or most convenient, means of transportation. Accordingly, a motorcycle can and will fit a whole family. Typically, the dad will steer it, the mother will ride side-saddle and any number of children will fit in front of the dad and/or on the mother's left thigh. Two-wheelers are also used by young men when they go about town; up to four on one bike is not uncommon.

There is only one unusual feature in this photo taken at high pace from an open window in our hired car. And that is that the rider is wearing a helmet. On average you'll find that one out of a hundred riders wears a helmet. For some reason baleclavas are very popular amongst very young children. The consequence of these riding practices is that gruesome accidents happen where the children are left very little chance of survival.
Accommodation and food
We had booked seven days at Mickeys Homestay which is reviewed favourably in Rough Guide. The homestay is run by husband and wife Murali and Sujatha. They are both very friendly and helpful and seem to have contact with the right guides. Further, Murali is part owner of the textile shop Mickeys Tex from where we would later buy fabric for clothing.

The room we stayed in was very cheap, but without any of the flaws that you come across in India. Additionally, it has a balcony, overlooking the road, where you can sit and wave to the neighbours.
The room comes with a mosquito net, which is a surprisingly rare occurrence in Kerala, and the bed is reasonably comfortable. “Reasonably comfortable” seems to be the best you can get in this country in terms of bed standards.
Mickeys Homestay is homely in the sense that you will feel very welcome and comfortable there, but normally the stay is without meals. This isn't a problem though since there are many places to eat in Kumily. Also, since Kumily is very small, getting around is done entirely by foot. We were, however, invited to eat with the family twice during our one week stay. Obviously, we accepted.

Even though there are plenty of places to eat in Kumily the quality isn't amazing. We tried out most of the pure veg places. The first place we went to was a small hotel restaurant and even though the food was very cheap it didn't satisfy our increasingly demanding taste buds. We also tried Aayam, in the basement of Lake Queen hotel, which had a meal buffet. The food was very fresh, but lacked refinement. Srii Somethingorother had good dosas but miserable thalis, and the staff generally seemed displeased with life. Not any wonder really; there were clearly too many customers for the number of staff, and the staff had to suffer what looked liked and unpleasant manager. Even worse, they had to deal with loud, always unhappy Indian tourists.

We were recommended Chrissie's Café, run by an English woman and her Egyptian husband, but they only served western food. However, since we were so displeased with the Indian food in Kumily we actually ended up in CC and even had a couple of tasty vegan pizzas. We also had our first proper salad for a very long time. In general, salads should be avoided in India since they are likely to be washed in tap water and because it is not recommended to eat the skin of uncooked fruit and vegetables. However, we were confident that these people knew what they were doing; after all, they can't afford to have their, primarily foreign, guests falling ill with stomach bugs. The salad was incredibly good. It was a fine balance of several typical salad vegetables served on a big plate with a proper dressing. We ended up going back for salad three times. Unfortunately, the salads got gradually less impressive, but at no point were they of an unacceptable standard. In general though, the price level at CC is a bit too high.

Finally, we ate at Caffe Ebony which opened whilst we were in Kumily. We went there on the second day of opening a had what was, probably, the best pakoras we have ever had and two curries of above average standard. We thought that this place had some potential. It was run by a family who also owns a small shop where Mort bought his cigarettes. He has had some funny experiences buying cigarettes. In Trivandrum, for instance, he went to the same stall, located in the street where the guest house was, and bought cigarettes every morning from the same old woman. The first time he went there he got a packet with only nine, instead of 10, cigarettes, and was short changed. The second time, the woman remembered which brand of cigarettes he wanted and both the number of cigarettes in the packet and the change were correct. The third time he got a smile. The fourth time he got a big smile and a loud laughter and a few words in Malayalam. It does make you wonder what would have happened had he gone back a fifth time.

The two places from where he bought his cigarettes in Kumily the pattern was similar. Initially, in one of stalls, the holder was averagely friendly, but thereafter he always displayed a big smile and found the right cigarettes without question.

Anyway, we decided to return to Caffe Ebony. Unfortunately, out second visit was a catastrophe. This time the pakoras were almost inedible; they were undercooked and overly greasy. The curries had turned poor and the bread was too greasy. To round off the meal, the restaurant, which can be described as “rooftop”, suffered an invasion of a creature of unknown origin which looked like a cross between a dragon fly and a daddy longlegs. Hundreds of them descended on the restaurant, attracted by the light, buzzing, hovering and landing in the food.

There is definitely no reason to go to Kumily for the food; apart from the rather tasty Rs. 2 pirathas we got freshly made from one of stalls next to the bus station. We talked to a trio of Americans when in Trivandrum and they heard the consequences of dodgy food practices in Kumily. Where they had stayed, the predominant sound effect was that of people splattering the toilets with vomit and diarrhoea. It would have had to be severe to overshadow the many noises of the town.

First impressions of Kumily
Kumily was freezing. Though not as high as Munnar (1500 metres above sea level), Kumily, located 900 metres above sea level, feels cold compared to Trivandrum even though it was close to 30 degrees. The crucial difference is the lack of humidity. On our second day we had to put our western clothes back on. And at night, where the temperatures fell to a tooth rattling 20 degrees, we were in need of woollen blankets. Of course, as with the rest of Kerala, November and December are the winter months, and it is a lot warmer in the summer, but apparently never unpleasantly warm.

The first thing we did after having made our room comfortable was to do a full tour of Kumily. A couple hours later we mastered the geography of the town. And we saw our first monkey since arriving in Kerala almost a month previously.
Actually, he wasn't in Kerala. Kumily borders with Tamil Nadu. To get to Tamil Nadu you have to go through a small border post where a few policemen make sure that drivers of vehicles carrying taxable goods fill in the necessary paper work etc. On the Tamil side of the border there are a few scruffy looking stalls selling food and buses that leave every hour to Madurai, a four hour journey. The monkey was sitting on one of the stalls.

Kumily is the access point to Periyar Wildlife Reserve and as such attracts quite a few tourists. However, these are not of the sun worshipping kind, which makes them less noticeable, and the local population still outnumber the tourists by 100 to 1 or so. Still, where there are tourists there are Kashmiris. Like in Varkala and Kovalam they have set up their carpet, antiques and crafts shops. They tend to sell stuff from all over India, and most of it seems of very high quality. Still, we are not in India to buy stuff and even though the Kumily Kashmiris are a lot less aggressive in their touting than the ones in Varkala and Kovalam we were still approached by the same people time and time again when we walked past their shops. In the end they had figured out that we weren't interested in buying and instead started saluting Mort with “hi brother” or “baba”. A few people have suggested that he looks like an Indian Muslim (white trousers, long kurta and longish beard without a moustache).

Anyway, it was time to visit the famous wildlife park.

| Back to top | Previous | First post | Next |

This entry was posted by pundabee, on Monday, December 25, 2006. You can leave your response.