Peermade mishap

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Our plan had been to stay for four days in Munnar, but after three we had had enough. We obviously didn't tip anyone at the hotel. Our rule for tipping is simple: if we get something extraordinary we tip, if not we don't.

We decided to hire a car, for the sake of convenience, to go to Peermade, which is located a four hour car journey south of Munnar. It is, as Munnar is, a hill station set amongst tea plantations. According to Rough Guide it is a worthwhile a visit, and it is even possible to get comfortable, cheap accommodation at the Government Guesthouse.

The drive to from Munnar to Peermade is a nice drive that ta kes you through nice scenery, enhanced by the morning light, and is up and down several mountains; it feels like you are driving up and down in circles. Most of the roads are very narrow and don't allow oncoming large vehicles to get past each other. At one point we ended up spending 15 minutes waiting for these two buses to get past each other.
Our Indian driver spent a while complaining about the many bad drivers of India. He clearly had a point in this instance; the bus driver to the left could have solved the problem by reversing for 50 metres into a conveniently located layby. That would have taken less than two minutes; instead we witnessed this dangerous looking spectacle. When the bus on the right finally got past, a second bus, should be noticeable in the photo, had to go through the same rigmarole.

On the way to Peermade there are a few sight seeing opportunities. One is Idukki dam. It is located close to Idukki Town which is the capital city of the Idukki province. Kerala's main source of power comes from hydroelectric dams. Also, dams work as water reservoirs, and water is released when water is needed. The Periyar dam is particularly important in this respect since the neighbouring state, Tamil Nadu, relies heavily on water supply from Kerala. The Tamil Nadu government wants the water levels in Periyar dam raised whereas the Kerala government claims that this would threaten the stability of the dam. The experts seem to support the Kerala government. The problem is that the dams in Kerala tend to be very old, typically more than a hundred years old, and if they do break the result will be flooding of large parts of lowland Kerala with devastating consequences for all life forms. But we will get onto that issue when we post from Periyar.

The Idukki dam does look impressive. We only saw the dry side of the dam, but in some ways this makes the construction look even more impressive.
When we finally got to Peermade it was very easy to find the Government Guesthouse, which is located in a peaceful location on a small hill. We had tried to call ahead to book a room, but the phone was “out of order”. When Sarah entered the lobby she was met by a horrified looking Indian who ushered her back out; he definitely wasn't interested in having any visitors. He suggested that we went to another hotel 50 metres down the road, but similarly they were clearly not interested in having any guests staying at their empty hotel.

So, what to do? Peermade suddenly seemed like a bad proposition. Luckily, our driver was still there. After a few minutes of deliberation (we have had to make a lot of quick decisions in India, which doesn't suit Mort's analytical senses) we decided to call George Kutty, the host of the homestay in Kottayam where we had booked a room for four days later, to ask if it was possible to go there four days early. It was and our driver took us to the nearest bus station. 60 seconds later a private bus careered round the corner and, just like when we left Kochi for Munnar, we had to do a panic exit from the car to the bus.

Again, we had the honour of getting two of the most volatile seats on the bus; the back seats. The most uncomfortable seats in an Indian bus are on top of the wheel arches, resulting in locked joints, and the second most uncomfortable seats are the back seats because when sitting in these you feel every single movement, and there are many, of the bus. When you get off the bus it feels a bit like you have been on a long boat trip in a storm. At least Mort got to sit in the middle on the back seat and could follow in detail all the dangerous overtaking manoeuvres that were made on the three hour journey to Kottayam. We overtook a three digit number of vehicles and the pace was well over 100 kilometres per hour most of the way; even through small villages. Luckily, the driver had his good luck charms plastered all over the windscreen.

We arrived in Kottayam without any physical or mental scaring, apart from a slight wobble, and phoned George who picked us up at the private bus station after we had a thali at a nearby restaurant.

The pick-up was the first of many good experiences at George's homestay. Since he doesn't own a car we were picked up in an ecologically sound rickshaw running on vegetable gas. Considering that being in Indian traffic isn't too dissimilar to living in a chimney this is a good idea. If more people thought along those lines the world would be a better place. Unfortunately, many Keralans see cars as status symbols; the bigger and more expensive the car is, the higher their status. Often they don't even drive the car for fear of it getting a scrape or a dent.

George speaks very good English and his accent is very easy to understand. That was a blessing. In general, people speak very little English in Kerala, and the ones who do speak it well tend to speak it too quickly or too slowly with an accent that is hard to decipher.

After a half hour rickshaw ride we reached GK Riverview Homestay set in the backwaters of Kerala. We left our luggage in our room and went to meet the family.

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This entry was posted by pundabee, on Monday, November 27, 2006. You can leave your response.