Holiday in Thekkady - 1

The date: May 22nd, 2010. We landed in hot sultry Cochin and took the 5 and a half hour drive to Thekkady.
The route is green – with a vengeance. Houses sprout up on tree branches and tree trunks, from certain angles :) Picture this green, green, brown tree trunk, green, green, brown tree trunk, pinkyellowpurple, green, green, brown tree trunk, fluorescent green and yellow, rainbow stripes, green, green, brown tree trunk, lavenderwhite, orangepurple, darkblueandwhite…

By the time we reached our hotel it was 7 p.m. and dark and cool. Note the time of year as I say this – we had just come from very hot, sweaty Mumbai to very hot Cochin to this complete climate contrast. Hotels in Thekkady are not fitted with an AC. The temperature remains cool through the year.

The next morning was a visit to the Spice Plantation. Ho hum, a walk in a park. This is a privately owned estate that has government permission to open its gates to visitors. The estate grows a huge variety of medicinal plants, spices and coffee. This is an ornamental plant - Angel’s Trumpet - it's larger than my palm.

The climate is excellent for exotic plants. This is the Bird of Paradise – an orchid that was imported from Brazil and grows better here. It can grow up to 4 feet in height and is used for decorating wedding halls of the super-rich (poor plant).

We went past the nest of a weaver bird – this bird has a ‘swayamvae’ (husband choosing) that would make us eat our hearts out. When it is time to nest, the male builds nests with place for rooms and picks twigs and soft material to make for plush interiors. They catch fireflies and attach them into the nest for light. The female of the species goes from house to house to check construction quality, electricity availability and interior design and finally chooses the guy with the best house. Thus spared of housing loans and EMIs the weaver bird gets settled to married life in a housing society with neighbours of its own kind.

We came across a little pond of water with a basking turtle in the centre. As we watched the turtle, something blue flashed in the water. We looked closer to find tiny, um tadpoles? No, guppy fish.

This is the Kerala Government's response to the threat of chikungunya and dengue. Guppy fish are happy to live off the larvae of mosquitoes and nip into a big chunk of the mosquito’s population expansion program. These fish are natives of Trinidad and were imported to India and freed into the fresh water. The flash of blue is from the tail of the male as it tries to attract attention. The trouble with the male of this species is that they devour everything, including their young without a blink.

Good news is, they breed rapidly, so fast that despite all that devouring there are always enough guppies in the water. In fact, the female of the species frees the eggs into the water in batches to increase the rate of survival. The male is comfortable with this regular food supply.

There was a cinnamon tree stripped off its bark – the outer bark is what we consume. In order to keep the tree in good health, one half of the bark is stripped and allowed to grow back before the other half is stripped. However, visitors to the site have seen the tree, stripped the bark without heeding the guide due to which it has died. Visitors are no longer taken to the live trees.

We came to a huge bamboo tower that dates back to more than a century when Thekkady was pure forest with huge herds of marauding elephants. The tower allows a view far, far into the forest so a minor rustle could be caught and people could get away while the elephants ate their crop and tore their homes down.

The stairs to the top of the tower

At the top of the tower

We came across tiny chillies - the size of a fingertip. These are the spicy Kandhari chillies. Keralites use a lot of coconut in their food and spice it up with Kandhaari chillies, these tiny bombs counter cholesterol. The incidence of high BP among these people is low because of the use of this chilli. Good for us, I can plant these chillies at home - maybe go on to own a chilli plantation - or so I thought. I'd market the chilli for its cholesterol combating capability maybe even as a weight loss agent. 'It burns your mouth so you can't eat more.'

I planted the seeds after returning to Mumbai - the saplings came up, tender leaves grew and got neatly clipped off by an interested sparrow :( and put paid to my agriculturist plans.

The 1.5 hour walk ended in the shop where medicines, oils and coffee are sold. We moved out of the plantation feeling mighty pleased with our education.