Monday, January 12, 2026:
Exploring Periyar Wild Life Reserve in Thekkady:
We awoke in our Dale Dean Cottages B&B and after showers and dressing, decided to go out in search of breakfast. This was the day devoted to seeking and, hopefully, finding wild life…but first, we needed to fortify ourselves with a good breakfast. A Google search led me to a place called Misty Green where someone called Aunty Maggie was supposed to provide home-cooked, typically Keralite breakfasts. Well, suffice it to say that we had a very nice personal encounter with a lovely couple, Felix and his wife, Maggie who run a Home Stay and, as part of it, also provide breakfast to their residents. After making the journey and being told that breakfast was not available to non-residents, I told Felix that we had driven a long way in search of his place and, taking pity on us, he and Aunty Maggie decided to provide us with one.
And so, we were seated at a very nice homely dining table in a private house and looked after by a delightfully friendly landlady called Maggie. She served us Puttu—this is a typical Keralite delicacy which consists of steamed rice and grated coconut cooked either in bamboo or in coconut shells. To go with the puttu which is either served in the shape of a small mound (the coconut shell) or in long rolls (formed by the bamboo molds), there is a lentil curry, papad and small, ripe, yellow bananas. To top this off, there is really lovey steaming coffee and we had two cups as it was so good. For this abundant and very tasty meal, Aunty Maggie charged us just Rs. 150 each. She also gave us a sample of her own homemade chocolate studded with nuts and rice crispies—but, in the end, as it is our preference, we bought a bar of her dark chocolate. Thanking both Felix and her very much for accommodating our request and serving us a freshly-made breakfast, we were on our way. Thankfully, they had told us what to expect when going into the forest.
Exploring the Periyar Wild Life Sanctuary:
So, it turns out that we needed to park our car in the car park and buy tickets to board a bus that runs every 20 minutes (Rs. 75 a ticket) to take visitors deep into the forest. It’s a lovely way to leave the town of Thekkady behind and enter the forest where the vegetation is so thick that sunlight barely penetrates.
Once inside the forest, you are expected to buy another ticket for the Periyar river cruise which is one of the ways in which you can see wild life. The other way is to hire a safari jeep that goes deep into the roadways of the forest. I suppose one has greater chance of spying wildlife when they are asleep or hiding away from the public. But these jeep safaris are far more expensive than the boat ride.
Buying our tickets, we sat for a while awaiting the arrival of our boat. This gave us the opportunity to enjoy the peaceful, calming ambience of the forest with the Periyar river stretching out before us, its banks already showing evidence of a lone deer who had come to drink at the water’s edge.
About a half hour later, wee were boarding our cruise boat (two-tiered…we were on the main level) and were donning our safety jackets. Once they were on and all passengers were aboard, we set off to see wild life. I have to say that Peruyar is home to about 45 tigers but it has been a long while since a boat load of passengers have spied them. It is also famous for its herds of wild elephants, but these too remain elusive and probably can best be seen at dawn. By the time we set out, it was about 11.30am—much too late for the bigger beasts to show themselves.
All that said, we saw our fair share of animals. We saw several herds of samba deer, a large herd of wild boar and a huge number of birds of various kinds. We were able to sail very close to a black cormorants’s nest and to actually see the little chicks side it. It was perched high up on a tree stump that jutted out of the water. Yes, it was all very peaceful to simply be out on the rive surrounded by the sights and sounds of the jungle. So while we did have some wild life sightings, I do believe that it was the experience of being in that spot at that time that made our excursion really worthwhile.
Drive from Thekkady to Cochin:
Having checked out of our Dale Dean Cottages B&B in the morning itself, the end of our safari, following our return by bus to the car park where we met Shiju, meant that we were ready to embark on the next bit of our travels—our return to the city of Cochin. We had asked Aunty Maggie for a recommendation for a place to eat our lunch en route and she had suggested a restaurant called My Guest in a small wayside town called Pambanam where we settled down to eat Roast Chicken served in a thick and most delectable gravy with Appams—the lovely, fluffy rice pancakes that are really filling and more-ish. We downed this meal with bottled fizzy lemonade and then returned to our car, equipped with Toblerone chocolate for the road as our journey to Cochin continued.
Arrival and Dinner in Cochin:
By the time we arrived on the outskirts of Cochin, twilight was falling fast over the land. Shiju found himself braving traffic as he negotiated his way to the center of the city where our Hotel for one night was situated. It was called the Hotel Presidency and I had chosen it because it was a ten-minute walk to the venue for my International Anglo-Indian Conference which would take place the next day. Yes, we did have to fight through fairly bad traffic as we inched deeper and deeper into the city but it gave us a chance to see Cochin by night, to marvel at the modern city that it is, to comment on its affluence (it has many designer stores and all manner of modern merchandise, including imported goods, that can easily be purchased).
Finally, we did get into the little lane where our Hotel was located and after checking in and taking showers, all we were interested in doing was getting relaxing drinks in our rooms and then going up to the rooftop restaurant for dinner.
And that was exactly what we did. We took the elevator up to the rooftop and settled down at a table that offered a lovely view of the city by night. Sticking with the Keralite cuisine that was laid out before us (and because we do not get to eat beef which is banned in Maharashtra), we ate a lot of beef. This time, we ordered Beef Roast in Gravy with Buttered Vegetables and phulkas (small, dry chapatis) and fresh lemon sodas to wash it all down. It was a really terrific way to bring a day to a close and it was a relief to be able to simply take the elevator down to our very comfortable room where we made ourselves comfortable for the night
Until tomorrow, see ya…
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