Home sweet home

I'm finally home! Took a nice long shower, the jets of water from the shower head felt a little ticklish. Haha. Never noticed it before, but after bathing for 2 months with a pail and a bucket, you can't help but notice things like that. Although I always yearned to be home when I'm in india and always making numerous plans, I'm feeling quite lost right now. Don't really know what to do at this moment. There are so many things to be done, so many people to meet yet I feel like I'm missing something...kind of a strange feeling because I've been with the gang 24/7 for the past 2 months and now everybody is back home. No more group discussions on where to go, no more going for dinner together. Strange.

Kumily Thekkady Periyar. They are basically the same place. Kumily is the town where the bus drops you and has lots of nice homestays. Thekkady is probably the road from Kumily to Periyar. And Periyar is the wildlife reserve. Spent 2 nights there and stayed at El Paradiso. A lovely homestay runned by Mr. Babu. Surprisingly, I managed to get a few stuff done there even though I was with Melvin. Both of us are probably the slackest or some say the laziest people in the group. We did the usual boating, cycling and trekking. Although we didn't see any tigers or elephants, we managed to see 2 huge bisons, giant squirrels, monkeys, deers and leeches. Yes, leeches. Yucky creatures they are. When I first saw them, I thought they were earthworms. I thought leeches look like huge slugs that are red in colour but they are surprisingly small and skinny. They climb onto your shoes when you step into wet areas and climb up your leg to literally, SUCK YOUR BLOOD! super gross. Found a few on my shoes, thought i was safe but lo and behold! I saw a leech just above my right knee. Of course, being the chicken-hearted me, I completely freaked out. But the nice guide, Mr Sakkeer, calmly and professionally burnt the leech off with the light of his cigarette. I still have a small red patch on my knee where the leech was. It's not painful at all, just a cute reminder of that day. Do you know that by putting tobacco powder on your shoes and socks, you can prevent leeches from leeching onto you? Amazing right?

Here's a little advertisement for Mr Sakkeer in case anybody wants to go Kerala and needs a guide for trekking. We went for a 3 hour trek into Periyar. Took the less-used route, sometimes there's no route even. Just walking blindly into the bushes with all the leaves blocking your vision. We also walked along elephants' trek. The path taken by the elephants when they climb up the mountain. Not as easy as walking along path made for humans, wonder how the elephants keep their balance with their big feet and huge body. Tiring when I was there but now, looking back, I'm glad I made myself wake up to trek. We ended the trek at Mr Sakkeer's house and he kindly offered us delicious ginger tea. Altogether, Melvin and I pain Rs300 (S$12) for the trek. Quite a bargain. Other people were offering us Rs300 per person. But if you go during the peak season, it'll probably cost much more. I have his email if anyone needs it. =)

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Took a long nap just now. Was a little disorientated when I woke up. Can't believe I'm back in my own bed. haha. I'll be going for a BUFFET later! Yeah! Even though i still have diarrhoea and colic, I'm still going to gorge myself silly.