Update 14: Zigzagging across the Western Ghats of South India: Karnataka to Kerala

11:25 AM
Sunday 12 November 2006
Alleppey, Kerala, South India, Backwaters Region

Dear traveller:

I've been crossing South India, wandering around the southern part of the state of Karnataka and now I have entered beautiful Kerala.

After the booming city of Bangalore I went to Mysore for the Dasara festival, and got to see a goddess riding atop a giant elephant.  Then to Hampi, to wander in a surrealistic pink desert landscape and the ruins of a five hundred year old city.  After chilling by a lake and tangling with a cobra, I headed southwest by bus, stopping in Bangalore again en route to the Kodagu Hills.  Here I stayed in Madikeri, feeling the cool, rainy weather.  I was escorted around Tibetan settlements by a monk from Darjeeling in the far north.  A giant Golden Temple rose above the rice fields of South India.

Then I headed to the Honey Valley Estate, a beautiful retreat in the high hills called the Western Ghats, where I tried to peer into Kerala, but was blocked by the low bank of clouds pushed up against the ridge.  I crossed into Kerala from Virajpet, descended down to the coastal plain and arrived in the port city of Kunnar.  Here I saw a strange religious dance called theyyam.    Thus I finished my transect from the high plains of the Deccan Plateau where Bangalore, Mysore, and Hampi are located, up to the hills of the Western Ghats where Madikeri and Virajpet are, down to the coastal plains and the ocean in Kerala.  A brief stop in Kunnar and now I'm in Alleppey, center of the backwaters district, where I hope to catch a boat around the miles and miles of backwaters here.

Next will probably be further south in Kerala and then over to Tamil Nadu.

Blog entries since my last email update:

• I arrive at Alleppey, center of backwaters district of Kerala
• I view the Western Ghats from Honey Valley Estate in the Kodagu Hills
• Visited Tibetan settlements in South India in Coorg region
• I left Hampi, I'm in Bangalore on route to Kodagu

• Rice is harvested at Mowgli Guesthouse in Hampi
• Lady Chatterley's views on landscape
• Lady Chatterley's views on travel
• Manjula and Dharma, society deschooled
• Ivan Illich and travel
• Laughing Budha, Cobra Hunter

Good on ya,

Mark