20th February 2012

The hotel at Madurai was the JC Ringway which we were substituted to after the hotel we had booked was taken over by political officials who were having a rally and decided to suddenly block book the hotel. As compensation the travel agent insisted that he take us out to dinner at the hotel we had originally booked. The meal was not exceptional and the Tavel agent disappeared after he had made the arrangements and had a bowl of soup. Back to our hotel via a auto tut tut.


The JCR hotel looked to be ok, but the service was poor, the wifi virtually useless, no drinking water in the rooms, shortage of towels etc. Next stop was a towel shop to try and buy some of the lovely thin cotton towels we had come across at the Visalam hotel the day before. We found what seemed to be the right ones and so bought a couple. Now on to the wildlife park at Periyar for an afternoon boat trip. When we got to the hotel and met the travel agent we realised there had been a slight cock-up in that the boat trip was an optional extra and needed to have been confirmed the day before. We explained ths was not stated anywhere, the only information that had been supplied to us just said boat trip in the afternoon. We juggled the itinerary and managed to swap the boat trip for the wildlife nature walk planned for tomorrow, and did the nature walk today. Savi was not feeling well so decided to skip the 5-6km walk. So Geoff and Elia did the nature walk which started with a bamboo raft river crossing.


Our guide Jain pointed out loads of birds and also giant squirrel, monkeys, forest fowl and elephants.











Savi still not well in the evening so scrapped the cookery/spice demonstration and stayed at our hotel for the evening meal. Savi taking Ayurvedic medicine and having a massage to try and get better. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Periyar