periyar tiger trial

Hi,

We are planning a trip to thekkady this august. Need help in planning the trip.

This is the itinerary we are planning to follow:

Day 1: reach Kumily at 6:30AM by bus from bangalore
<rest of the day to be planned, shud we stay near kumily or the tiger reserve?>

Day 2: Go for tiger trial (1 night, 2 days)

Day 3: Will be back from tiger trial only by 12:00 pm
<rest of the day to be planned, may be just take rest..>

Day 4: <to be planned>

Day 5:

by evening 7pm leave for bangalore.


We are thinking of going for the following:
elephant ride(elephant junction, rite?)
maritial art show
may be some shopping in kumli,
1 night tiger trial

please tell what other activities can we include.

Also, When people go for tiger trial, where do they keep their
luggage?

Also, i think most of the options for homestays which we found doesn't provide food. Can you suggest some homestay near the
reserve which provides good food too..

we are at present considering the following places:

http://www.junglepalacehomestay.com/index.html
http://www.wildernest-kerala.com/about.htm

Thanks,

First, the tiger trail. This is by far the most interesting activity in the Thekkady area. There will be a lot of walking, but you will go to the core zone of the reserve where none of the other activities go. However, it is essential that you book and pay for this activity in advance. There are only 2 or 3 tiger trails every week and never more than 1 at a time. Consequently, without booking an available time slot for one of the days you are in the area, there is a risk that all slots have already been occupied. Your accommodation should be helpful with this.

If you book an accommodation for so many nights, any decent accommodation will take care of your luggage whilst you are on the tiger trail. Considering how many days your are staying at the accommodation, it would be reasonable that you keep the room for the day you are on the tiger trail free of charge so you don't have to repack, move and later unpack your luggage. If the accommodation, to whom you should suggest this, is totally inflexible, I would stay somewhere else.

On the day where you finish the tiger trail, I can guarantee that the only thing you would want to do is to relax and enjoy some good food. It is a tiring activity.

Second, about the other things to do. On the day of arrival you could go to a spice garden tour. By far the best place is Abraham's spice garden. The purpose of most of the other spice gardens is not to provide a qualified spice garden tour, but to get the tour done as quickly as possible in order to be able to lure you into their shop to buy overpriced spices and oils, often incorrectly labelled as being organic or "made on the premises". Such items should be bought from spice shops in Kumily. Be vary of any shop claiming to be organic. Many spices, for instance cardamom, are grown using insanely high amounts of pesticides.

There is a fine tea factory that you could go to located in the same area as Abraham's spice garden.

You could do any spice and tea shopping on the day of arrival as well. And you could throw in your elephant ride (Elephant Junction it is). Notice that there is no reason to pay the advertised prices for elephant rides. They pay around 40% commission to your accommodation or whomever takes you or sends you there. The correct prices for elephant rides are printed by the small office at the junction of Bypass Road, K.K. Road and Munnar Road.

If you have enough time on this day there are plenty of local walks (including a couple in Periyar Tiger Reserve) that could be done as a warm-up for the Tiger Trail.

So, that is day 1, 2 and 3 fairly occupied.

On day 4 you could go for a massage. Plenty of places offer massages. Again you should aim for a heavy discount on the advertised prices (except from the big resorts) because the usual commission in the 40-50% range.

The nature walk in Periyar Tiger Reserve is a good low key activity. Any of the activities that you didn't manage to fit on day one could be done on day 4. Afternoon could be kalari or kathakali performance, and a 6pm there is a highly recommended tribal performance in the tribal village. If you were not Indian and doing a longer tour entirely in Kerala, I would recommend a day trip to Madurai in Tamil Nadu.

On day 5 there would probably be some of the activities from above that could be fitted in (time does fly).

Third, about the accommodation. As you indicate, it is a good idea to stay in a homestay type place that provides food. The restaurants in Kumily are either, with one or two exceptions, atrocious or severely overpriced.

Wildernest only serves breakfast. The other one, I don't know.

Good luck.

Thanks, pundabee.. this information will be very useful for us.

We have booked the tiger trial.
both the places which we have picked doesn't provide food.. do you know any which is good & provides food too?
we aren't looking for any expensive place. a basic clean room, with hot water, 3 beds & food..

Thanks. I will call for Abraham's spice garden & check when will it be comfortable for them..

Do you recommend any place from where we can buy spices like cinnamon etc?

if you know, can you tell the price for elephant ride so that atleast we will have an idea before going.
Also, do we have buses from kumily to go there & how far is it?

For massage again, can you recommend some place?

We definitely will be going for kalari show..

thanks for the info..

Concerning spice gardens, they usually open at 6.30am and continue until 6.30pm. No need to make a booking. Abraham's is located on the Kottayam Road 5km from Kumily. You can get a bus from the bus station in Kumily from the Kottayam stand to go to "66th Mile Village Office". If you want to go to the tea factory, it is called Connemara Tea Factory, a bus from 66th Mile Village Office towards Kottayam can be used. The tea factory is located at 60th Mile (so another 10km from Kumily). Alternatively, all rickshaw drivers in Kumily know these locations.

I have attached a screen print with the prices referred to in the earlier post (to save typing) as listed on the mentioned building by the junction in Kumily.

Cardamom County hotel/resort provide very good massages, but are expensive. The small joints along the road change staff too frequently to safely recommend, but your accommodation may have an idea.

Concerning spice shops, you should shop around, i.e. check the prices, feel the quality etc. There can be great variation in quality and prices, and who has the freshest stock varies (there are 30 or so spice shops in Kumily).

Can't help with the accommodation. You will have to check online reviews and accommodation homepages, or rely on someone else's advice.

Hi,

You will really enjoy the Tiger Trail, as we did back in 2009.

If you wish you can have a read of my very long and detailed trip report of our time, with links to photos. The report is about halfway down the second page and is titled "Days 19 – 21: PERIYAR/KUMILY/THEKKADY & (TIGER TRAIL)"

Very Long Trip Report, Part 1 - Cochin