Day 8 - Out and About in Kollam & ELEPHANTS

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 After breakfast we had the complementary boat ride, provided by the resort. It was in a small motor boat and was really enjoyable.



During the floods of 2018 this resort was inundated, and has been abandoned


Fishing village kids 
Passenger train - full

Mangroves

A couple of groups of happy kayakers

 




Our wee cottage
Boat and driver

The trip took a good hour. By the time we were finished the temp was already in the 30s.

Our trip today was to the Jatayu Earth Centre,which was about an hours drive from the hotel. We had a local guide for the day named Bishar. The feature of this park is a huge sculpture on the top of a hill of a vulture, on his back. The vulture is Jatayu, a Hindu demi-god in the epic story of Ramayana which we had seen depicted on the walls of the palace in Kochi.

To get there you go up on a gondola. Very organized. You have to sit and wait your turn, then get called up. I was a bit of a celebrity there, with a few ladies wanting their photos taken with me. What a laugh

 😃 






p 

The sculpture is 61m long and 21m high. With views over the surrounding area and a small Hindu temple there as well. No photos allowed inside the temple of the gold God.

New friends from Tamil Nadu

We started back towards our next stop when Dave spotted a logyard/sawmill on the side of the road. We stopped for Dave to have a look. No hard hats, boots or hi vis required here.



We carried on and stopped at a place on the side of the road where either our guide for the day, or Dennis, knew that there were elephants being kept for a celebration at a local temple. (2 of them)


Dennis found out there were to be 8 elephants tonight at the festivities and did we want to see that !?  He didn't have to ask twice 

Next we were of to Varkala Cliff Beach for a late lunch. A lovely white sand beach that is very popular with tourists. This being the off season, it wasn't very busy. The wee shops along the cliff top were practically empty.  There are many good restaurants there too, so chose a seafood restaurant.  We decided on lobster and crab for lunch.  What a feast !!



We headed back to the hotel to cool down and have a rest, before heading back to the area where the elephants were going to be on display that evening.

As we weren't quite sure of the timing, we had a bit of time to fill in. There was a bit of a carnival atmosphere with decorations, lights and street stalls.









Eventually, just after 8, the first 4 elephants arrived. Well worth waiting for! A highlight of our trip.






At about 9pm Dennis was keen to get us back to the hotel. We were still full from lunch, so ordered some snacks in our room, and that was dinner. It was too late after that to do the blog, with 100s of pictures to sort through first !


Comments

  1. EdApril 18, 2023 at 11:26 AM

    Wonderfully exotic and exciting, will have to improve the colours in my wardrobe to try and keep up. The new photo layer on Goggle earth is very detailed, you can see people on the Varkala beach but not quite what is on their plates at the resturants. You are getting to meet many of the locals, great fun. Love Ed

    ReplyDelete
  2. Vicki BrightApril 19, 2023 at 1:59 PM

    Some great photos there guys.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousApril 28, 2023 at 12:57 PM

    I was really impressed with that sculpture!

    ReplyDelete

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