Crawling from our stiff beds on Wednesday, we gathered in the restaurant while our bags were loaded onto our van. We all had interesting stories from our night at the substitute hotel, but no one really complained. We were for all intents and purposes sightseeing on a mission trip, and everyone was told not to expect 5 star accommodations long before we departed.

Our first stop was the Elephant Rides outside of Kumily. When we arrived, handlers were bathing four female elephants. Tied to a tree, 2 ½ year old Khanan rocked back and forth, causing a bell on his neck to ring. Baby was restless.

At the boarding platforms, the handlers brought the ladies over to us; almost entirely via verbal commands. There is a certain sense of awe when a creature of that size approaches you without any kind of restraint or barriers. As I reached up to pet a trunk, I hoped that sense of awe didn’t necessitate a change of underwear, or worse.

Our elephants were saddled and we climbed on. No guides or handlers with us. Instead, the handlers walked along side while guides took our pictures. We rode our elephants up a trail past natural coffee and jackfruit for a half hour ride (which was plenty of time, for reasons which would be inappropriate to divulge here). We took plenty of pictures, enjoyed Indian coffee together, and struck out for Thekkady again.

Unfortunately, our friend – the guard from last night – was not at the gate. I wanted to grab his picture for you loyal readers. Either way, we had no problems entering the preserve today. At the parking lot in the preserve, we saw many monkeys of the same variety we saw last year at Mahabalipuram. We had enough luggage that we normally tied several bags on the roof of our large van. From there, the Davids took us on a boat tour of the great Periyar Lake that the Thekkady preserve centers around. We saw wild deer, plenty of birds, and some bison. We didn’t expect to see tigers, but were disappointed not to see wild elephants. Rev. David says he has been to Thekkady some two dozen times and always seen elephants. Not our trip, I guess. No big deal as we had a close encounter with elephants earlier and still had an enjoyable boat ride.

We followed up the boat ride with lunch. One advantage of Kerala cuisine is the inclusion of beef, which a few of us took advantage of; although in retrospect I think the beef may have taken advantage of me.

Our last stop was a tea plantation. We passed fields of coffee plants, cardamom, and other spices before we reached the hills covered with hedge-like tea plants. We followed the production process in the factory, from the drying of the leaves, to chopping, grinding, more drying and roasting, then more grinding and then sorting. It was fascinating to see how a traditional style tea factory operated. Outside, we had an opportunity to visit with more children. We must have distributed 2 million Frisbees across this country by now.

Thekkady