Kanha Memories

So, here I am more than eighteen months later, revisiting our wonderful week-long MNS trip to the Kanha Tiger reserve.  It was a first visit for many of us in that group, and at the same time, we had a Kanha "veteran" - it was his 15th/16th visit I think!  

Many of my friends thought I was a bit nuts - who would visit central India in the height of summer?  It will be hot, and dusty we were warned.  " Oh ange thair kadikadhe", was another common concern of various Madrasis!  Yeah, right we were going to see tigers and wildlife and sal forests, not bother about what we ate, I said loftily.  Secretly though, I packed a suitcase full of food - Amul Masti, Tang packets, Mansukh snacks, and milk for my ten year old son!  As a result, I skimped on the clothes I took, which did not work out well, as you will see.

The route we took was Madras-Nagpur by overnight train.  Nagpur-Kanha by road. The road is good and though we took some six hours going, on the return it was less.

15 April 2007: 2pm in the afternoon and we set off for Central Station to catch the Jaipur Express for Nagpur. Madras in April (or for that matter all of India) is hot, and we hope that our AC waitlisted tickets will get confirmed. (We had confirmed sleeper class tickets, so there was no worry of us not making the trip, thankfully.) Just a hope that we could travel in cool comfort. Very not-green of us I had to admit - there were some more passionate members than us travelling in the regular sleeper.

We did get AC nevertheless, and sank in to our seats with a sigh of relief. Our smaller group consisted of my husband and son, plus two good friends Raji and Sheila. It was one of our first outings with MNS and the trip helped us get to know the other members and their families. All in all, I think we were some 25 members of various age groups, and each with our own idiosyncracies and interests.  We were a motley bunch!

The evening on the train passed by filled with games of Uno, gossip, excitement and puliyodarai and chips. A good night's sleep, and a railway breakfast arrived. As also the first "disaster". As I listened avidly to the conversation around, I contrived to spill the sambar all over my lap! Oh no, one of my only 3 pants taken for the trip!! At this point, my husband quickly got engrossed in his book, my son scooted to the upper berth muttering, "I'm out of here", and I burst into hysterical giggles. It was left to my good friends Raji and Sheila to retrieve the situation - some napkins were produced and water, and the mess was cleaned up as best as we could!

After this, it was almost time to get off, and disembark we did at Nagpur in the midday sun of central India, rudely welcomed to reality! Vijay very helpfully procured some lassis for us, and then we found three Qualises awaiting us. As also Rannu!

Rannu, the dada of Seoni!

Smiling face, colourful shirts, paan-stained teeth, unruffled by anything.  That was Rannu, the boss of our taxi service, constantly on his cell phone, organising his drivers and cars with his can-do attitude.  

We reach Gopalganj to find threatening clouds, lightning and thunder, and no tarpaulin for our luggage.  So we stop at the roadside, some more phone calls are made by Rannu - mysteriously, his phone works, but not ours! - tarps are brought from some house, and there you see himin the picture above,  fixing it.  Anyway, we wait for a little while, he makes another call and then informs us that the rain which was coming down in Pench, further down,  had stopped, and we could proceed!!

Our Qualis had our little clique plus Vijay and Dhruva.  Further drama on the way,  We stop at Seoni because Dhruva needs money from the ATM.  (I thought to myself, he must be very brave and have great faith in ATM technology to be attempting this here!)  Sitting in the car, we could see him arguing with the guard outside.    I was quite sure his card had got stuck in the ATM!  Then Vijay gets down to go to his aid, we see him combing his air, twirling his moustache, putting his arm on the guard in a friendly manner.  More movements inside the ATM.  Vijay and Dhruva re-emerge - and guess what, they had the money and the card!!  The problem was that the security guard had put off the ATM, and was reluctant to put it on!  So, after testing the efficacies of the ATM system in far-off Seoni, we set off again.

Its a lovely drive, through Pench tiger reserve, and then the rolling plains of Madhya Pradesh.

 16th April, 7-15 pm:  We arrive finally at Kanha!

By this time, it was dark, and there was nothing to be seen.  Checked in to the MP Tourism dormitory - we had booked the whole dorm - and then trooped off for dinner at the mess next door.

In hindsight, staying at the dorm, pictured on the left is probably the best way to see Kanha.  It inexpensive at Rs 100 per bed per night (incl food!), was clean, with common bath and toilet facilities at the rear of the building which were in good shape.  

According to me, the nicest part was that it was within the park.  if you click on the Kanha map above, to the west, you will see the Kisli Gate, which is where this dorm is located.  So, at night, we could hear the calls of the jungle, we heard alarm calls of cheetal, and one night even a leopard call quite close to the dorm.  There was a water hole just across the road from the dorm - a lovely place to sit in the afternoons, just to watch the birds come and go.  One day there was a group of wild dogs frolicking here, another day some sambhar deer came to have a soak in the water, and there was always a flock of roller birds and storks to keep it lively, with brainfever birds in the trees around us.
April 17th:  5-45 am:  Joseph and his canter bus!

Another interesting character at Kanha was Joseph, the resident what - manager, fixer, administrator, driver?  I could never figure out.  But so helpful and friendly.  One thing he did unfailingly was drive this bus/Canter.  It took all 24 of us on a trip around the park.  After one such ride, we decided against it!  While it would work out decidely cheaper, it also made a hell of a racket, could not go on all the park roads and also offered limited visibility as compared to the open Gypsy jeeps that are available and seen below.

Anyway, Joseph took us in this canter to the local market one day where we were acquainted with mahua - the local intoxicant - , then he showed us the one spot next to the Mess, where a BSNL signal was available, for all those needing to make calls, even gave us his phone to make these calls,   helped coordinate our meals and was always available for a chat.

Early morning "q" awaiting entry into the park.I found Kanha a very well run park, the guides were well-trained, the drivers were disciplined, and rules were for the most part obeyed.  Morning ride times were 6-10 am and evenings 4-6.  If the drivers did not get out within this time, they were severely penalised.

There was a bit of mayhem if a tiger was spotted when everybody went a bit berserk, but for the most part it was an orderly and enjoyable experience.

Much to my surprise, the mornings were lovely.  At 6 am it was nippy and we all had some dupattas handy to use as shawls, but by 8 or so, it became warm, and by 10 it was hot.  We lucked out with the weather in that we had thunderstorms every other night, which kept the temperatures and the dust down and the nights were cool. 
Early morning lightThe sun falls on the lovely sal forests.  I could never get bored of these forests.  Each day they looked more beautiful, than the previous, with the morning light casting different "moods" almost on the forest.
... And the forests were filled with the chatter of tree pies, an occasional shama, pigeons and langurs.

A forest camp
And the facilities!
The central campsiteThis was where there was a little canteen where you could get samosas and tea, where the guides would get information about where the tiger shows were for the day.  there was also a good museum with lots of information on the flora and fauna of the region.

Tiger country... the meadows
Shravan Tal


Sunset views
Morning and evening, for six days we went on jeep rides in the forest.  Waking up at 5am, no TV, no newspaper, clean air, good company, sumptuous food.  Even my son managed to make all the morning rides.  The map below shows our regular routes - the brown Kanha area in the centre.  The "You are Here" reflects the Main camp location.

Circular road, Shravan Tal are all the flat lands, but some of the roads are hilly, and so provide a view of the forests below.  We travelled all the way to Bamnidadar - at the right hand bottom corner - one morning.

More on the tiger show, Bamnidadar, barasinghas, as I write!

Continued in Kanha Memories:The graceful and handsome barasinghas.

Istanbul Diary - day 1

Will we, wont we?

This summer, I seem to be carrying a holiday jinx.  First there were uncertainties about our train tickets to Melghat, and this time it was whether the Turks would process our visas in time!  Tickets were booked, as also hotels, but the Delhi Turkish embassy - reportedly snowed under by a rush of Indians wanting to visit their country - would not even accept our applications until two days before departure!  Luckily, Vijay and his efficient team at eTravel Value  kept us posted, picked up the visas from the Turkish embassy in Delhi, sent it to us by Jet Cargo, so that we could travel as planned.

Travelling from Chennai

Gulf Air was the only viable option, Chennai-Bahrain-Istanbul, with the least hours spent on the commute, so that was the route we took.  Each leg is roughly four hours.  To their credit, they didn't lose our bags and they kept to time, but the in-flight service was truly mediocre.  The wierd thing was that every flight they would go through this charade of giving you headphones and when you tried them on they wouldn't work!!

First impressions

We arrived around 3pm local time, and there were no immigration forms to fill (wow!). The hotel had sent a car, and we were whisked into the city in less than an hour. Highways, huge apartment complexes, but not so many trees. Orderly traffic, and minimal horning - is it only us then who are so rude and impatient?

I was completely taken in by the Pierre Loti Hotel. This small, hotel had a certain atmosphere, the rooms were well appointed, and we had a great view of the street below.
The tram was at our doorstep, and the road that it ran on was called Divan Yolu Caddesi, and was the main street for the old town. Filled with eateries, souvenir shops and everything a tourist needs.
Soon we were down, walking the streets, and everything was around the corner!

To our right was the Blue Mosque, with its characteristic 6 minarets, and a bit further down to the left was the Aya Sofiya - church/mosque/museum!

Big it was, but I thought to myself, its not all that great looking from outside - a bit rustic and unsophisticated, so what's all the fuss about. A subsequent visit inside and I changed my mind!

Around the Topkapi complex, a few cobbled streets, narrow one-ways and down the hill, we chanced upon a garden restaurant, where my son had his first doner ekmek, which started a love affair that lasted through the trip.

And then we hit the Kennedy Cadesi that circles the peninsula and gave us a great view of the Sea of Marmara!

Much like us, there were vendors selling corn (misir), a local bread called simit, nuts and even water! The view was gorgeous and we kept walking wanting to see what was around the next bend! the only problem with this was that we had to walk back as well, and this time it was uphill.

On our way back, we saw a familiar sight - these cars with the Tata symbol, and I must say I was rather pleased on seeing them!

9.00 pm - and the sun was only then beginning to set. Our body clocks were still on Madras time, and so we dropped off to sleep, with much anticipation of the next day.

Continued here

Travel tips for Melghat

So, where do you stay if you do decide to visit Melghat?  We stayed at the town of Chikaldhara, which was 26kms away from the sanctuary gates.  But little did we realise what that meant.  The 26km was bad ghat roads to be traversed in a 20th century jalopy!

So, the Mad Madrasis at Melghat were travelling 104 kms a day to just get in and out of the sanctuary!  Not advisable, no definitely not!  Unless ofcourse you have a masochistic streak and like your bones rattled and reset, everyday!

If your aim is the tiger sanctuary, staying at the village of Semadoh, in the valley, makes more sense.  The problem with Semadoh, though, is that it is HOT in the day, though cool in the mornings and evenings.

It boils down to this - 

Semadoh for proximity 

Chikaldhara for better weather, scenic views of the hills and good birding.  But be warned of the long rides.

If you do choose Chikaldhara, then the MTDC resort we stayed at is best avoided.
We took the dorm, and the pictures below show you the state of disrepair and neglect of the property.
Fans and lights are missing, and the roof looks like it would leak in the rains - see all the stains on the roof?
Missing tube lights and stained sheets as well.
The doors of the toilet would not close, the taps would not work, and everything was falling apart. The enthusiasm and can do spirit of our group ensured that before we left, things were a bit better than when we arrived!
The whole property showed a lack of supervision and maintenance, scrap and rubble all over the place, broken chairs and window panes.
Then of course there was the dining room, where the cook and assistant had gone off on vacation, and we were fed by the boy who is probably a helper in the kitchen. The sunny temperament of this boy and his willingness to accommodate our need for less spice and oil were the saving grace. The kitchen would've been closed down by any sanitary inspector - roaches and grime kept our food company.
The dining room was another Mr Bean moment, with its oddly skewed pictures on the wall, broken window panes and wires running all over the place.

As with all government properties, the MTDC place has a superb location, and the view into the valley provides great birding opportunities, as also the fig trees on the campus.

The district was also in the throes of systematic power shutdowns. The notice board carried a weekly schedule of the timings of the power cut. While there was definitely no power during the times promised, it did not mean that we were assured of electricity the rest of the time!
These are issues that you expect to face while on the move in small town India.

The only thing that bugs me is the apathy of government officials, and the complete indifference of the public sector employees. My point is, why is the government in the business of running hotels in this country?
The most memorable and telling quote is probably that of the manager of the MTDC place, who moaned to us that even he could not get tea from the kitchen, leave alone us!
That summarises beautifully the state of affairs - the complete lack of accountability of the system, despite the dozens of registers, and the customer is not important attitude of all the staff.

The Mamandur sanctuary

For some reason, the Mamandur posting has gone down here:

The Bungalow on the Hill

The Whistling Thrush Bungalow at Nelliyampathy

The Bungalow

Now, that's what I call a name! So intrigued was I with the images of this little bungalow, tucked away in a sleepy hill town, surrounded by woods, birds, meadows and fresh air, that I dragged my unsuspecting husband and son to the hamlet of Nelliyampathy in Kerala and on to the Whistling Thrush Bungalow!

This is not recent, its another 2006 story, but I'm bored with work, the weather outside is conducive to story-telling, and so the regurgitation.

Getting there

Nelliyampathy is a Kerala hill station, a plantation town really, with coffee and cardamom plantations. We took the train to Coimbatore, though Palakkad would've been closer. We were picked up there by a cab, accompanied by the estate manager Mr Subramaniam Pillai, a serious gent - more about him later, though. Anyway, the driver Razzak was quite a speedking, and we all studiously looked out through the side windows!

From Coimbatore to Palakkad was about 45 mins, then without getting into the city, we drove straight on via Kodayur, Nemmara to Nelliyampathy. The hill drive was about an hour, from the Pothundy dam, which was very scenic, and Japanese-like.
Vistas on the way up

Pothundy dam

The hill road was pretty dicey, with most places only allowing a single vehicle, though the PWD was at work trying to broaden it. (I wonder if its been done now.) We saw one vehicle in the ravine below ... pretty hairy. Anyway, in the hills, Mr Razzak drove more cautiously, while giving us a cheerful commentary on all the various kinds of accidents seen along the way!!

I think the local Keralite has a penchant for the gory, and recount such stories with great relish!

The Bungalow is named after the Malabar whistling thrush, not a very impressive looking bird, very shy, but with a lovely call that makes you go looking for it. When we visited, the staff included Justin the cook, Vishalu the housekeeper and Sunil, our guide on walks. All would rattle off in Malayalam, while we grinned idiotically not having understood a word of what they said. We occupied one room, which had an attached bath, with running hot and cold water, a clean double bed, large windows which looked out into the garden. We also had use of the sitting room, a verandah, and our meals were in the dining room.







The garden of the bungalow had lovely crotons, flowers and a little enclosed lawn, where my son practised his diving catches and many a mini cricket match took place in our stay.

A grey wagtail would come every morning while we had coffee and rummage on the lawn for its breakfast, its tail furiously bobbing up and down. The bungalow was in the midst of a coffee and cardamom plantation, and tree pies, malabar parakeets and langurs would make a racket all through the day.








Workers were busy with cardamom harvesting as well. The pods are found at the base of the plant, and the workers have to root among the thick undergrowth to get at them. The humidity of the pantation makes if a happy hunting ground (quite literally) for leeches. The red berries of the coffee vines also looked ready for picking.

Above in the trees, a paper wasp colony had built a nest. When we looked at the nest through our binoculars, we could see the hive teeming with the wasps, which convert dead wood into these hives, mixing the material with their saliva.

Uh oh, leeches!
Morning came and Sunil decided to take us for a walk of the estate. He made us apply a mixture of tobacco and coconut oil and dettol on our legs, to keep the leeches away. My husband, like a hero decided not to use this, and on his son's advice they both tucked their pants into their socks and felt very safe from the leeches!! (For your information, Sunil was in a lungi hitched up over his knees, so bare legs and chappals!! Claimed he had used dettol.)

So we set out through the plantation, looking around and enjoying the amazing variety in shades of green. A mushroom-laden log lay by the side of the track, and down below we could see a little stream, through the trees of the plantation.



At this point, I happenned to look down at my shoes and let out a yelp - my shoes were crawling with leeches. And so were husband's and son's - and not one on the bared legs of Mr Sunil! Anyway, he calmly flicked them off us, even took a few and carefully put them away among the leaves in the undergrowth. I thought to myself this is the height of environental friendliness, I mean why doesnt he just kill them off? Only later did I realise that they cant be killed off by stepping on - I did try it - or bashing them! They need to be drowned in salt! My first encounter with these creatures.

I must say our ten year old son took all this with great equanimity, saying how he had already been through this in Coorg! After that, the walk was never the same - nervously looking at our shoes every now and then, and the husband urging us to move on and not stop and stare.

So we quickly went past the waterfall, where 2 men were bathing in their chaddis, while the wives looked on very unimpressed, up to the cardamom curing unit - where we got some respite because it was all bricked up and leeches dont like bricks you see. Then up to the top of the little waterfall, and onto the check dam.







Sunil then decided to bring us back through the wilder part of the estate, and we literally ran back, as the undergrowth was just crawling with leeches!! To further my belief about the locals sense of gore, Vishalu proceeded to tell us about how the plantation workers get bitten by leeches near the eyes, on the head, etc. Anyway what a way to earn a living, its no wonder they're having labour scarcity. I shall respect the yelakkai much more from now.

On our return to the bungalow, we all removed our shoes, which were crawling with leeches, Sunil calmly comes by with some salt that he puts on the ground, adds some water, and then one by one puts the leeches in it. Can you believe they were dead in less than 10 seconds? Inspite of all this drama, my son and I escaped unbitten, but husband, who had refused to put repellant did have a bite, and was given a lecture by Sunil. I must say, my good stoic husband did not enjoy it in the least, and declined all further invitations out of the estate!! Our son "comforted" him, and said dont worry daddy, it will stop bleeding (leeches inject some anti-coagulant so the wound bleeds more than a regular hurt).

Hungry after our walk, Justin and Vishalu gave us a sumptuous lunch. Post lunch,
I did go off, smeared with repellant to do some birdwatching - identified atleast 20 species I had never seen before - some really spectacular ones. It was all quite thrilling as my husband had just acquired a new Nikon binocular, which opened our eyes to the world of birds. Small minivets, white-cheeked barbets, racket-tailed drongoes, Malabar parakeets and bank mynahs and tree pies were in plenty. I did have one sighting of the whistling thrush, and a yellow-browed bulbul.

The brave men of my family stayed put in the house and its garden, only coming out for a jeep ride to some view points the next day. There's a place called Sitalakundu, which is like Coakers Walk in Kodai, spectacular views.


Then Sunil proceeded to give us graphic accounts of the various people who've fallen off the cliff! See, what I did tell you!

Mr Pillai saw no humour in our situation, and was rather indignant at our dislike of them leeches. I think he'll make a good president for the Society of Leech Lovers, or a Save the Leech Foundation or some such. For my anti-leech views, I earned a lecture on how leeches only suck the bad blood, are used for traditional medicine, dont pass on anything contagious, etc etc. If you have the stomach for this kind of thing, maybe you should watch Extreme Healing: Leeches in India from National Geographic. My son is fascinated with the clip and watches it over and over again!










While the leech was the primary "adventure", we city slickers also faced a stormy night, without power, and the winds howling through the estate trees. I was glad when morning came, and brought with it some respite from the rain.

The large malabar squirrels also came out, and their call pulled us into the garden.  Lovely, brown coats with a lighter coloured belly, we were lucky to spot a pair of them as they went from tree to tree above us.

Soon, it was time to leave. Our driver going downhill was quite the opposite of Mr Razzak, and we cautiously wound our way down to the plains, reaching Palakkad where there was no power, the roads were full of potholes, and the station had its familiar stench. Armed with freshly fried nendram and tapioca chips, we returned to Madras.

Of course, the veteran MNS members listened in amusement to our first encounter with leeches, having been there done that. And though the whistling thrush bird was a bit of a let down for me, the whole trip, the bungalow and the staff and the mountain terrain of Kerala will draw me back I'm sure.