Tues I woke early to practice yoga in Mysore & we enjoyed our last breakfast at Green Hotel. Our suite was quite loud due to street traffic & shower wasn't working properly, so we were ready to enjoy Ahmad's air conditioned auto ride to Kelpatta.
Entering Wayanad region included driving thru Binasud(sp?) Natl Park - in US you see buffalo, deer, elk, maybe bears. In India we also saw deer, and a family of wild elephants & monkeys!
Stopped by a holy banyan tree, where legend is that they cut it down to save the temple & the next day it was growing again.
Green Gates Hotel Had cottages but we opted to stay in the hotel-style room with a/c. After lunch at the hotel we napped then walked the single hill road into town. Passing a dirt soccer field & yelling school boys on the way. We got to the Woodlands restaurant just in time for the rains to start downpour.
The rains come in the afternoon, night, or early morning; they are extremely heavy downpour, and last half an hour to an hour. We've only experience rains 5 of 8 days, but it has rained every night. It hasn't effected our travel & roads are well maintained considering.
We came back to the hotel & decided to take advantage of the mini-theatre. A home-theatre setup off the hotel gym, with a projector, surround sound, 6 recliners - we watched American Gangster. For $15 it was ours &we had bought Indian popcorn snacks in town, so it was very perfect night.
Wed, we had breakfast checked Internet once more, then traveled on to Vyrthiri. An interesting trek thru mountain roads, complete with 4km of unpaved "not tarred" jungle dirt/rock road. We arrived at Vythiri Resort. Jungle (Eco) resort with many cabins stretched across jungle streams and lush valley. Our cabin is luxurious, with big jacuzzi & modern amenities ( for the most part), it overlooks a loud rushing stream & is surrounded by jungle. Buffet meals are fantastic in the restaurant with 20 plus vegetarian options. Dan got the honeymoon package which included a couple massage. So after an info session on Ayurveda/ panchayakarma, we had a 10 minute steam and hour side-by-side massage with relaxing oils, Indian music, stream flowing in background & sandalwood incense. At the end they painted Hindi dots on our faces & placed our hands together so we were holding hands. Very sweet.
We went for tea time & back to shower before dinner. After late dinner we read in the room.
Thurs, we slept too late & missed yoga/meditation, but had breakfast. Were supposed to move to our treehouse, but after a jeep jungle ride & realizing it was only accessible thru a 2- person operated lift we felt it was too inconvenient, combined with the fact there was no ceiling fan & you couldn't open the windows (jungle animals & bugs) it was not worth the novelty of saying we tried to sleep in a treehouse. So we went back to lunch & settled back into our stream-side cabin for a 2nd night.
There is a Malabar Giant Squirrel that nests in a tree next to the restaurant. We have monkeys all over the resort, including on our balcony sometimes. Geckos live on every wall (this is true in Thailand, Cambodia, and India) and we have also seen the largest yellow snail (about 6 in. long) on a branch off the balcony.
At 4 pm we have an 2 1/2 hour Ayurvedic treatment, then a candlelight dinner at 8pm.
We will join yoga session tomorrow morn, breakfast, then leave. Driving 3 hours back with Ahmad to Mysore, then have lunch & get a henna tattoo, (and our last minute shopping needs) then board 4:15pm train back to Bangalore. Hoping 7:15pm pickup, then drive to Visthar for dinner & bed.
We hope to stay up later & sleep in so we can get ready to shift our sleep schedules to later hours. Perhaps spend the day at Visthar or at least lowkey/away from the city. We have been invited to dinner at the Selvaraj home, then will head to the airport to begin heading home late Sat night.
We are ready to finish out these days & travel home. We are missing Zizou, family & the lake. It will be nice to arrive & enjoy the 4th at home.
