Jungle Story (Who wants to see a macaque?)

We're set up at Mickey's Cottage, in Kumily, on the north end of the Periyar Tiger Reserve. Our host, Sujatha, sent a guy from next door, Bobby, up to our room to organize our tour and trekking schedule. To my surprise, Deb opted for a morning walk at 6 the next morning (!!!), and we chose to take a cruise on the lake later in the afternoon.

I was even more surprised that I woke up at 5:50 to get ready, particularly because the night before, we'd stayed in a hut in Kottayam and gotten bombarded with flying insects through the night. But I must have been raring to hit the jungle. Bobby knocked at 6 and we scrambled out the door.

We'd heard that the park entry permit wasn't good for ins 'n' outs, so we'd considered staying in the park for the day, to keep the same permit for the boat trip later. Not that it's a big deal: entry into the tiger reserve costs less than a movie at home. Nevertheless, Bobby said we were entering from the Tamil Nadu side this morning, and that no permits were needed from that approach.

As we pulled in by rickshaw at about 6:30, after a chai, what little light there was in the sky was filtering through a dense morning fog. Thus, all the jungle sounds were even more mysterious, and the haze held all manner of curious shapes and mystical beasts. Unfortunately, they remained mostly mystical and curious. We glimpsed what we're old was a grey hornbill amidst the grey, and some other bird with pendulous tail feathers flitted by. But for the most part we had only the atmosphere to sustain us in our thirst for the wild and exotic.

Then, Forest Guard Karunan showed up with a rifle slung over his shoulder. Turns out we'd illegally crossed into Kerala without permit, and had to follow him down an old logging road to the station. A troop of black nilgiri langurs assembled in the branches overhead to hoot as we started our march to, presumably, jail. We came to a bungalow in the woods, where we sat while a jeep was summoned and Bobby answered some questions in Malayalam. Then, we all got carted in to Project Tiger's local HQ, in Kumily. There at the station, a troop of common grey langurs was hopping from the trees and taunting the station's dog -- by far our best wildlife experience to that point in the hike.

All in all, since our "arrest", maybe 2 hours had transpired, during which Deb and I were mostly sitting on one porch or another, listening to languages we don't understand, and watching nothing happen. Eventually, Bobby was taken into a building and the door locked behind him. My stomach was starting to grumble, so I finally stood up and asked who the "boss" was, what was going on, how likely were we to get any lunch anytime soon? I was pointed to Forest Guard Karunan, our captor, and we commiserated over hunger: he'd been on duty since 5:30 the previous evening without a meal. Deb and I hadn't eaten since about 7pm. So, we got the ball rolling.

They needed us to write a statement, and dictated more or less what it had to say; specifically that our guide "misled" us, and that we "request release from punishment". I tried to phrase it as non-accusatorially toward Bobby as possible, and without including any of the ultimately inconsequential lies that Bobby had urged us to corroborate (that we were staying at his guesthouse, Blue Mangoes, and that he'd only asked Rs 400 for the both of us, not the Rs 400 each, that he'd actually asked -- neither of those points ever came up in our questioning).

After we wrote and signed our statement, and provided our fathers' names (I guess you can expect a call, guys), it was submitted and deliberated over for another half hour or so, in front of the DDPT (the Deputy Director of Project Tiger), we were told, and then -- POOF! We were free to go.

Forest Guard Karunan reminded us that he hadn't eaten since 5:30 yesterday, but not in such a way that clearly implied he was asking for a food bribe or anything, so we hoofed it back to the cottage for breakfast.

Later, we met Mickey, Sujatha's husband, who took his name from the cottage rather than the other way around. He poured us some chai, listened to our tale, and hailed a rickshaw to take us to our boat ride. He also called ahead to book boat tickets for us, as it was getting late in the day.

Our cruise on Lake Periyar yielded some distant elephant sitings, and a herd or two of bison, a couple of turtles and an eagle or two. Some deer. All from rather far away. When we got back to shore and into our rickshaw, we'd barely driven fifty yards before we were beneath a troop of nilgiri langurs and a giant grizzled squirrel. Then, before we'd left the park, we passed a sambal deer and a smaller barking deer alongside the road.

So, as with much of life, maybe, our best experiences have been at or beyond the periphery of their expected locations.

Bobby came to our door when we got back that night to make sure we (as in "he and we") were alright, i.e. were we likely to want more tours with him. He'd been detained all day and had to press family members somewhere in the legal system for help to avoid a further two days in jail. Sujatha and Mickey are sure he'll be alright, but it seems almost like he's being made an example of. Just the same, we booked our spice plantation and tea factory tour through Sujatha's nephew, Vinood. There probably aren't many illegal ways we're likely to get into a tea factory in broad daylight, but I wasn't interested in stumbling onto one.

Damon