Nephalents! NEPHALENTS! We get to ride a REAL NEPHALENT!!!!

Oh the tocitement of it!! Nephalents everywhere!!

We were staying in a lovely place called Periyar, a long drive up throughout the mountings and tea plantations to a place where lots of spices grow, but more importantly where lots of nephalents live.

What a day we had. We got up really really early and went to the Periyar National Park and had a lovely boat ride.  It was all very calm with oodles of birds; egrets, storks, kingfishers, herons, darters and many more. 

There were so many that Zeke and I nearly fell asleep after our early start and no breakfast, but then Ann said, "Look boys elephants!" 

"Where, THERE, LOOK, look nepahalents!!!  REAL live NEPHALENTS. Whoopee, we see'd nephalents, hooray, hooray!"

 "Shh, said Ann, don't make so much noise boys." Well, how could we not? But she explained that we might scare them off and that wouldn't be good.

 We certainly agreed about that, so we sat quietly and watched the mother with her little tusker.  That means he will grow up to be a great big boy nephalent, 'cos mummy Indian nephies don't get tusks.

This is a lovely group and we saw them twice during our ride. We also saw wild water buffalo, wild boar and even Riki Tikki Tavi mongoose. There were bear tracks by the side of the lake, but sadly no bear - we'd love to have seen a bear and said hello, but we didn't. Ah, never mind, Alan says it's another reason to go back. Though I don't think he needs any excuse at all.

Soon our excitement was over and we went back for breakfast.  Then we asked if there was anything else to do, and Alan and Ann smiled and said that we might enjoy ourselves a bit more, but it would be a surprise.

Many of the rest of the photos below were taken by our friend and driver Mr Shijo. He took us safely through India in his car and any photos with no copyright below are his. Thank you Mr Shijo.

After a huge breakfast served in our Homestay by the friendly Mr Cyriac and made by his wife Mrs Dolly, we piled back into the car and next thing we we arrived at a place called "Elephant Junction." Here there were lots of nephalents.  Why was it not called Nephalent Junction Alan? Well, that's because you've been getting their name wrong.  Those large pachyderms are really elephants.  But, if you want to call them nephalents as your pet name, who am I to stop you. Hmm, elephants..nephalents..? No, nephalents it is. Everybear knows that's what I call them, so it would be too confusing to change now. You're probably right. Nephalents it is.

At Elephant Junction we met the lovely and friendly Puja, who was going to give us a long ride through the forest.  Here she is blessing us, isn't that nice? I did wonder if she was going to have a little nibble, but no, she was a very friendly nephalent.

We went up onto a great big platform and suddenly we were at nephalent level and we scrambled on her back and started on our way up the hill through the spices. Can you see us in Alan's hands?

What about now? 

If you look very carefully you can see us tucked in behind Ann.

When we had ridden for an hour we got off and the humins stretched their weary limbs - I don't know what all the fuss was about, Zeke and I were quite comfortable thank you.  After some tea and a snackeral Ann went off with the ladies of the house and Alan with the men, and then they re-appeared all dressed up for a Kerala wedding.  Here they are with Puja and her mahout, Mr Vishnu.

Soon it was time to get back on board and go back down the hill.  Here Ann is holding us so that Alan Can take our photos to really prove that we were actually on an nephalent's back.

This is the view from a nephalent's back.  Puja had a very hairy head, (but not as hairy as yours!). True, but it was an intermeresting view all the same.  On the way up and back agin Mr Vishnu was talking to Puja and she seemed to talk back to him. Sometimes it was a bark and at other times it was a rumble that vibrated our chests!

After the excitement of the ride, it was payback time as we got to wash the nephalents with scrubbing brushes. What's with the "We"? I seem to recall two creatures saying things like, "Water, water!? Sorry you two we'd hate to spoil your fun, we'll just watch." Hmm, well, um, yes I aspose it was just the humins, what did it. You see we only have short paws. Ah, that explains why you didn't join in. I quite understand.

You see where the nephie's trunk is heading?  Just in front of her is a tank of nice clean water and she was itching to get her trunk in there.

Well, first she got to roll onto her front and Alan got sit up near her shoulders. Then she sucked and sucked and then her ears started flapping - it's to a nephalent what wagging tails is to a dog.  Then suddenly skoosh and Alan got a shower. Just to make sure he was really wet the nephalent repeated the process several times.  

For some reason Alan had a great big grin on his face, and Ann laughed, but then it was her turn so Alan got to laugh while Ann got skooshed.

They didn't need to wash again till they came home! Oh, we did bear! Huh? After all that water? I wouldn't have bothered.

Well that was very tociting and it was still morning, and so we went back to Mr Cyriac's house for lunch as we were getting peckish. We had a rest in Mr Cyriac's lovely house until the evening when we went to see men jumping through hoops of fire!

Here's Mr Cyriac with a nutmeg tree.

Here are those people jumping through fiery hoops.











After all that tocitement we needed to have a nice relax so next time we'll tell you all about that.

Hugs,

Jock and Zeke

India part 3 - In which we get language lessons and meet new friends

Hi again, sorry this has taken so long but his nibs says there's been no why phi. Now you may also ask, "Why phi?" and indeed I did, but he says it's wifi and without it we can't connect to the internet. So anyway here we were in Cochin and we had wifi at last so we tried to stay in touch, but failed and now we're home and he has no excuse.

After staying in our lovely cabin for fewer days than we all would have wanted we moved on again to  a place called Wayanad.  It's up in them that hills. The place itself was called Tranquil, and it was really lovely.  We got to chill out a bit - well in so far as you can when it's 35C or more.

On our only full day there we went for a long walk - well, before he says it - the staff walked and we rode in splendour. We walked through the coffee plantation and we could see far far away across the fantastic hills of Kerala.

At  one point we had a lovely viewpoint with picker knicker tables, so Zeke and I sat down and waited for our food.  But there wasn't any!!!!! The staff said that we had huge breakfast of dosas and scrumptious masala sauce, with freshly squeezed pineapple juice and lovely coffee, so we didn't need a picker knicker, and we had to admit that multiple meals with multiple courses meant we really didn't need any snackerals, but still, being bears....

All too soon we were on our way to a wonderful place called Arthur pally, or how do you say it Alan? It's, "Athirapilly" Jock.  Oh, Athththth rapilly. No,  let's do it slowly because I know it's hard for a small bear.  Ready now? 
"Ath" 
Ath,
 "Ir,"
Ir
" A Pilly"
A Pilly.
Now run it all together and you get, "Athirapilly"
Athira-pilly, Athirapilly, Athirapilly. It's not really that hard, but I do spray a bit when I say it.  Not really, well done.
Athirapilly is famous for its waterfalls and in the picture above we're sitting on our hotel balcony with  the falls in the background.

We had a tosplore and we found another nephalent to be friends with. It had a funny head, but it was just right for both of us to sit on.  Little did we know that riding a real nephalent would be much more tociting, but you''l just have to watch this space.

Next morning we went for a walk and hey presto we were down at the bottom of the falls, so it was time for official beside the waterfall portraits.

 Zeke was a wee bit concerned that he'd be washed away by all that water.

So I put my (slightly atremble) arm around his shoulders and we both felt much safer. That's what friends are for.

Finally he jumped into Alan's bag and I got to be a brave bear an had my own photo taken. You can see that there were THREE waterfalls and we were rather near the one on the left!

Well, that was the end of our tocitement, but there had been some earlier, 'cos on our way out we met some new friends! 

We could see over breakfast that something was trying to get at the jackfruit in a tree that we could see from our table.  There was much shaking of the huge fruits, but none came down, and we wondered what was doing it. Would it be a bird, or a nephalent?                                      When we went out all we could see was lots of legs and two tails. So Zeke said, "Gee what's that Jock?" and I said, 'Coo-flip looks like a two headed two tailed monster thingy rumbling round in a fury blanket."

Well, Alan and Ann just laughed at that and Ann said, "They're not a monster boys they are Malabar Giant Squirrels."  They're just have a bit of fun.  Now I've seen squirrels, but these were HUGE. They are about twice the body length of a european squirrel and that tail can be nearly two feet long!

Aren't they lovely, and much bigger than ickle bears like us.

Well, that's enough tocitement for this time.  In our next instalment you'll get to see us riding on a real nephalent!  Stay tuned.

Hugs,

Jock and Zeke

Mysore and Orange County and Nearly Nephalents

Hi there - partners in crime Jock and Zeke here. (Crime?) 's a manner of speaking eejit, we're honest really. (Ah, that's alright then. I didn't want to have to hide you from the Indian Police.) Na, don't worry. Anyway we piled into the car and went to noisy, noisy, Mysore.  A pleasant enough is slightly scary journey. We occasionally did have to clap our paws over our eyes, but Mr Shijo our driver is very careful.

We got all tocited when we got to our hotel.  Here were some nephalents and near our room too.  First we got to ride a great big nephie, but that was quite high up so then we found Jock and Zeke sized ones and they were really cool, 'cos we didn't worry about falling off.

After our ride on the nephies we went out for the day. First we went to a temple, but we just looked at it from the safety of the car 'cos there were naughty monkeys and Alan and Ann were worried that we would get bear napped and never be seen again. So we waited until we came down the hill a bit and foot our photie taken in front of the city.  Then we had to rush back to the hotel

Remember my bad joke about Mysore?  Well, Alan was sore and we had to leave him in the hotel for rest of the day while we went out with Ann. We saw a special palace, and Ann bought some silk. Then we had lunch in a nice restaurant with our lovely lady guide.  After going round a (yawn) art gallery we headed back to the hotel where Alan was finally feeling ok, and he has been ever since. 

Next morning before we left for our next place, we decided that it was important that we have another practice riding on nephalents, 'cos you never know when it's going to be necessary to bring all our experience into play. So, we had a go on another matched pair.

Then we spied a friendly tigger and got our photie taken with him.  I think he has a nice smile, what about you?

He was such a friendly tigger (tiger, bear, tiger) tigger, tiger, who cares, he let us ride on his back.  He was just the right size for both of us!

Well, next day all was well and we went to a lovely place called Orange County in a lovely place called Coorg.  First things first. After we were shown to our cottage we saw a lovely plate of sweeties and all for us! There was a bit of scrapping over who ate what, but all in all we enjoyed our choccies.

Now for a tour of our ickle back yard. Do you like the lily pond and the bear sized pool. Apparently it was an definitiy pool. (Infinity.) Well it definitely had a good view so my name's best.  We could sit in the shade and watch the birds in the coffee and pepper plantation.  It was all great fun and the birds were beautiful.

When we got fed up with our lickle pool there were two other big pools.  This is the one by the restaurant, where his nibs was able to write episode 1.

Alan says it was the bestest hotel he's EVER stayed in with lovely people to help, excellent food and lots of things to-day. We will defertootly be going back. Alan and Ann met a lovely man called Ganesh and another called Murti.  Ganesh organised events like a walk in the plantation and a bird-watching walk both of which were led by Murti who knew all the birds and told us all about coffee.  By the way have you ever smelt coffee flowers. Can you guess what the smell like? No? I'll tell you at the end.

One day we went back to the room to find that the housekeeping staff and left some lovely peacocks made from towels and flowers.

In the evening there are cultural events, and on the first day we went there were a group of men who were singing and playing cymbal things while dancing and then making tumin pyramids. Colourful weren't we.

On the last day (boo-hoo) we went back to find that we had a monkey to play with. Again the lovely housekeeping staff made him.  Isn't he fun.

Well that's about it for this time, but I aspose you want to know what coffee smells like?  First this is what it looks like.

It smells like Jasmine only much nicer. Really heady. So now you know.
Till next time.
Hugs,

Hot and sticky Jock and Zeke.

Hooray, we are in Injar

Yawn, yawn, "Is it ever going to happen?" I asked Zeke.  A little beady eye opened, "Nope, I cain't say that I think it will Jock.  I jess think they're pulling our legs." "I think you're right, but I tell you what my littler friend, I'm not taking my eye off these cases for ANYTHING."

And then then suddenly we were on a tuge, TUGE, big nairyplane up in the sky. 

Here we are a reading of the me and you.  You see which ever side of it we sat it was that page is for me and that page is for you, 'cos the one that got "you" hadn't a clue 'cos it was written in funny squiggles (Arabic bear. arabic). Whatever, we couldn't make head or tail of it even trying to read it right to left!  Well, that would have been the correct way to read it, but I doubt if you'd have made sense of it anyway.

Well, maybe not, but once we'd got ourselves outside that wine, it all seemed so much easier to read.

We arrived in Bangalore in time to get to our hotel so that the tired out humans could get a zizz. Silly peeps - Zeke and I were ready to rock and roll. (I'm not surprised after the consumption of that wine. Not so much knockout drops, as knockout glugs!)

Here we are on our balcony, watiently paiting for the staff to get their act together, 'cos it was overdue time for a snackeral. 

So we sat down and I thought we'd have to eat that pretty flower, but then some ickle crips and spicy peanuts arrived.  Well, they were nice, but I thought, "Is that it then?  The famous Injun cuisine?"  (Bear,  I have told you it's India and Indian.) Oh, have I been getting it wrong? Yep. WHATEVER.  (No, sorry you have to get it right!) Oh, alright then Mr TEECHUR. 

Then, just as we wus despairing, in comes a couple of delicious plates of tandoori delicacies. We left the boring veggies to the humans and tucked into the koftas and the chicken.  Yum, though here was a bit of a scrap over that third kofta. His nibs had to get involved. He solved the debate, 'cos HE ATE IT. Can you imagine!?

After we'd had our fill a nice man called Joe came and took us to a big garding called the Lalbagh, and we got to ride on a heffalent.

Then, this morning we found another one in the hotel and we got to ride it too.  This was just before we left to travel to Mysore - No I'm not, nor is Zeke!  Ha, ha, ha - get it M y sore?  (Don't give up the day job.)

Well we travelled a lot and saw birds and things and paintings of heffalents, but none to ride on, so when we got to Mysore we had to have a little something (As you do.). Indeed we do. So this was some Mango Lassie (Lassi) Well, you know what I mean, a mango yoghurt thingy and some mango cheesecake. Yummy.






Termorrer we're off in search of more heffalents. We'll be back soon.

Hugs,

Jock and Zeke

NEARLY, NEARLY NEARLY time to be going

Hi,  I bet you've missed us - Zeke and me I mean.

Well, things are getting very tociting in our hug at the monument. Piles of clothes every which way and camera bags and shoes and suitcases - cor flip when will we be going?  (next weekend my little friend).  WHAT? A whole week! S'not fair we say.  (Be patient it will be worth it.) Better be, is all I can say.

We've been waiting absolutely AGES to go.  Good grief it was all booked last August. Since the beginning of the year it's been a slow build up.  First four, yep that's right, four trips to Manchester to get the visas sorted, then the tickets arrived, then the clothes and stuff started to come out, and so, when the suitcases came down from the loft, Zeke and I decided to make sure we weren't forgotten, so here we are sitting patiently (that'll be a first!), yes, patiently waiting on top of the biggest suitcase just to make sure.

You can see all the chassis behind us and there's no fear we'll be going over there - a bear or even two bears could get buried in all that stuff. Anyway, we're good and ready, all we need is for our humins to get their act together.  (Sorry bear, we have another week of work and I'll be in London. I'm leaving you behind just so there's no confusion when next weekend comes.) Tohind, TOHIND, well it's only boring London, so I' rather make sure I get to Injar, so that's alright then.

Keep a lookout and maybe we'll get to feature while we're still away.  He says it's all to do with broadband access, whatever that means, something technicalical and I 'spect he'll be too busy looking at his photies and seeing things to write about us, but you never know.

Hugs until we write from foreign parts.

Jock