Wayanad (Kalpetta)

To visit Wayanad in the north of Kerala was highly recommended by a couple of people. That's why I stopped travelling up north by the coast and travel land inwards.
I have a front row seat on the bus to the city Kalpetta which is the headquarters of the wayanad district. I have a nice view driving up the mountains but the horn of the bus is so annoying that I have to put in my earphones :). The higher we get the more monkey's are on the side of the road. The bus fights it's way up and through the hairpin curves.

After two hours we arrive in Kalpetta and I go directly to my Hotel. I am looking forward to privacy, a hot shower and a comfortable bed ... so amazing :D

On this first day I don't do much and just walk around a little bit. I bump into a local monkey family and some long abandoned vehicles which was fun and a nice sight.

On the street I meet a French woman who directly asks me if I know a good place to exchange money. That's just a big topic right now and all the money exchanges use the situation to rip you off so you get very bad rates. Luckily thanks to the miracle ATM in Calicut I am set for a while and especially don't need to exchange Euro. Later I meet her again in the hotel, which is a funny coincidence.

The next day I take the bus to a neighbouring town and from there a Rikscha to the starting point of the hike up the Chembra peak, which is the highest mountain in this area with 2050 meters. The road there is extremely bad, in between the Rikscha has to drive so slow that walking would be faster :) The ticket to walk up to the heart shaped lake (it's not possible to go up all the way to the peak) costs 1500 rupees for foreigners. It's a little over 20 EUR which is incredible much money for india. I am here now and I want to go up so I don't really have a choice :). It includes your own personal guide who will hike with you the whole way (According to him it takes 2 hours total for foreigners and 4 hours for Indians. Seems like Indians are usually not so good in shape. Now I feel it's even more unfair that foreigners pay more ;)). I don't know exactly why a guide is required but I guess that's how they make sure you stay on the path and keep the garbage to yourself. It's a nice walk up, but everybody who has seen the Alps won't be impressed. On the way I meet some tourists from the States and from Australia. It's a rare sight because I haven't seen many foreigners in this area.

The more interesting way is the way down. Instead of taking the Rikscha I walk down through the tea plantations. It is really pretty and does not even cost an entry fee ;). Again I meet some local monkey family's and this time I am prepared with bananas.

(zoom in to see some peppers)

The guide suggested to also visit the waterfalls nearby. I don't have anything else planned so I go for it. Again I take the bus and then walk up to the Soochipara Waterfalls. They are not that big but it is nice to take a bath and shower after the long walks. Again monkeys but this time at least one of them is really cocky and almost steals my backpack. I knew this could happen but they are so cute and were really well behaved so far, so I let my guard down :).

On my way back I catch a private "bus", which seems to be common in this area, because the public bus does not drive so often. It's usually Jeeps that just drive back and forth. I sit in the back and although there is space left new people seem to prefer the front. In the end there are 3 people + driver in der front 😂.

On the next day I leave again for the next stop on the touristic path east.