Kerala

A highly skilled carver outside a temple in Kumily (which I can not find on a map anywhere!) Which is also a huge spice manufacturer so the streets were lined with shops stocked with cardamom (my favorite), cloves, cinnamon, pepper, saffron and all kinds of delicious smelling goodies. This is also where I met the world's best street food. Huge vats of oil (imagine a wok on steroids) that plantains were grated into and then fried to get the most delicious plantain chips. I don't think Americans usually buy them because there were many shocked faces when Ylva and I got three huge bags full and we had a group of pilgrims that took an interest in us and helped us get them. When we got to town we had an idea of where we wanted to stay however after walking through town we saw a hotel that had tree houses which were too good to pass up. So for two nights we stayed thirty feet up, in a comfy little cabin, and when I had to use the bathroom in the middle of the night I got to climb out from under the mosquito net, climb down the ladder, and make my way to the outhouse, hoping an animal had not taken up residence in there. We spent one day at the Periyar Tiger reserve, where we saw no tigers, but we did see the monkeys shown below, and we got to go on a boat ride that was quite lovely.