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Sri Lanka & India 23/24
  • Geoff Potter
  • Lara Potter
  • Michelle Potter
  • Geoff Potter
  • Lara Potter
  • Michelle Potter
  • Stanley Potter

Sri Lanka & India 23/24

A 36-day adventure by Geoff, Lara, Michelle & Stanley Read more
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  • Sri Lanka & India 23/24

    Onion Street, Madurai

    January 12, 2024 in India ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    Leaving Madurai we passed the onion road again. Totally needed to get some photos of that. Is just streets and streets of onions, bagged up, in piles in warehouses, laid across the pavement. Lots of workers coming and going packing and stacking was quite a sight!Read more

  • Sri Lanka & India 23/24

    Madurai driver crash

    January 12, 2024 in India ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    On the way our driver (who was always a bit of a maniac to be fair) managed to get himself into an accident. You almost never see accidents in India, everyone just knows how to drive to the conditions, share the road and follow the unwritten rules that allow 5 vehicles across a 2 lane piece of road.

    Our driver though who was on his phone a lot, was deep in it when he failed to look up and see the driver in front had to stop. Was a decent nudge, no major damage to the other guy's car but definitely damaged the fender, and for the next day he was worried about the radiator.

    You would think that would learn him but no siree! That ringtone ‘Panay Paneer’ is what we heard, we all started singing it in our heads until it started to get sung out loud! We did actually have to say to him at one point to slow down as the kids were feeling sick. He was driving into blind corners at such ferocious speeds it was genuinely frightening!    Read more

  • Sri Lanka & India 23/24

    Tea Plantations

    January 12, 2024 in India ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    Once we made it to the highlands the outlook changed dramatically. This is the main Indian tea plantation area and oh my gosh the scenery is just breath taking! We stopped multiple times for photos, just so beautiful!

    There was also time to stop at a roadside shop and buy some of those chippies that we like that cost 10 rupees each. Sounds really cheap at 20 cents a bag but they blow them up so they look huge but only put about 12 chippies in them! Nevertheless between that and the 5 rupee lollipops we were all pretty happy!    Read more

  • Sri Lanka & India 23/24

    Munnar Hotel

    January 12, 2024 in India ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Dad had booked a 5 star hotel here as the previous 2 hotels were always going to be a bit hit and miss. Absolutely no regerts with that decision! The infinity pool on the 4th floor was adults only and afforded views down the valley. Certainly was the first thing Mum and Dad tucked into!

    Dad had booked a family suite which was an ideal set up with essentially 2 double rooms back to back. Except he should have known better! Memories flooded back to Manali and the view of the block wall and the bank! Mum wasn’t having it, and after a quick check of Booking.com confirmed there were indeed 2 rooms available and at a lower price than the family suite we asked to move. Was a good decision, the view from the balcony was just stunning. ‘Not coming all this way to look at walls full of compressors’ declared Mum!

    Dinner was fabulous, cocktails all round and great food. We spent a small fortune but it was nice to pamper ourselves after some tough travelling. Sad it was only for the one night, but no regerts!    Read more

  • Sri Lanka & India 23/24

    Munnar Zipcoaster

    January 13, 2024 in India ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    In the morning we headed off to Ripple Adventures. It offered a 4 in one deal, with Zipcoaster, waterfall visit, Chair zipline and traditional zipline. First up was the zipcoaster and it was terrifying! Certainly the bigger you are the faster you fall came into play for Dad! I think we all at times thought we were going to die! Hell of a thrill hanging off a pipe attached to trees travelling at great speed with dips and curves that get you pretty close to the trees. We were satisfied customers!Read more

  • Sri Lanka & India 23/24

    Munnar waterfall

    January 13, 2024 in India ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Next up the waterfall was pretty spectacular. Lara did her poses and got plenty of attention from the locals! Lovely spot to recover from the zipcoaster and prepare for the next thrill!

  • Sri Lanka & India 23/24

    Munnar Zipline

    January 13, 2024 in India ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    The man had said once you see the waterfall just go down the river about 100m, is the zipline on the left. Sounded simple, but the path was a slippery mudbath and was a bit of a mission! Have heard a bit of this ‘5 minutes’ and ‘10 metres that way’ kind of bizzo. Just need to double, triple or quadtruple it to get the truth it seems! Anyway, we made it with no-one getting hurt – almost considered the 5th adventure in the multi trip ticket!

    The Chair ride was fun and the zipline nice with the waterfall in the background. Kids wanted to go again but there was a long drive ahead – enough thrills for this early in the day!    Read more

  • Sri Lanka & India 23/24

    Spice garden visit

    January 13, 2024 in India ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    We had passed a few signs about chocolate factories and our driver had on many occasions pointed out the cocoa plantations in amongst the tea, coffee and various other plants. On hearing this the kids were pretty excited so we agreed that we would go to the chocolate factory.

    The driver had a very particular place in mind and it took a very looooong time to find it!! After stopping about 12 times to ask locals about chocolate factory (and then something else we couldn’t understand in Hindi) we arrived at a spice garden! Paying the 100 rupees each for the garden tour and learning all about various plants and ayurvedic medicines we arrived at the shop with the hard sell. Dad was not taking any part in this, no question this was the high driver commission tourist prices kind of place.

    When Mum confessed she had paid $36 for a metabolism concoction Dad (and the kids in synchronisation) said a loud ‘NO’ to every other question of ‘should we buy this’! Oh, and there was absolutely no chocolate to be found anywhere close to this shop!!    Read more

  • Sri Lanka & India 23/24

    Thekkady hotel

    January 13, 2024 in India ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    We made it to Thekkady. First stop was any store that sold itself as a chocolate factory! Actual chocolate factory was really just a chocolate shop, we bought hard regardless!

    The Kalpavanam Heritage Resort was a little bit different. The units had a bit of a look and feel of treehouses about them which were kind of neat and it was set in the jungle. Lara was so excited to see chicken nuggets on the menu but highly disappointed in what she received! Fair to say they weren’t that great at the western style of anything!Read more

  • Sri Lanka & India 23/24

    Periyar off-road jeep

    January 14, 2024 in India ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    We had come to Thekkady for the Periyar National Park which was home to a Tiger sanctuary. We decided to stop for 2 nights so we could do a full safari. On reading the reviews however it seemed the probability of seeing an actual Tiger was less than 1% and indeed seeing any animals at all was pretty low. One other guest we spoke to said they had seen 1 deer and 1 water buffalo. We decided not to waste our time! There was a cultural show advertised that sounded quite good so we headed down to the ticket office. Having bought our tickets we were seduced a little bit by the jeep package advertising and since we had the time we signed up. Was a good call as it certainly was a fun (very off-road!) adventure!

    Once the top was opened we were able to poke ourselves through the roof and take selfies – only when the terrain wasn’t too rough though!    Read more

  • Sri Lanka & India 23/24

    Periyar

    January 14, 2024 in India ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Mum took great delight in seeing tea with milk! The driver had a great laugh in connecting the dots of the cow munching in a tea plantation!

    Of course being India at each stop there is all manner of shops in the most desolate and remote locations. We enjoyed chai and fruit pieces at one stop. The best shop hands down was little store at the top of a rock in the middle of literal nowhere. The man sitting on the rock had so much charm in his smile we just had to take a photo! We passed some workers on our way and Stanley got to shoot a gun at balloons. All in all a very fun trip!Read more

  • Sri Lanka & India 23/24

    Parunthumara lookout and tea stop

    January 14, 2024 in India ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    At the end of the line was the Parunthumara lookout. Really did feel quite isolated and panaromic. Again with so many shops etc it was inevitable someone would be selling kites! Lots of photos then we head back. Mum was determined to get some local tea so we stopped at a tea plantation to pick up some supplies.Read more

  • Sri Lanka & India 23/24

    Cultural show

    January 14, 2024 in India ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    On our second day we decide to do the cultural show.
    Of course Mum is the first one to put up her hand to volunteer to go on stage (Lara and Dad duck for cover so we don't get picked!)

  • Sri Lanka & India 23/24

    Cherai Beach

    January 15, 2024 in India ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Made it to Cherai beach, our home for the next 6 days.
    A random wanted a selfie with us so we made him take a selfie for us too!

  • Sri Lanka & India 23/24

    Cherai fun

    January 17, 2024 in India ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Today was a day of fun!
    The water park had ziplines and a cycle line!
    The water pontoon was very wavy!
    The kids absolutely loved the speed boat ride on the inflatable!

  • Sri Lanka & India 23/24

    Massage

    January 18, 2024 in India ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Mum & Dad have been giving 7am Ashtanga yoga sessions a go on the roof deck and daily traditional Ayurvedic massages. The kids tried a massage too, but it was a bit full on and confronting for them ... hopefully they're not too traumatized!

    We had to try the massage using the foot. It was completely weird lying all but naked on the floor spreadeagled like the Vitruvian Man while being massaged by feet as the masseuse hung and swung up and down on his rope. Mum struggled to resist looking up the man's wrap - she figured it was only fair given her similar state of undress!    Read more

  • Sri Lanka & India 23/24

    Alleppey cruise

    January 19, 2024 in India ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    Alleppey is famous for its backwaters and everyone wants to cruise on the house boats. We did an overnight cruise and had 3 staff looking after us - a chef, a security/server and a captain.

    Certainly it is built for relaxation as Mum figured out pretty quick!
    Those birds you have to watch out for though! They are pretty quick to take the left overs, or even the about to eat bits if you are not looking!    Read more

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