On the last day of our Kerala trip, we travelled from the resort near Periyar back to the airport, which is about a four and a half hour drive. The resort helped us line up a new driver since our previous one had not wanted to extend the trip. Although the new vehicle was smaller, it had much better AC which made for a far more pleasant ride. The new driver drove at a very reasonable speed for the winding roads and we had a rather enjoyable trip through the hills.
Our flight wasn’t until the evening, so we were able to fit in one of the activities we’d missed out on while sick – buying spices. At the Deepa World shop, they offered us a 30 minute tour of their demonstration garden. Our guide was friendly and enthusiastic. While some of the tour had an herbal medicine infomercial spin, we did learn a lot about the different plants and their properties.
The tour ended in their shop, unsurprisingly featuring a sales pitch for all their herbal medicines. We were eventually able to redirect them to the spices and bought several things to bring home such as black pepper, cardamom, green tea, coffee, chaat masala, and tea masala.
After our tour we continued our drive back to the airport. It was a clear day with a bright blue sky, and everything around us was vibrant green. We passed many large and beautiful houses although it was too hard to catch any pictures of them through the car window. There were also some very impressive churches rising above the hillside towns. Our driver seemed determined to take us on scenic routes which had us beginning to question if he was putting too much trust in Google Maps as the pavement broke off for gravel, but we always found another main road before too long.
We made it back to the airport in good time. Check in went much more easily than in Bangalore, but we had a momentary scare in security when Mervin’s phone disappeared!
Security here is separated between men and women, with women having a curtained area and a female guard to do the wand metal detector scan. I had to leave our bags and go several rows away for this check point. When I came back, they had told Mervin to take the camera out of his bag for examination, also forcing him to leave our bins on they conveyer belt. I hurried over to repack everything, put my phone and our iPads inside my bag. His phone wasn’t there so I assumed he had grabbed it.
He hadn’t. It was gone.
We started frantically checking pockets and bags in case it had been slipped inside. Nothing. I have no SIM in my phone because I’ve been borrowing Wi-Fi from Mervin, and they make it extremely difficult to get on the airport Wi-Fi here without an Indian phone number, so I couldn’t call it.
Just as the security agents were starting to search behind the counter, a man came hurrying back with it. We didn’t quite catch what happened but it seemed he had grabbed it off the belt by mistake. Good thing Mervin has my photo as his lock screen! Crisis averted.
After that, the rest of the flight home was thankfully uneventful. We are now rested and recovered and back to eating regular food.
Mervin
Welcome home from your exciting trip!