We are not alone

   Our first stop was at a rose garden. More like a gardencentre, like the one I used to work in. Only here you have to pay an entrance fee. The first tourist trap of the day. We asked for this, so we get to say all the touristic highlights. And in some way it is nice, doing the thing the Indian tourists do, and not take the foreigners trip.

   You can tell when we're reaching a special place: traffic jams. Dozens of stall with food, drink, snacks and candy. And even more stalls with socalled ethnic Indian wares, and plastic products made in China: shoes, caps, bags, woodcarving, children's toys. Nuts, chocolate, pillows, winter's coats. Printed t-shirts, sunglasses, spices. At picturesk viewpoints, photographers are waiting for you, to take your picture, or you can ride a horse up and down hill, or shoot with a bow and arrow. And all this on both sides of a one-lane mountainroad.

   Way before the first stall, buses and taxi's were parked on the side of the road. People walked past the stall made of wood and blue plastic canvas, on thei way to the viewpoint, echopoint, picturesk site or other activity. And all the way teher are cars, rikshaws, scooters and buses in both directions, to take the tourist to the next climactic experience.

    After some photogenic sites, we arrived at a lake. A reservoir with a manmade dam. The water was very low, way beyond the inlets in the dam. On our way, we had noticed dried up mountain streams. And we'd been told yesterday that the January rains, that usually bring some relief, hadn't come this year. The waterfalls we had passed, were also dried up. Fortunately, not all the water had disappeared. At this lake we could make a boat ride. It was another tourist trap, as we had to pay to enter the "park"and again to do the boating trip.

   We could tell from the plants at the water's edge, that after the rains the water would be more than 5 meters higher. The only water entering the reservoir now, was a tiny stream that slipped across the rocks into the lake. The site was advertised as "eco-tourism", but the only activities on the water consisted of fossilfuel driven boats, be it a big one with 100 people, going around the lake in half an hour, or 15 minutes in a speedboat with only two passengers.

   We continued our journey uphill, and passed another reservoir. This time we decided not to do the boating. Once a day is enough. So we drove on to the echopoint. This was so crowded, we decided to move on to the final destination for today:  a viewpoint on the border with Tamil Nadu, where you could see for hundreds of metres in three directions. again the usual traffic jam. The last 300 metres we had to go on foot, as there were no cars allowed. As we were walking among the horde of Indian tourists, Simon told me of his expereince in England, going to Land's End. Some 100 metres before teh seashore, there was a gate, where you had to pay in order to be allowed to walk on. At the seashore you could look out over the ocean, surrounded by hundreds of others."The Indians can learn something from their former rulers," he said, jokingly.

   Well, they did. At the end of the walkway there was a watchtower. So if you wanted to have the ultimate view over the valley, you had to pay. It didn't take us long to decide we weren't going to do that. I am afraid of heights, and Simon didn't want to go alone. And we were impressed as it is, by al the wonderful views we had witnessed so far. So we turned around and headed back to Lijo and our car. We bought a corncob on the way, serving as our lunch. And we noticed that, even though in the tourist places a lot of plastic mementoes are offered for sale, of old the Indians have quite sustainable practices. Yesterday our meal was served on a bananaleaf. And today, the corncob was served it its own leafs, to be used as a disposable plate and napkin.

   We had to go back the way we had come, so again we passed the echopoint. This time, we wanted to take a look, and said we would meet with Lijo after the last stall. To reach the echo point, we had do go down to the water of the second reservoir. Standing behind a fence, we could hear mainly the voices of young boys scraeming their lungs out. And their echoes. To be able to the same, we had to, you guessed it, pay. We were content not to do that. We climbed back up to the road, and strolled among the people and the stalls. The bustle of hundreds of holidaymakers, alternated with the quite of the car driving through these wonderful surroundings, made for a quite delightful day. Which we ended by having a relaxing ayurvedic massage.