Quiet day at Thekkady

Idukki, India

4 hour bus ride from Mandurai to Thekkady. Lunch was delicious paratha and paneer butter masala at hotel. Some of the group went to ride elephants, but I decided to get a massage instead. The girl who did my massage was lovely. 21, studying sociology, and due to be married probably in a couple of years. She used way too much oil, it was dripping off me, but the massage was nice all the same. For dinner, we went to a cooking class, where we learned how to make Kerala paratha, pineapple curry, masala chips, spicy chicken, and okra curry. The flavours were very different to the class in the north – coconut oil instead of mustard oil, curry leaves and mustard seeds in everything. The curries seemed lighter, less heavy with spice and contained more veges. I was really interested in the paratha, because it has been my favourite since coming to the south. But it was a lot of hard work, kneading and curling and flattening. So I might leave it to the experts.