Most Inspirational Moment
It is very hard to identify one moment of the trip, when the programme was so varied and interesting, I really enjoyed the whole experience. There were several moments that exceeded my expectations which include the early morning walk through Madurai watching the city wake up, I also really enjoyed the walks, one through the tea plantation into the hills, and the other through the Nature Reserve.
Thoughts on Group Leader
The group leader Biju Kumar was amazing, I never saw him switch off for the full fortnight. He was consistently cheerful and helped above and beyond expectations. Biju had an encyclopaedic knowledge of South India, nothing was too much trouble, whenever a question was asked, he would follow the thread of the conversation explaining the intricacies and how the elements of Indian culture, history, faith, and even politics interweaved. At every stop he assisted the group with translation, advice, and guidance. Often he would pop up assisting the vendor or the waiting staff taking orders and helping make sure that all the group members were looked after. One of the members of the group feel over and cracked her shoulder bone, Biju insisted (correctly) that she visited the doctor to check it out, and escorted her to the hospital for an X-Ray, managed to ensure she picked up the medication that was prescribed and managed to get back to the group in time to lead the group through the optional tour of the Tea Museum. He also provided great local knowledge when I asked advice on the use of our spare time. I also think that the model of the Exodus tour of having a core set of events supported by optional excursions was exactly what was required, this allowed a reasonable basic cost without limiting people who wanted to see a bit more. Biju gave very clear descriptions of the optional trips without appearing to apply any pressure to sign up, and I have to say I did go on the majority of the optional trips, and thoroughly enjoyed them too. I would also like to give a mention to the driver Vinod, although not an Exodus employee he was also relentlessly cheerful and drove with great skill, many of the roads would be A and B standard, with very challenging other road users, some roads into the mountains were pretty hairy. He was always a welcoming face when we reached the minibus, which even at 6’3” was perfectly comfortable. I have not been on holiday with Exodus before, but many of the group had, and it appears that Biju was significantly above average, he excelled and significantly exceeded my expectations. I have already started looking through the brochure for another exodus tour.
Advice for Potential Travellers
Take cash and change a bit at the airport on arrival, changing money was not as easy in typical European countries, the ATM machines were a bit hit and miss, with many running out of cash and limiting the amount you could withdraw. Treasure low denomination notes, the most frequent note given by exchanges and ATMs is the 500 rupee note, this is equivalent to £5.00, however, this can be like spending a £50 note sometimes as nearly everything we bought was less than 200 rupees. Food and drink is very cheap in India in comparison to the UK. No need to take hiking boots, I decided, based on luggage space, only to take trainers, and there were absolutely fine for the walks on the trip. If you are female, best to take a toilet roll with you, and pop one in your knapsack whilst on the trips. If you fancy the odd beer or glass of wine, be aware that in South India there is less access to alcohol, there are bars but they tend to be quite hidden away without windows. This actually proved to be quite a fun part of the holiday, ferreting out some very dodgy bars. There are off licence’s but be prepared to queue. I took a couple of bottles from the UK which was a good move. Local wine is variable, there were some good bottles but also some not so good. Take some coffee from home, the local coffee has a percentage of chickery, and in the opinion of most of the group, does not taste particularly good. Being plant based I found the food brilliant, although we only found one waiter who had heard of vegan, the majority understood very quickly the concept of no eggs, yoghurt, or milk, and still on many buffet’s we had an adequate choice of dishes. They use a lot of coconut milk in Kerala, you will see why when you arrive. The food becomes less spicy as you travel south, possibly because it becomes more geared to western tourists, I liked it spicy.