We left our hillside bungalow in mid-morning after we had eaten our Keralan breakfast, watched the slight of frame porters haul our luggage head high down to the taxi and paid our debts and left a tip for the workers. Again I cannot but wonder what is a good tip? We left about five pounds to be shared amongst the staff. Very little in British terms but quite a lot here!

Still feeling tender as our driver launched us through the mist amongst the teas plantations in the Munnar area onward through spectacular scenery towards Thekkady. Green was the overriding colour in the fields as we headed upwards on narrow tracks past many gushing monsoon waterfalls.

Arriving in Kumily or Thekkady, our driver was confident that he knew where our hotel was as he threaded his way between several tourists down a road with substantial hotels. These by the way were the first lot of Westerners we had seen for a few days! I knew he was in the wrong neck of the woods because I had booked a hotel which was on a mountain side and had wonderful views. We were on flat land here close to the middle of the town.

After considerable head scratching by our driver and locals who pointed this way and that and phone calls to the hotel, we found ourselves heading out of town and up a few twisting lanes and eventually high on the edge of a mountain. We were at Thekkady Wild Corridor. We said our last farewells to our careful and considerate driver and gave him 2000 rupees as an extra for all his kindness. Definitely deserved it!

The reception crew at the hotel didn't have any record of our booking so it was fortunate that I had brought print offs of all my email transactions. Sort of satisfied, they gave us our initial welcome drinks and sent us past a huge Jackfruit leaning off its tree to an upgraded room which had an amazing unrestricted view from the balcony- and from the bath in the bathroom!- of distant hills and mountains. This was a poshish hotel with reasonable rates for this unseasonable time of year. The poshest place so far! And you could get a BBC channel on the television here although it was the rolling news one.

I was still far from my best with regards to my energy levels and stomach troubles and clinging cold, so I tried out the bed for a few hours while Alyson and Caitlin went for a massage and wandered around the hotel grounds. One main reason why we booked this hotel was for the swimming pool but even Caitlin wasn't up to swimming outside in this weather. We're in India and it is coldish here in the mountains! Too cold for an outdoor pool swim. However, they both returned to say that the massages were brilliant here. They were both ready for dinner but I was still slightly detached from the real world at this stage and not really interested in food. I didn't follow them to the restaurant.

The rest of this first day at Thekkady was spent reading, playing card games and watching the news on BBC world roll over several times. We also sent some of our unclean clothes to be laundered.

And a question to which I don't know the answer. What is the difference between Thekkady, Kumily and Periyar? They seem to be the same place!