MotorPunk January 2014 | Page 17

“ “ As we pushed on further south we expected things to get easier. We should have known better. we’re still not sure if they think the “Caterpillar” or the “Moonwalk” are dance moves or a disability. The daytime at least left some room got better and better the further we went. Kerala was high on our list of expectations and didn’t disappoint. The landscape had changed to lush green plantations, and plantation where we ate fresh corn on the cob and enough fruit to achieve our “Fivea-day” for the next decade. Coconuts, mangoes, bananas, star fruit and custard apples, all sap which tasted like a cross between cheap sparkling wine and bleach. Later we travelled up into the hills and found a river where some locals were swimming and bathing under a cool waterfall. Enthusiastically we parked up the rickshaws and bounded down to the river before unceremoniously throwing ourselves in. A monkey appeared, followed by another until it seemed there were a hundred pairs of eyes peering at us from the trees. It took a few moments to register the monkey sat on a rock and zoomed in. “You won’t believe this!” “That monkey is reading “Learn Tamil in 30 days”. Another monkey tucked in to a packet of biscuits while another seemed to be clutching a necklace. The monkeys, we realised, were systematically looting the rickshaws that we