Kumali.Thekkady/Periyar !

Getting a map in this country & particularly Kerala appears close to impossible. In every other tourist destination I have ever been to they are in everywhere to enable you to locate the n see the sites. In nearly three weeks since arriving in Kochi we have come across one sketchy thumbnail map in the Kerala Tourist Development Corporation.. Obviously one can look online for a map but this process is hampered by three things 1.the speeds with which pictures download here ( think dial-up)2. The worn out equipment used for connectivity 3. The variety of names given to places - up to three it appears. I have come to the conclusion that it is a conspiracy to line the pockets of taxi drivers & tour organisers .The KTDC sounds like the kind of organisation to solve these problems but they cant even manage to put the telephone numbers or links to their own lodges on its website ! These can only be found in Lonely Planet,Trip Advisor etc. Kumali,Thekkady & Periyar are contiguous (next to each other) and the only diffwerence between them is price of accomodationi.e.low (where we stayed for 14quid a night) to high Periyar where prices start at 3 times that. TThis place carried on where Varkala & Munnar left off with torrential rain the afternoon of our arrival which went on almost unbroken for 12 hours the following day we thought we would try to see some tigers !/! at the reserve but there were no tickets avauilable - lucky for us as it poured again at the sceduled time of the trip departure. The following day we decided not to risk the weather pattern so obviously it was dry throughout. We did howevber see an excellent demo of Kathakali the local art/dance form which was very inpressive/interesting. Tomorrow we return to Varkala via car/train to spend a few nmore days relaxing at the beach