From Munnar I made it down to Alleppey and Cochin in Kerala, then up to Ooty. My recommendation is don't even spend a night in Ooty but go straight to Kotagiri. Then I came down to Mysore in Karnataka, another boring Indian city that LP makes sound charming--it's not, and the "palace" is overpriced and overdone, like burnt bread being passed off as tasty, though standing in Government House made me feel like I should have just ridden up in my proper British officer's uniform while the director yelled "ACTION!". From here it's on to Madikeri for the mountains, Hassan for the temples, and then Hampi to bake in the heat and admire the ruins of an ancient civilization--our future. My only regret is that Mudumalai sanctuary is closed for the dry season and I can't figure out the other parks south of Mysore through which the bus drove and look wonderful, down to the peacock standing 5 meters up on a branch and calling out across the dry, burnt land, as if the ashes had gathered themselves into his folded dark green tail and hung again like leaves. His call reverberated across the quiescent landscape, summoning--soon, the pea hen, and his feathers unfolding, iridescent in the sun, leaves bursting from prisons of bark, traceries of veins pulsing with the blood of life, water.