Category: Munnar

Fifty shades of green

11.2.19

I slept so badly last night, first time since we arrived in India. Between 12.30am and 4am my brain was trying to put the world to rights and at 4.30am there was the most horrendous squeal from a dog, it made my blood run cold. It lasted about 5 seconds and then I was listening to see if I heard more crying and was prepared to go and murder whoever had hurt it. Didn’t hear another sound although it’s played on my mind a lot.

I’m ashamed to admit the tuk tuk drivers name went in one ear and out the other when he arrived at 8am. I’m sure it began with a P so let’s call him Mr P.

We drove firstly to the Top Station with a few photo opportunities on the way. The roads are so potholed it took us about an hour and a half to reach our destination.

Once you get beyond this scruffy town it really is breathtaking.

We reached the Top Station and Mr P waited while we walked to the very end, where Kerala State finishes and Tamil Nadu State starts.

We had only been walking a couple of minutes when we met this intimidating beast.

It kept making a beeline for us and we went right to the edge behind some motor bikes. Everytime we braved it again it would walk back towards us. Some very kind locals tried throwing small sticks towards it, then another chased it away.

Next we met some darling puppies and their mum, this one was adorable.

John fell in love with a little goat.

By this time we had forgotten why we were here. Oh yeah.. Hill station.. It’s very high, and very in the clouds.

see

No idea why anyone would camp, way too cold. Maybe a Fosters would warm us up.

Onwards to one of several dams along this 8km lake.

Our next stop was Echo Point where loads of tourists were shouting very loudly and the echo was certainly impressive.

After Echo Point was Mattupetty Dam, where we heard there was a 98% chance of seeing elephants. At one point we went for a stroll along the lake, but then realising there was no one else walking there and seeing a warning elephant crossing sign I insisted we turned back.

Mr P had told us to take our time so we stopped for tea and coffee at a little roadside stall. Both drinks were like gnats pee and then they tried to overcharge us for drinks we couldn’t even drink.

Our next stop was the flower garden, actually it’s the poorest collection of plants ever and didn’t warrant the small entrance fee or the additional charge to use the loo.

We were starving by this time so Mr P took us back to the outskirts of town where we had fabulous food in a place that reminded me of some of the older, scruffier kebab places in Turkey. John absolutely loved it and they kept bringing more and more.

We both tried tapioca, it’s a staple food here. We saw the trees in the spice garden, they originated from Brazil and now widely grown here. It was delicious with a hint of cinnamon, with cashews and dried fruit.

We were then driven to another view point, near the High Range Members Club and other posh establishments, absolutely gorgeous views.

Felt a bit guilty as Mr P drove us over horrendous potholes on a back road into town to book a Kathakali show. We’ve been undecided about going, it’s famous in Kerala. It was already just gone 4pm and the show was at 5pm.

Just too much after a rubbish nights sleep and 8 hours in what sounds like and feels like a ghost train carriage.

We apologised profusely and came back to the room and will see him again at 9am tomorrow.

We are glad tomorrows trip is by taxi but totally realise today’s would have been too tough going for a cars suspension.

Just watched a Kathakali video.

Think we had a lucky escape.

We had a late dinner at Kurnji restaurant just nearby where we had a fabulous lunch on our first day. It’s always busy, great value and a bit chaotic but we love it.

Another great day of incredible scenery and looking forward to tomorrows trip.

More of fabulous Munnar

12.2.19

Feeling refreshed and raring to go this morning and John has been for a run.

He had good news yesterday that his dad is going to be sent home at the weekend as they have stabilised his kidney function.

Mr P, who I now know is called Palini collected us promptly at 9am. Our first stop was the tea museum.

After a lot of kerfuffle they managed to get the projector and sound working at the same time!

The film was called New Roads, Old Mountains and followed the history of Munnar right back to British explorers surveying the hills, tribal groups, transformation of the hills with tea plants, development of the railway, history of plantation owners to the current Kanan Devan Hills Plantation. Over 80% of the company is now owned by the workers themselves, they receive housing, health care, community initiatives and real work and activity projects for the differently abled.

The plantations only cover 30% of the Munnar hills so that wildlife is protected.

Next we went upstairs for what we thought was a talk about tea production but was in fact a very hard to understand lecture about the benefits of drinking green tea. I must admit it has inspired me to give it a go and I fancy buying a green tea bottle with built in strainer before we head back home.

We continued our journey past elephant mountain.

We passed Evranakulam wildlife park, it isn’t breeding season, it’s birthing season which makes much more sense than being closed for breeding!

Onwards through huge tea plantations. It all has a much better meaning since the video and knowing the workers are co owners is just great.

We’ve seen so many of these brown jeeps, they transport plantation workers.

From here we drove to some waterfalls

Next we were entering Chinnar National Park area, through a sandalwood forest.

Time for lunch, we stopped in a buzzing little town Maryoor, at a place recommended by Palini

Another thali for John, no banana leaf today. I had very tasty chicken noodles.

We drove on to the Chinnar National Park ticket office (615 rupees each. We had a choice of a culture walk or waterfall walk. We opted for culture.

We had our own personal guide for our 2 hour stroll. It was nicer than Periyar (no Russians for a start ) as he took the time to point out different trees.

We saw 2 burial tombs and a wall painting, both 5000 years B. C. Unfortunately some paintings are very hard to see now as washed out by the rain.

We heard lots of birds, saw a chipmunk, lizards, and a large black and white squirrel. Not masses of wildlife but worth the trip for the views and trees.

On our way back we stopped and saw brown sugar being made from cane.

Palini brought us back to Munnar via the scenic route. We saw numerous plantations, sugar cane, bananas, cocoa, tapioca, sweet corn and figs.

We asked him to drop us off in town as we need internet to pay some bills back home. Weirdly our Airtel mobile internet doesn’t work anywhere outside of Munnar main town.

Walking back from town was a nightmare in the dark, its such a short walk it doesn’t warrant a tuk tuk but there’s no pavement, no streetlights and pot holes everywhere.

We stopped and booked a taxi for tomorrow morning.We are heading to the train station at Ernakulam. It is another 3 and a half hour trip, then we have a 4 hour train journey to Kozhikode in the north of Kerala.

We got back to JJs and collected our laundry.

14 pieces went in. 15 came back but 2 weren’t ours and they couldn’t find what was missing and we have no idea what it might be.

We ate in Kurunji again, excellent as usual.

It’s going to be a long day tomorrow, just hope it all goes smoothly.