The great thing about India is that it’s so cheap. No longer are we backpackers, we have fully morphed into flashpackers.
We took a leisurely four and half hour taxi ride from Kumily and when we arrived in the rolling hills of Munnar we hired a personal guide/driver/generally helpful person to make our stay as easy as possible. Before heading to our hotel, located high up in the hills, our driver took us to get some supplies from the bustling town.
We were then dropped off in the serenity of our hotel, with its balcony overlooking the valley below. The view was only briefly spoiled by the short evening downpours of rain that fell, making this one of the greenest regions in Kerala. As our driver left us we made a plan for him to return at 7.00am in the morning to go on a tour of this idyllic region.
The first stop was Mattupetty dam, though it’s a pretty ugly concrete structure it was a good place to watch the sun rise over the lake it conserves. As we arrived early we were pretty much alone, which is a rarity in India.
Our driver continued the journey though the winding roads of the tea plantations and mountains to a high pass with wonderful views over the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu.
We also tried some tea from a local tea stand. Surprisingly, considering that we were in the middle of tea plantations, the tea was awful. In traditional Indian style the tea is mainly sugar and milk.
The driver turned into our guide and gave us some details about the tea plantations. The workers are paid 350 rupees a day (£3.50) for 8 hours work. No wonder our driver is happy with the 1600 (£16) we paid him for his services. Though the tea pickers get housing, food and free health care included, so it’s not such a bad deal.
We agreed to meet the driver at the road on the other side of the valley so that we could take a walk through the tea estate.
The next stop was the Top Station at 1700m where we walked down to absorb the splendid views of the surrounding hills. The walk back up was horrific in the heat!
Some of the Indian tourists found me more of an attraction than the view, and I spared some time for a selfie with these two guys! It’s surprising how many people want to speak to you because you are a westerner.
The uphill struggle had made us hungry so we went for Indian breakfast. Idli Rice cake, spicy curried onions and a boiled egg.
We visited another dam, there were many stalls set up around both sides of the concrete monolith.
But being near water in India is not always fun as most of it is polluted. Though it never stops the locals washing their clothes in it.
As we were driving away the driver now became an elephant spotter. He stopped the car and pointed up into a hill of tea leaves. On the edge of the plantation were several wild elephants. After all the failed time looking for wild elephants in Periyar this made up for it. Though the elephants were too far away for a good photo. In hindsight, this was probably a good thing as we later learnt that they kill 300 people a year in India. Still, it was amazing see these fantastic creatures in the wild.
The next stop was the rose garden, though I didn’t see any roses. I suppose I didn’t care to look. Though I did find the many Indians with their colourful Saris as interesting as they found me.
To get up close and personal with an elephant the driver took us for an elephant ride. At the time we could not decide as to whether it is was actually cruel or not.
The elephants were captured from the wild and tamed. Surely they would have been better off roaming freely with their family. Now it was taking us and many other tourists on a small walk through some trees.
In the end the elephant seemed happy enough when we fed her some pineapples and corn.
By now we were hungry again so the driver took us to a local restaurant. For only 90p we got the English equivalent of an all you can eat. The thali was served on a banana leaf, the delicious mixture of curries, rice, sides and poppadums’ are continually served until you are full. There were no knives and forks. Like most Indian food you should eat it with your right hand as the left hand is reserved for other dirtier business.
The final stop was the tea museum where we watched a video on the tea plantations and attended a talk. The talk was meant to be about the process of making tea, but turned out to be an old Indian man rambling on about the digestive properties and benefits of tea, though all I can remember was him talking about his grandad squeezing one out for 10 minutes.
Feeling tired we got dropped back off at the hotel, for a small additional fee our driver, and new best friend, was picking us up in the morning to put is on the bus back to kochin.
