Munnar…..

We took the train to Fort Cochin (toted as the cultural capital of Kerela). There were a few tours that seemed interesting offered from the hotel, so we decided to hop on board. The first was a tour of the tea plantations in Munnar.

At 6am we got in a van, and picked up the other passengers. A middle aged Canadian couple, a french man, and a British young woman. It was a nice group. The Canadian man, and the French man were actually both tour guides in their day jobs. The French man operated water sports in Greece, and the Canadian took people out fishing. It was funny to be on a tour with 2 tour guides. Actually there was no real tour guide for the tour we were on so it was a good thing we had them. The driver just drove us. He didn’t speak much English, and we never knew exactly what were supposed to be doing, or how long we were supposed to stay at the places he dropped us off at, but that was really O.k. There were people to talk to at the places, and things to explore. If we didn’t like a particular place we just told him we wanted to go to the next one. He was sometimes a little reluctant, as the places we didn’t like were usually ones selling spices at inflated rates, generic gifts, and Elephant rides at a great cost.

The ride up was gorgeous, but I barely kept my breakfast in my stomach. Fortunately the Canadian woman knew about pressure points, and showed me where to hold my hand to reduce nausia. It actually helped alot. Fortunately no one else in the van was as sick as me, and the rest of the group was gracious, and let me sit in the front when my sickness started. I was less sick in the front, but the sickness never went away. The pressure points also seemed to help. It was an over night trip, and by the time we were finished we had done about 8 hours of driving in the mountains. I was sick the whole time!!!! It made me appreciate the time out of the van all the better.

Our first stop was a baby elephant bath. It was a bit weird. Men bathing baby elephants, and tourists watching. I wish there was someone who could have explained more about what this place was for. I wasn’t sure I liked it. The baby elephants were clumsy, and that was pretty cute. They were about my height. I petted one. It had hairs like huge stubble on the top of it’s head. It was a really amazing feeling. I like to think it liked my petting because it lifted it’s trunk, and reached around, and gave me what I imagined to be a big wet kiss (maybe it was trying to hit me), but I felt like it was being affectionate.

The next stop was a water fall. Not too spectacular. 

We were dropped off at what was advertised as a botanical garden. It turned out to be one of the most ridiculous places for taking tourists money yet. They had an Elephant you could ride for 30 minutes. The two vacationing tour guides in our group took a ride. There ride turned out to be about 10 minutes. There must have been some sort of complex calculation based on number of people, weight, and most importantly how much money you looked like you had to determine the length of your ride, and whether to throw in another expense at the very end. The main attraction at this place (which no one seemed to care about) was a 20x20 foot garden that you could pay 200 rupees to enter (about $4.50) - which is a fortune in India, and overpriced anywhere in the world. It was kind of an emperor’s new fence. If you wanted you could pay to go behind a fence, and look at what was growing everywhere. Fortunately we were within walking distance of place we stayed for the night (which was amazing). Alot of the great views are from that place. Our host was wonderful. He cooked us a delicious supper, breakfast, and lunch the next day. Of course it was insanely bland since it was catered to tourists, but it was delicious, wholesome, and I think (other than being incredibly mild) traditionally Kerelan non-the-less.

Our driver left us about an hour before supper, and we wandered through the village down the hill. This was probably the best part of the trip because the village was preparing for some kind of festival, and everyone was in a great mood. Some children ran to us, and gave us flowers, and then goaded each other on to practice the sentences they new in English: “Where are you from?” “What is your name?”. An old woman saw the flowers the children gave us, and smiled. I thought it was sarcastic. She was thinking “greedy foreigners picking our flowers”. I wanted to hide them, but she went in her own garden and gave us more. The kindness was overwhelming, and almost embarrassing. David, and I walked and walked well the was setting. The village was about a 5 minute walk long. The houses were small, but quiet comfortable (not like the tiny huts along the canal in Chennai). There was a general store, and a small school, and on the far side of the town was an open air church (I guess it was a Christian town).  It was just a half roof with a podium, and a large cross at the center. I don’t think we realized it was a church until later in the evening. Past the church the houses thinned out. As the sun began to set we noticed people lighting many candles in front of their houses all along the road. I wondered: “did they do this every night at dusk. It seemed like a lot of work.” We got to a point were the road turned, and there was a great view of the valley. We were incredibly lucky because our arrival at this point corresponded with one of the most incredible sunsets I have ever seen. Certainly one of the most different (palm trees over a tea plantation). I left my flowers on a stump here. I didn’t want to see them die, and I felt like I was so fortunate for that moment that I should give some kind of offering to that spot, and that time. I also didn’t want to risk offending anyone (like I thought I offended the old lady).

As the intensity of the sunset began to die down we heard drumming (and singing?) further down the road. We were too curious. We had to follow it. We walked a little bit wondering if it was coming from one of the houses? We didn’t wonder for long. It started getting closer, and we stopped walking. Within 5 minutes we were surrounded by a colorful parade of drumming, and singing. We watched for a little bit, and were over-taken. They were going back in the direction of the place we were staying, and the period of time we stood awe-struck caught us in the procession of slow moving, drumming, singing, chanting people. There seemed to be a place for men, women, children, boys, and girls in the line. David and I ended up stuck with the older children, but eventually took a place on opposite sides of the road (me with the girls, and him with the boys). The reason we got stuck in this procession was because part of the ritual seemed to be to fill the entire road. The people on the edge made sure they were always on the edge, and budding in line seemed like a big no no. Everyone seemed completely fine that we were there. They weren’t even laughing at us so we just went with it. Running ahead would have meant scrambling through brush along the side of a steep hill, and possibly offending an entire group of people whose town had been really really nice to us.

As we approached the town people came out, and watched holding their candles. In 15 or 20 minutes we arrived at the open air church (this is what confirmed it was a church). Someone got behind the podium, and there was more singing. The songs were beautiful, and they sounded much more like the South Indian carnatic (Hindu) music I had been studying than any Christian songs I was familiar with. Actually they sounded NOTHING like any Christian songs I had ever heard. That was among the many things that made it interesting. The intensity of the ritual died down as we settled into the church, and out of the procession (we were no longer trapped. We were actually free to go, but of course we stayed for a bit.) More children practiced their English with us, and then we headed back before the Church ceremony was over. It was a good thing because our host was waiting for us to serve dinner. No one was particularly mad that we were because the atmosphere was so amazing. Everyone had done their own little bit of wandering.

When we told our story the Canadian couple had some insight into the festival. They said the Catholic festival of lights (which involves alot of candle lighting) happens around this time. That might explain it. By far the most colorful Catholic festival I have ever seen (or even imagined possible).

The next day we visited a Tea plantation, and watched an educational video on the site which would like to have us to believe that it was the most ecologically, worker friendly, human rights friendly operation in the entire world, and was that way from it’s inception in the late 19 hundreds. It was definitely over the top seeing as it was founded by a British guy during the colonial era, but there was a part on the facilities for the workers in the modern day were they showed a school for kids with special needs. All the workers that had kids with disabilities had a place to send their kids way up in the mountains. It was pretty incredible. It actually looked real. I still didn’t entirely believe it, but the people in the town did seem happy, and they were likely tea plantation workers (since there isn’t much other business up there). Munnar seemed idillic, but overall Kerela didn’t seem to have the kind of poor that made Tamil Nadu. The statistics we had read about it being more educated, higher standard of living ect. than other states in India were seeming truer, and truer.

We also had the tea making process for different kinds of tea (black, green, and white) described to us by a guy with such a strong accent, and such a bad microphone that most people couldn’t understand a word he said. I sort of got it, but not enough to be quoted on it. Go find it on the internet if you really want to know. We looked at the leaves drying, and all the machines, and then of course they gave us 20 minutes to buy tea. This time I did. It was actually a good price (same as it cost in Chennai), and the experience was interesting, and worth remembering with a cup of tea.

After the tea plantation the driver took us to a look-out. I almost lost my stomach again. This was just a spot with a really good view (but everywhere in this area had a good view). I wondered why we had to drive so much. They didn’t seem to want to let us walk anywhere. Anyways the peak was strangely unsatisfying not having walked, so David, and I walked down (so we could walk back up again). It felt a little backwards, but it worked out in the end. In a clearing at the bottom of a cliff we found a recently abandoned house. It’s always interesting to see what gets left behind. I took some pictures through spider webs.

The last place we went was a damn. The attraction here seemed to be paddle boats, and some games where you shoot things, and win stuff. The Indian tourists seemed to know what to do, but we didn’t really get it….a nice place to lay on the grass, and some brush to hide in and take a pee…oh well. Then back down the mountain.

Again, the ride almost did my in. I think I almost tore out my pressure points by the end of it. At a rest stop, some scavenging monkeys cheered me up.