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Published: January 10th 2010
Munnar Tea
I wonder if I've drank this much in my lifetime?Evening all from a chilly Munnar,
Lets dive right into this one no messing around...
The morning after writing the last entry I left the humid shores of Fort Cochin with visions of the green hills of the Western Ghats floating around my head. As there is no railway line to Munnar I had to take the bus; so off I trogged to the bus stop. Whilst waiting for the bus I got chatting to a very happy go lucky, slightly eccentric and mad but brilliantly interesting Austrian bloke called Harry who would turn out to be my mate in Munnar for a few days. I got the impression he was a bit mad because he talked a lot about beer (got me interested) and just generally expelled a mad sort of aura... and in the words of Kerouac "it's the mad ones for me...".
The bus ride was incredible; a climb from 0-1300 odd metres in the space of four hours with greenery and waterfalls to keep my eyes entertained along the way.
After a pleasant but sweaty (if i'm honest) journey we arrived in the busy hill station of Munnar. Immediately my new Austrian friend
Hitch Hiking!
Catching a ride on the back of a flat bed lorry to Top Station set us on a quest in search of a beer which entailed wandering around for an hour asking people until we found the only bar in town; which was overpriced but met my new friends need for a cold beer (not that I was complaining!).
After a chat with the guy who runs the hotel I'm staying in I was informed of an excellent walk in the hills and tea plantations surrounding Munnar, totaling around 12km; I decided to tackle this on the friday.
As you know us Brits (and especially myself) are avid tea drinkers; so you can imagine my delight to be strolling through the very plantations where some of the finest tea in India is grown. From a distance the plantations have the mottled appearance of a turtle shell and up close have the heavenly aroma of an Englishman's tea cupboard. The walk brought me too a view point looking down into the valley of tea plantations and waterfalls... breathtaking. It was made all the more better when I was able to enjoy the view with a piping hot cup of ginger tea.
The evening kicked off with a visit to the beer and
The View from Top Station
I just put this photo on because I like it... wine shop with my new friend who forced (well maybe not 'forced') me to buy a bottle of rum. The evening then entailed going into little cafes and ordering coke's whilst covertly making them 'special' coke's... I now call this the Munnar.
The next day we decided to head to a place called top station... which the guidebook stated was a high hill station with breathtaking views into Tamil Nadu. We boarded a bus which would have had 11 pages of MOT failures in the UK; I know this because it broke town 3 times on the way. The bus therefore could only take us half way so we decided to try and hitchhike the rest. Mum if you are reading this you won't like the next bit...
We ended up on the back of a flat bed lorry flying up the mountain roads into the mist and rain; making it a bloody exciting way to travel! The splendid views the guidebook recommended were blocked by fog or possibly the smoke still pouring out of the bus we took up there. So I did what any English person would do I had two cups of tea wandered around
Bloody Long Que
The que for the National Park then got the bus back down. The evening continued in typical 'Munnar' style again.
Today then...
My new friend left this morning so I was out on my own again. My initial intention was to hire a scooter and explore some more of the hills but as I awoke to the sound of rain on my window I decided against it with my little biking experience. I was therefore drawn to the delights of the tea museum; this was a pretty standard affair for a museum full of boring old tea making stuff. But the working tea factory was interesting and it got me wondering how many of those leaves I have drunk in my lifetime.
With it only being midday after I left the museum I decided to try and catch the bus to the Eravikulam National Park which holds the largest population of the rare Nilgiri Tahr mountain goat in India. However I got off the bus to the sight of a 300m long que for tickets so I promptly decided the bloody goat could go stuff itself and I got on the first bus back to Munnar.
So that's it up until now; I head to the Periyar Wildlife park tomorrow...
As always I will keep you posted.
Jack x
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