Tea and Chocolates in Munnar

---

We decided to escape the heat and humidity of the backwaters and run to the hills to a place called Munnar. The bus trip there took us along a long and winding road up into the mountains and it seemed to take forever. It was dark when we arrived and with our new friend Mauritz, who had decided to join us, we went looking for a guesthouse. Unfortunately for us it was high season in Munnar, as everybody wants to escape the heat of the lowlands, and the hotel prices were high. We found one 'cheapy' but the room was so small you could touch all four of its cardboard walls from the bed. We ended up finding a nicer hotel which was way over our budget but we decided to squeeze all three of us into one room so it wasn't quite as devastating to our wallets.

Munnar is a bustling little town nestled in the beautiful green hills of Indias Western Ghats. It is 1500 meters above sea level and has a refreshing climate and offered us a much needed break from the heat. The town itself is full of tea shops, chocolate shops and spice merchants all selling locally produced goods and it is a nice place to stroll around. Sadly, because of the price of the accomodation, we could only afford to stay one day and after a nights sleep we headed into the town to organise a sight seeing trip of the surrounding area. The hills and mountians around Munnar are the real draw here, they are a luminous green, fertile wonderland (imagine Sound of Music) full of tea and spice plantations. We hired a rickshaw driver to take us round for the day and after buying a big box of freshly made chocolates to nibble on we set off into the countryside.

It was a really good day out and the surronding countryside was stunning. In the morning we went up to place called Top Station which is at about 2000 meters. We had amazing views from up here, the green hills, covered in tea plants, rolled into the horizon and ominous grey cloud settled on the tops of the higher peaks. On our way up here we made a fews tops. The first was at one of the tea plantations where we saw the women workers packing huge piles of freshly handpicked tea leaves into big bags. We were told they earned 120 rupees a day, thats about 1 pound 70 pence. We then stopped at a dam which had a pretty lake behind it. It was pretty busy around here and lots of vendors had set up shops, for some reason there were loads of people selling carrotts. Some other people had set up shooting games with balloons pinned to boards which you had to pop with an air rifle, there was no prize. There were also elephants which you could ride and our driver asked if we wanted a go. We said 'no thanks' and we asked him if they were nice to the elephants and if they were well looked after. Our rickshaw driver was really sweet but didn't understand much English, he replied 'yes the elephants are very nice'. Oh well! He let Lil and Mauritz have a go at driving the rickshaw, i decided it would be safer for everyone if i didn't have a go. Lil soon got the hang of it and was zooming along the mountain road like a real Indian, honking the horn all the way. We also stopped at many beautiful viewpoints on our way up which all had great vistas of the mountians and hills and of the wonderfully manicured tea plantations which blanketed the countryside.

On our way back down from Top Station it started to pour down, the first real rain we'd seen since our arrival in India. It felt so refreshing. After some lunch our driver took us to a spice garden hidden away in the hills. It was really interesting and a friendly man called Babu showed us around and explained the uses for all the different spices. We got to taste them too. After a couple more beautiful viewpoints it was the end of the trip. We would have loved to have been able to afford to stay longer and see more of the area as it really was a gorgeous place. It was so green and the hilly landscape was so pretty, we felt so refreshed being here. But lack of cash meant that the following day, after spending the morning shopping for spices in town, we caught the bus back down the mountians to Kochi with Mauritz.

We had to hang around in Kochi for four nights to wait for our train back to Mumbai. We stayed with our Indian Mum and Dad and there two little girls again at the homestay and we were fed delicious homecooked meals everyday. We spent our days walking around town, watching the fishermen and pestering the local cats who gather at the beach in the hope scoring some fresh fish. We also visited Jew Town (that is its actual name) which was about half an hour walk away from where we were staying. The walk there took through the spice trade centre of Kochi. The streets were lined with businesses opperating out of delapidated old warehouses and big bags of colouful spices were piled outside. Jew Town itself is home to the oldest sinagogue in India. It's floor was covered with chinese tiles, no two had the same design and it had 300 year old oil lamps hanging from its ceiling. The rest of the buildings around the area were equally old and beautiful but most of them now house antique or silk shops for the tourists. Although we loved Kochi and loved staying with an Indian family we were ready to leave after four days and after playing Happy Birthday on the guitar for one of the girls (it was her birthday) we waved goodbye to our family and jumped in a tuk tuk to the station.

---