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Published: February 27th 2006
The bus ride from Cochin to Munnar was 120 kilometers which is 75 miles. It took us four and a half hours. That is just about 15 miles per hour. Most of the ride was uphill and all of the ride was mountainous turns. We didn't hit one straight-away that last more than 30 seconds; for the length of the ride, the bus turned, sometimes a little, sometimes a u-turn. So for the duration of the ride, we're holding and bracing ourselves to keep our asses seated. This was one of our shortest commutes and certainly the worst (at least for me).
But, you all should be pleased, we didn't get car(bus)sick. While at least two others on the bus did - and they were Indian. Stomachs of steel.
Which leads me to a shout-out to all the Indian bus drivers out there, who have gotten us to our destination: accident, break-down and vomit free. And they do this all without the benefit of power-steering (which I know realize justifies the hourly comfort station breaks).
We arrived in Munnar and walked to a newish hotel which was recommended to earlier. Munnar is a really small town with not
Tea Pickers
As far as we saw, men are not involved with this jobmuch to do (in the town); although we found (in our travel guide) a couple of excellent authentic restaurants where we ate every meal for the three days. At this point, after a month and half, we have mastered eating with our hand (right only, of course). It's taken alot of practice to keep the left out; all the while breaking pieces of parotta and dosa with one hand and mushing the rice and vegetables into a four-finger scoop. And using the right thumb to push the food from the fingers into the mouth. If my written explanation is not clear, for those interested, we will provide demonstrations when we return. And seeing that we're continuing to the land of chopsticks, my bet is that Jill forgets how to use cutlery - completely.
Back to Munnar, good food and good treks. Our first full day, we walked 12 kilometers through the tea plantations (and the housing and school complexes) past a waterfall (not much water) and into another small town. Next day, we started talking to a nice German lady - Anna - who was touring Kerala with a driver. She was kind enough to take us in her
School Children
These are probably all children of the tea workers as the school was on the plantation ride for sightseeing - we saw the Mannupatty Dam and Lake, drove past the "Indo-Swiss Project" (some kind of cow thing) and to yet another dam. We also finished the day with another walk through different plantations.
Overall, Munnar is lush and has some beautiful landscapes; it's a great place to spend a couple of days in the cool climate and take long walks in the mountains - this is the most activity we have done since we've arrived in India. It would also be nice to rent some bicycles and do some riding if not for two drawbacks - (a) the bikes are single gear so once you hit an uphill, it's over, and (b) the bus-drivers, as great as they've been, once they hit the city limits, they are out-of-control honking speeding lunatics and the last place I'd want to be is on a single-gear bike on a road hardly wide enought for two cars.
Off to the next place.
More:
-Yesterday's local newspaper noted that the tea plantation workers are one of the most poorly paid worker groups in the state.
-One thing that is visible throughout Kerala, is the old Soviet Sickle/Hammer. As
far as I can tell, the Communist Party of India (CPI) is one of the two main political parties in Kerala. The opposing parties (CPI and the Democratic party) change power every election (4 years) which seems to suggest that the voters are a bit fickle. So I've tried to discuss with locals how things change when CPI is in power but no one seems to care about politics which leads me to believe that nothing much changes. This is a boring topic, so I'll stop right now.
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