Munnar and the leech

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After four nights in Fort Cochin we were 90% recovered and eager to move on. We really liked Cochin, it has a nice relaxed atmosphere and we stayed with a lovely family who helped us out when we were ill. Although, Dima did tell me that he had seen a rat one night in the room next to ours. I am so glad he waited until we had left to tell me! Next stop was Munnar, which is a small town at 1524 meters above sea level. We were looking forward to a change of scenery and climate, after four weeks of heat. We had two choices, one was a private taxi to take us all the way there with one nights accommodation included for 2,500 rupees (£40) each, or a public bus which takes over 5 hours and costs 78 rupees (£1.15). We decided to risk the bus, which was brave considering how ill we had both been over the past few days. It turned out to be worth the risk and the journey itself was worth every penny. The views on the way were amazing, especially as we started to climb towards Munnar and were surrounded by tea plantations and mountains. It was fine as long as you didn’t look down and tried to ignore the fact that our bus driver thought he was Jenson Button!

We arrived in Munnar just after 3pm and quickly found some accommodation. It is our most expensive place yet at 430 rupees (£6) a night but it has a hot shower so we don’t mind paying more. It has been a month since I have had a hot shower so the first thing I did was jump in. I spent quite a while enjoying the hot water, despite the warning sign on the wall which read “long time hot shower will cause suffocation.” I decided it was worth the risk!

Munnar town itself is a bit of a dive, it is scruffy and polluted and looks so out of place among the beautiful surroundings. Today we hired a rickshaw driver to take us around all the sights. Again, it was worth every penny. The views are breathtaking and the tea plantations are fascinating to look at. They give everything an artificial look, kind of like Tellytubby land! Along the way we were lucky enough to see 3 wild elephants grazing on the hillside. It was quite cloudy today so the views weren’t as good as they could have been. I quite liked driving through the clouds though, it was more atmospheric. At one point we were driving along when we heard a loud bang, the rickshaw had a flat tyre so we pulled over and helped the driver to change it. Trust us to get a dodgy vehicle!

We stopped at one of the lakes for a quick walk and I noticed that my leg was bleeding, I had no idea why, and hadn’t felt a thing. The blood was trickling down my leg and didn’t show any signs of stopping. We headed back to the rickshaw and the driver suggested that it may be a leech. Disgusted at the idea, I decided that I hadn’t seen a leech so it much have been something else…or so I thought! We got back to our room and I started to get changed when I noticed a horrid black leech on the floor, it must have bitten me and then been hiding out in my shoe! I admit I did start to freak out a bit and made Dima trap it in a plastic bottle! I do feel like the bad wildlife in India is seeking me out deliberately! Eventually I got over the fact that the leech had been attached to my leg trying to suck the life out of me, and started to look forward to the massage we had booked for ourselves that night.

We loved Munnar, and it was weird to actually feel slightly cold in India. When I say cold, it was never less than 18 degrees (the same as a lovely summers day in the UK). The locals and the Indian tourists thought it was freezing though and were all wearing woolly hats, balaclavas and ear muffs! We both found this highly amusing!

Dima is too busy swimming and watching football to write anything but I will force him to have some input in the next blog.....

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Photos

Tea pickers
I can't help myself when people carry things on their heads!