India, Sri Lanka and The Maldives - Days 29 to 32 - Munnar

Outside the really nice Rose Gardens Homestay in Munnar. A proper homestay with communal meals and interactive family, keen to show us around their extensive garden laden with spice plants, banana trees and all

Despite the wedding reception party going on downstairs that meant we’d had to have dinner in the bar (what a hardship) we did get some sleep, till 03.15! Definitely odd walking through people who hadn’t gone to bed yet as we were getting up to go to the airport. The same boss man who met us from the station was taking us to the airport, fruits, juice, cake and sweets for our journey. Ranjeet had checked us in the day before, booking the luggage all the way through, and pre booking extra luggage, from the 13kg standard, which actually we didn’t need, though we did both have quite a lot in our hand luggage. I’d put in as many ‘just in case’ clothes as I could fit! The first flight was on time, 06.00-08.30. Call me neurotic but we followed the signs to baggage reclaim, just in case, we’ve had this happen before when we’ve found our luggage on a conveyor belt when we’ve not been expecting it, but not this time. Just 4 hours to wait then. Better get something to eat as we have a 3.5 hour journey at the other end, so don’t want to be messing about then. Sadly every outlet was doing breakfast, even at 11.00, except KFC! We’ll have chicken then!

Some of the beautiful flowers in their garden

Second flight slightly delayed, but not by much, to the conveyor, there are the bags hurrah. Outside to find Shareef, there he is, to the car. As we walked out of the door, the heat hit us, like a brick wall. Thank goodness for A.C. One little stop en route, free dinner for Shareef I guess, but the icecream went down very well. He tried to stop a couple of times, but we were so tired we just wanted to get to Munnar. The journey though was interesting, it’s like we are in a different country, the countryside is greener, there is less litter, less traffic, less dogs…. Less traffic may not be a good thing, despite the apparent madness in the north we didn’t actually see any accidents, on this journey however, we had a slight holdup as we passed the motorbike on its side, the group of policemen and the corpse under a blanket!

In Munnar we are in the mountains, its cooler (28C in the day), clearer air and fantastic scenery everyway we look

Then we started going up, to about 1500m. On arrival just before 18.00 the temperature, and the welcome from our homestay were both lovely. Our room is basic but clean with a lovely little veranda and the gardens are a delight. This really is a homestay. Three rooms, us, an older than us Irish couple with their grown up son, who obviously has issues, and a German couple. We sat together round the table and ate the food that was put in front of us. Rice, chapati, okra, banana flower, sambar (a thin vegetable gravy) coconut yogurt and a lovely beef dish. All very nice. The food in the north had all been fine, but certainly nothing to write home about, which was a little surprising, and disappointing, but this was good. We did have to bail early though as neither of us could string two words together.

A typical southern India dish in our Homestay

Day 30

Breakfast was another communal affair, coconut dumplings with pineapple, bananas and honey from the garden, French toast and a different honey and good coffee.

CSI Christ Church in Munnar. Completed in 1911 after being commissioned by Sir Henry Mansfield Knight following the death of his wife from Cholera in 1894 aged 24. She loved this place so much she wanted to be buried here, which she is. The church built to typical British architecture followed

Shareef arrived at 09.00 and we were off for our ‘day at leisure’ this doesn’t mean there is nothing to do, just that there is no guide, I think. Up to the Mattupetty dam which was interesting enough, past various view points and back to the Tata tea museum, also interesting enough! ‘Days at leisure’ all seem to have some suggestions, and I think slowing Shareef down is actually going to be the hard thing. It turns out he basically does this trip across the south of India, back and forth for nine months, having monsoon season off! His last trip finished in Cochin, where he lives, on the 26th, he picked us up on the 29th. He drops us off in Chennai on the 23rd March and picks up his next people, for the journey back on the 26th. We do end up back in Cochin for a couple of days in a week or so, so he gets to see his wife and three kids then too!

Spotted this bird on a nearby rock. It might be a Common Bulbul

Stop in Munnar for an hour to have a look in the market and at some shops, grab a samosa and some chocolate (cacao is grown around her too) and back to the homestay, to enjoy our veranda until 17.00 when we are out again for an early evening show of something!

Mudirapuzha, the lake created by the Mattupetty dam

Well the show was kalaripayattu, martial arts on a yoga base, and was really very good. We were first there, as start time seemed a little vague. Ranjeet said 6pm Shareef said 5.30. We were there at 5.15, candles were lit about 5.30 and it actually started about 5.45 with 4 young men and one young lady doing some dramatic yoga. This quickly moved on to many short demonstrations of sword play, sword and shield, funny knives, long sticks, short sticks, metal sticks with and without ribbons. They were all taking it very seriously, there was a lot of speed and aggression and sparks from the swords when they met!

The lake was full so they were releasing  water to generate electricity. There are two turbines here that the noticeboard told us 37.5MW and 2Mw. The dam is 85m high x 237m in length and was built in 1953

It then moved on to one of the lads somersaulting over all his mates before getting volunteers from the audience for him to leap over. A good bit of showmanship. This was followed by playing with fire, twirling lit sticks and cages full of charcoal that sent sparks flying into the audience. The climax was a lit hoop, that became two and then three for them to jump through and somersault through. These were obviously all set pieces, but there is no doubting how hard they had all worked.

This, I'm fairly certain, is a Red Whiskered Bulbul. I love his little red cheeks and red bottom

Back to the homestay where the 5 from yesterday have been changed for a French family, two low teenage boys, mum and dad and grandpa. They have only been travelling in the south for all the same reasons I have been unsure about India, but it has been very interesting to talk to them.

And so to a tea museum and how they grind the leaves, ferment them for black tea (not for green tea), dry them and grade them. White tea seems to be the most prized, being they very new shoot of a stem, the others going to make green and black. It's fairly tasteless according to a few people we spoke to, but supposed to contain lots of antioxidants to make us healthy. My porn for the day was to see a David Brown Radicon worm drive gearbox (that grey thing on the left). Ahhh sweet memories from my days in Mechanical Engineering

Day 31

Breakfast at 8.00, coconut pancakes today, for collection at 9.00 for a walk through the tea plantation into the hills. Brian was very excited. The schedule said 8.00 collection, but Shareef said no one would be there. Then we spoke to the French family who were being collected at 8.00 for their walk! I’ll message Ranjeet then. I don’t want to rile Shareef, going behind his back, but earlier rather than later for a walk in this heat makes much more sense!

We do love a walk round a veg market

Compromise at 8.15 collection then! Our man Junis was waiting for us so off we went. It was a very pleasant, albeit slow walk with Junis being a bit taken aback when we told him we’d done our mountain leader training in the past. We didn’t see much wildlife, but didn’t expect to, some good birds and a porcupine quill which was quite interesting, but a lovely outing. There is Tata tea as far as the eye can see in one direction and fabulous views in the other. What’s not to like? About 6km with some healthy ascent, Brian was satisfied, though he did look longingly at southern India’s highest peak in the near distance. Tea harvesting has traditionally been done by hand, by women with more delicate fingers. It is however very hard work so although the workers are looked after, schools, hospitals and housing till they are retired at 58 there is still a man (or woman) power shortage. The theory that you retire and lose your home at 58 is meant to encourage your children to take on work at the plantation so you can keep your home. This doesn’t seem to be working so tea is no longer harvested by hand but by big scissors, though even they are being phased out in favour of an electric version wielded by jobless men imported from the north.

Next day on our walk into the hills, through a tea plantation. This is the flower and seed of a tea tree

Stopped for a coconut water on the way back, very good. First the man attacks it with a machete to make a hole big enough for a straw. Once the water has gone he attacks it again to halve it and presents you with a small scoop cut from the outside to eat the very soft delicate coconut meat. I think what Shareef was then talking about, which seemed completely unlinked to the conversation we’d been having was that we have a 4 hour drive tomorrow with an afternoon boat ride. The following day is a walk in the park looking for elephants and a spice tour of the homestay. We should swap the afternoon activities as we would then only have to pay one entry in to the park. This obviously does make sense, so I’ve messaged Ranjeet. I hope this isn’t going to become a running theme for the whole of our southern journey! Should we be telling Ranjeet we are going on a Jeep safari this afternoon, suggested by Shareef? I was very surprised that Brian bit, but he did so we are chilling for a couple of hours listening to the birds and watching the monkeys in the trees from our veranda. Things could be worse!

Quill from a porcupine. Probably the nearest we'll get to seeing one as they are nocturnal. Spiky little things aren't they!

A quick walk around the garden of the property with Dileep, son of the owner to look at all the flowers they grow, to sell as well as the spices, cacao and coffee. We were joined by the two new arrivals, an English couple who I’m not sad to be leaving behind. Great place to stay, and somehow it’s always nice to find yourself in somewhere listed in the Rough Guide!

Up high to some superb views. So good to get out into the hills again

Not sure why we did the jeep safari, though it wasn’t quite as bad as I expected, and we didn’t die. Our driver looked about 12, but apart from using his phone, and never having his hands at 10 to 2 was actually quite sensible on some at times very interesting tracks! I don’t think we spent long enough savouring his view points though as we got to sunset point an hour and a half before sunset. Hang around and get boxed in by many many jeeps or head back, shower and beer on the veranda? We’d earned our beer after all, bought en route, 4 bottles for less than we had been paying in the hotels for 1.

These views are just amazing

Slightly later dinner as the French family had gone to the kalaripayattu demonstration on our recommendation. She’d asked me if the boys would like it, I think anything involving sticks, knives, swords fire and fighting was going to appeal to teenage boys. Being slightly more prepared than we were when volunteers were asked for both boys and dad and grandpa had all gone into the ring. More than that and that they enjoyed their hike we don’t know as Mr and Mrs loud monopolised our end of the table.

Not sure what he is, but he was posing nicely

Day 32

Pay our bill for three nights dinner at the homestay, no idea what to expect, £24, that’s £8 a night, we were paying that almost for one dish in the north, both in our hotels and the restaurants we were recommended, which by no means were the cheapest but weren’t the most expensive either.

Ladies of the tea plantation and what a hard job it is. Paid by the weight of leaves they cut, this full bag probably weighs 25kg and they need to fill 3 or 4 bags a day to make a living. In her left hand is her hand shears, which are very much like our hedge hand shears at home but with a bag on the side and a scoop of the opposite blade that pushes the cuttings into the bag. They work 5.5 days per week, 8 hours per day - cutting hedges! On the plus side, they get housing and medical costs covered and there are free nurseries and schools for the children. Husbands are also employed on the plantation for maintenance of the grounds and the tea trees. Our guide was the son of plantation workers and he didn't go into the business, its too hard and, at 50 they are retired off. If family members are still working on the plantation they can stay in the company house with them, if not, they are out

A long in time, though not in distance, because it’s very windy and we are stopping at every view point along the way, mostly scenic, but churches too and at a statue of Ganapathi the God removes obstacles and negative energies. We could do with some of that! Then we will be in Periyar, home to a few tigers and elephants, time to cross the viewing fingers again!

It looks idyllic, but its not. They carry the bags down to the site on the access road you can see. There they are weighed and marked up with the cutters name for payment

We pose for a picture

There you can see the hand shears with scoop and collection bag a little more clearly. Nice umbrella hat

They are also experimenting with battery powered clippers to see if they get similar quality leaves. Production rate would increase considerably if adopted. Its apparently getting harder to find cutters these days, youngsters are not keen on following mum and dad into the business. They are starting to bring people down from the north to fill vacant posts

More fabulous views on our walk

There's a battery operated tea clipper. Its just a modified battery hedge trimmer like we use at home

Allow me to educate you like I've been educated. See the pointed, rolled leaf shoot sticking upwards? That's white tea, the prized leaf. The next two leaves down are used for green tea (unfermented) or black (fermented for 60 to 90 minutes)

Here comes the tractor and trailer to collect full bags of tea

Back down and we stopped for a fresh coconut drink. That's a pretty large knife there that he swings about to chop the top off. He then uses the point to make a hole and inserts a straw to drink through. Delicious! 

After you've drunk the coconut milk you hand it back and he splits it open so you can scoop out the coconut with a sliver of the shell. All for 50 rupees (50p)

Evening Kalaripayattu performance and we have ring side seats. At this point we had no idea what we were coming to see. As it got nearer the start time it filled up quite a bit, but far from full

It was a martial arts type evening, with lots of use of the shields and swords. It was highly choreographed but the swords were real as we saw sparks flying and they did launch at each other with gusto. Had they mistimed it would have been nasty!

Lots of different events

Later on some jumping events with members of the audience invited to crouch down to make it harder

Then they got some flaming torches out (we didn't need this extra heat!)

No idea what this was, it looked like a lump of molten iron that he swung round with gay abandon spreading sparks everywhere

And finally they were jumping through flaming hoops. You can just see the guy jumping through the last hoop after jumping through the first, hopping in the one on the floor and through the last. All very entertaining and not at all what we were expecting (we didn't know what we were expecting but it wasn't that!)

Drive out the next day and we said goodbye to our lovely Homestay family. They were all lovely people, mum, dad, son, his wife and their three year old who was a delight

Viewpoints on the way to Periyar. This is Ganapathi the God

Several scenic viewpoints on the way, of which this is one

And past several quite impressive churches. Yes, churches. Apparently Kerala's population is 30% Christian so there are many, many churches of all denominations here. The rest of the population comprises 30% Muslim and 40% Hindu. The cow is not sacred here, unlike the rest of India, they eat beef and, apparently even some Hindu's eat beef. That's it for now, see you in Periyar (aka Kumily or Thekkady - it's all the same place!)