From Kumaracom to Cochin to Munnar and back. By Cate, 12/16-18



Breakfast with a view



I am sitting here overlooking the beautiful Munnar tea plantations (7000 ft.) as the sun is rising over the mountains.  We are sitting on the rim of the valley below and the scenery is breathtaking!  Hollie and I just got back from a short trek that involved 310 stairs, down and up, meaning 620 total (yes, we counted).

We were stalked by some wild creature (s) – couldn’t make out what they were, but they were large and brown……and luckily they were more afraid of us than we were of them, though Hollie had her handy dandy stick to fight them off in case they attacked. I didn’t bother to tell her the fight would be futile if it came to that, but She was a little nervous after the tiger fight that occurred just below us the day before.

Yesterday we took a little tour around the outlying areas and I’ve never seen anything so beautiful.  We passed 3 lakes. I have been told the names but it sounds like “Mfjhasoidgylksdh” to me, so I won’t even try to butcher the name by trying. The mountains are covered with tea plantations, Eucalyptus (which our driver this week insisted were pine trees… last week they were oaks…), coral trees, poinsettia “trees”, and flowers too numerous to mention.  Hollie and I went on paddle boats styling our overstuffed life vests once again – they really do cramp your style. We went to a few local markets on the way and saw more junk being bought up than you could imagine.  I promise you, you do not want a gift from here. We did manage to buy a GIANT box of MINI tic tacs and made the shop keepers day.  After we asked for the box, he tried to sell us everything else in boxes figuring we Americans like to GO BIG or GO HOME!

 

After a car accident we witnessed, nothing big just another guy ramming his car into a Tuk Tuk – they detangled and went on their way, we saw a herd of wild elephants up on the hill.  Everyone just stopped their cars in the middle of the winding road and watched (though we could only see ¼ of the elephant) as they meandered through the forest.  We then went to a tea factory, which we really had no interest in because we would REALLY prefer COFFEE…hmmmmm…cappuccino…. feels so good just to say that!.  We both got a tea headache and tried to exit  the throngs of people keeping us in there, but you really have to be aggressive around here to get anywhere, so I pulled that out of my hat.

Once we escaped the tea plantation, with tea for those who are tea lovers (since it is the best tea you can find anywhere apparently), we headed back for a short trek and Ayurveda massage, but that will be its own blog entry. Going backwards, as I am here, because it feels like you need to hear the present before the past because that is just the way it goes in India – (I LOVE no rules….).

Where am I?  Ok, so before Munnar we spent a day and night in Cochin shopping for Christmas outfits for the family and visited a Gold Shop – omg……..Hollie will fill you in on the shopping trip in Cochin, because she is WAY funnier than I am.  Oh, and the man with the Ferrari Tuk, Tuk.....