January 13

One of my questions was answered!!!!!

We awoke, readied, and finished packing. At 845 our manager tapped on our door, “Coffee?” Well, yeah (but we know it's tea). He tapped again in 5 minutes our ride was here – early!! We came out and ate our savory doughnut and drank our tea quickly. Then we went to the car, but the manager caught before we got in and handed us the newspaper. In the car and on our way to Munnar. Jeff was reading the paper… here's where one question was answered! There was an article, 'Pongal celebrated at Keelakuilkudi'. This is the town where the Samanar Hills are that we went to yesterday! So the celebration did have to do with Pongal! The article, in summary, was about having the celebration there to invite more tourism, and it said there were foreign tourists there – that line included us!! So, we are kind of famous, due to being inadvertently mentioned in an Indian newspaper!  🙂

Anyway, our taxi ride is three and a half hours long! We left Madurai behind, and went through other town/cities. Then past a few rice paddies, and into more farming/agriculture areas. Some of the road was freeway type, and then it went down to dirt road, barely one lane as the freeway is still being constructed. We then started to climb up into some new hills, as we got closer to Munnar. Munnar is a called a hill station (name comes from British Colonial ruling time). The road turns into switchbacks as we gain elevation. In the road, we saw goats, cows, dogs, and our first sightings of some monkeys, (not baboons!) The monkeys are fast, I could not get picture of them! Also we see waterfalls, some even run down the road. But we also now start to see tea plantations, this area is known for them! They are mounded row after row, marching around and up the hills. We also see tall plants in rows, which we think are cardamom plants (our driver did not know what they were). Finally, we arrived in Munnar. It is a smaller town – population is around 40,000, from what we can pull up on Google. Our driver delivers us to our place, JJ Cottage. We will be here for five nights. Jeff paid our driver. We got checked-in and went up to our room. It is very nice, clean, and kept up much better than our last place. From our windows, we can see out to some distant hills. I like it – has a good vibe! We unloaded our stuff – actually have a cabinet to put them in.

Now we set out to explore! The small road we are on is basically all small hotels. We head just down to the corner for lunch first. There were many places to choose from. We chose Kurinji Resto-cafe. It was busy. We both had chicken biriyani (no mutton biriyani- which we want to try and have yet to have). It was good and very filling. It came with sides of a yogurt with red onions, and the lime chutney. We each had a juice: lime and pineapple. After finished we went to the till to pay, and bought a piece of carrot cake and a honey walnut tart. (This will be our supper.) We went back to our place to drop off our “supper”. We opted to do a small siesta.

Regrouped and we went back out. We hiked up the road and into a tea plantation. Jeff had picked me an orange daisy-type flower. I put it in my hat. So, I picked one tea leaf, and we tried it, eww,  b i t t e r !  There has to be some processing or something to make it into good tea, because, wow. Anyway, now the road turned into dirt as it meandered through the tea shrubbery. It was a pleasant jaunt. The weather is so much cooler and tolerable here! We could stay here longer! We found a very local small temple, and hiked the steps to it. It is in the middle of this tea plantation – very picturesque! We hiked back out of the plantation. A couple of girls said “Hi” to us, then one asked for a pen. Jeff looked in the bag – because, that is something we would give. Unfortunately, we did not have one! So we had to say no.  🙁 

We trekked on, getting steps, especially after the lunch we had. Jeff had checked and found a “bottle” shop. We went there. They had wine, but not set up to take credit cards. So we hiked to a ATM, got the cash, and hiked back up to get some wine (more steps). Their selection was small and only of Indian wines. We got a Shiraz Rose and a Merlot. (We'll see). There have been signs at all these “bottle” shops that read – 'Alcohol consumption is injurious to health'. Reminds me of gambling ads back home, and at the end the disclaimer, “If you have a gambling problem…”

Anyway, we hiked on down, back into the heart of town. We stopped at the Instagram spot and did a photo op. There is an elephant sculpture here that is filled with plastic bottles in front of the 'I (heart) Munnar' sign. The whole little “park” is called Upcycled Garden – a little recycling garden going on. It is a small step to their huge litter problem, and kind of refreshing to see. Then we head back to our place.

I blogged, Jeff read and then edited. We had our carrot cake, light and good (the honey walnut tart, is heavy, more like a mince pie; so we'll save it for breakfast tomorrow). We had the Shiraz Rose – if you thought of a wine cooler… it was tolerable. Anyway, tata for now.