Munnar trips

| Previous | First post | Next |

The reason for going to Munnar is not Munnar Town itself; it is to see the surrounding areas. We went on two short trips out, to see the tea museum and Pothamedu viewpoint, and one long trip up to Top Station which is the highest point around Munnar.

The photos look quite good, but just like any other Munnar photo we have seen, they cannot capture the beauty of Munnar. Some people claim that the scenery is similar to Scotland; sorry, but they are talking from between their seat pads. The Scottish highlands are pretty and dramatic, but don't reach Munnar levels.

Tea museum
Whereas Sarah likes her museums Mort usually prefers to sit somewhere relaxing with a cigarette and a view. However, since Munnar is tea territory it seemed relevant to visit the newly built tea museum. The Brits established themselves in Munnar in colonial times and used the area as a summer retreat because of the pleasant temperatures. In the 1850s, or thereabouts, they planted the first tea bush in Munnar. The climate is ideal for growing tea and 100,000 workers are employed in the tea industry in the area. It takes seven years from the tea bush is planted before its leaves can be picked. The bush will then provide tea leaves for another 100 years. The photo below shows a tea plantation and workers' accommodation near the tea museum.

Interestingly, as a result of the climate, the vegetables grown in Munnar are very much the same types of vegetables as are grown in the UK; for instance, onions, carrots, potatoes, beans and garlic.

The tea museum is a couple of kilometres from New Munnar. It is walking distance, and the walk is well worth it. Not only does it take you through a part of Munnar where tourists rarely go, but the quiet rural walk will take you past some of the locals' houses.
The tea museum itself is a working museum in the sense that you follow all the production stages from the cleaning of the leaves till the actual drinkable tea comes out at the other end. Through all the stages a guide explains the process that is being watched and it is possible to touch and smell the tea. There are six end products: from a very fine and strong tea which is the cheapest one and is drunk by Indians with milk and used in tea bags, to the loose leaf tea which is, primarily, exported to Europe. It is possible to mix one tea grade with another tea grade but only its closest neighbour; for instance, the fine tea grade can be mixed with the second finest but not the third finest.

Apart from being able to follow the entire tea making process there are also a more traditional part of the museum which displays the different machinery that was used in the tea production before 1920, and there are some interesting photos of the tea workers from back then; including some ridiculous looking Brits who also happened to go on shoots killing tigers, elephants and anything else on four legs.

On the topic of tea: before we left the UK we promised to get Sarah's uncle, Arthur, some tea fresh from the source. And so we did. However, amazingly it turned out to be impossible to get a postcard from Munnar. We searched though every conceivable stall in New Munnar's market square without success. Also, we didn't find a conveniently located post office until we got to Trivandrum. But the tea has now been posted, as of the 23rd of November, and doesn't the packaging simply look amazing? It will take anywhere between 3 days and 14 days for the parcel to reach the UK.
Pothamedu viewpoint
After having visited the tea museum, and buying a much needed second umbrella, we decided to get a rickshaw to Pothamedu viewpoint. It is a short ride south of Old Munnar but provides a pleasing view over tea plantations and hills, especially if it isn't cloudy.
The rickshaw ride was quite cheap (Rs. 75), and it wasn't a problem for the driver to wait whilst we went to see a number of different spices (the tree with the white label is a coffee tree) growing in a leach infested off shoot to the main road. Nothing attached itself to us though, and even if a leach would have dared we had checked up on how to remove a leach from human skin: flick its back end from side to side and it should let go.
Top Station
The rickshaw driver made a suggestion when we arrived back at the hotel: he would take us on a guided tour to Top Station the next day for Rs. 400. It is something like 20 kilometres up a hill and, hopefully, 20 kilometres back down. We had already planned to go to Eravikulam National Park to see some of the last 2000 nilgri tarh goats left on earth. However, we did have some reservations about this trip; it is renowned to be a place that is full of Indian tourists and, surprisingly, Indian tourists in Kerala are Kerala's equivalent of a pariah. They are often badly behaved, loud, drunk and demanding; especially the males. Strangely, they also tend to look really annoying. Therefore, the alternative of going to Top Station was appealing. The only problem with the rickshaw driver's offer was that he wouldn't be available until 9 am. We would prefer to get off early since an early arrival at Top Station decreases the likeliness of it being covered in clouds. The purpose of going to Top Station is to enjoy the views over Kerala and Tamil Nadu; in clear weather you can see hundreds of miles of impressive landscapes; in cloudy weather you can 10 foot of smokiness.

We decided think about the proposition and agreed with the rickshaw driver that we would give him a call in the morning, at 9 am, if we were interested.

A few hours later we flagged down another rickshaw to go for dinner in New Munnar. The rickshaw driver was an oldish very talkative Christian who, a few seconds into the ride, declared that he had once been Alan Shearer's driver for a week when the Toon God visited Munnar with his wife in 2002 or so. Being from Geordie land ourselves meant that we could contribute with a few anecdotes. It turned out that Alan Shearer had promised to send the driver some photos of his stay. Some rickshaw drivers keep a logbook with recommendations from passengers, including photos that customers have sent, and if you have had a particularly interesting time with the driver you are almost expected to send a photo or two when you get back. It seems to be important for the drivers to get these as it is part of their promotional package. Now, we never liked the [insert a derogatory term of your choice here] Shearer so it didn't come as a surprise when the driver told us that the [repeat term] never sent the photos. And he wasn't impressed when we told him that the [repeat term] was making Rs. 10,000,000 a week at that point in his career. Rs. 1,000 is a good weekly wage in this part of the world. But then again it is not exactly surprising that the [repeat term] never sent the photos; he may have been a very good football player for most of his career, apart from the last two seasons where he was slow and overweight, but he probably hasn't been of much benefit for anyone but himself. Of course, the photos could have been lost somewhere along the line.

The rickshaw driver went on to show his Government papers and we had a read in his book. It looked very impressive. He then went on to offer his services. It seems like the rickshaw drivers make their money by taking people out on day long rides to places of interest around Munnar. His offer was to take us to Top Station for Rs. 500. This was Rs. 100 more expensive than the other driver had suggested, but this one knew that we would have to leave early, around 7.30 am, and he definitely had the right credentials. We talked it over for a few minutes and accepted the offer.

The next day he arrived at 7.30 sharp, and we were very awake after another very cold shower at Pookaka, but he wasn't alone in the rickshaw. It turned out that his rickshaw had broken down the night before, it did sound like it was struggling when we were in it, and instead his cousin (!) would do the driving. His name is Palani, and his main occupation is taking trekkers up endless, extremely tall mountains (why do they do it?), but to support his family, it is always expensive to have only daughters, he also does rickshawing.

Even though Palani is relatively inexperienced as a rickshaw driver his experience as a guide turned out to be invaluable. We agreed that the best option if we wanted to increase the likeliness of getting a memorable view from Top Station would be to head straight for the top and then look at other interesting places on the way back down. However, we did stop a few times on the way up. Firstly to get a few photos, and secondly to sniff for elephants.
As we were driving up we came across a lot of elephant dung. Gradually it got fresher. Then Palani could smell the elephants; then Mort could smell them. Sarah never smelt a thing. So Mort is either delusional or has a guide's sense of smell, or Sarah's senses are a tad underdeveloped. Mort will claim superiority: at home, whenever there is a strange smell in the house, he normally discovers it first, and will inevitably sniff his way to its source.

We never saw any free elephants. The only elephant sighting was a couple of captive elephants who, disgustingly, live their lives ferrying lazy tourists around.
The scenery on the way to Top Station varies between lakes, small forests and tea plantations. The only constant is the many pot holes. And we thought that the roads of Northumberland are bad.
As we got further towards the top the clouds became increasingly threatening. And the rain started. Then it stopped. When we reached Top Station it was the clearest day that Top Station has ever seen. Maybe not. This is the view:
Apparently, had we arrived an hour earlier we would have experienced a clear view. On a positive note, but with a negative spin, we did see the world famous Neelakurunji plant which only flowers once every 12 years. We were thoroughly unimpressed; it could have been any old flower.

We set off down the hill and stopped off in a few places to enjoy the scenery, have a cup of coffee and sniff for elephants. A general feature of Kerala are the many houses of prayer. All kinds of religions live peacefully together in this state. The Idukki province, where Munnar is situated, has a large proportion of Christians and there are many neat churches, many of them in places where there isn't much else. The photo below shows a church in a little village where not many people seemed to reside. It looks very posh, but religion is an important part of life here.
The highlight of our trip so far came on the way down from Top Station, and this one will be hard to beat. Palani made a suggestion when we had a short break: did we want to meat the tribals of Kerala? The people who live in Munnar are not the Malayalam who dominate most of Kerala, but tend to be Tamils due to the town's close proximity with Tamil Nadu. The tribals are of completely different ethnicity and live in seclusion in the mountain forests away from the local population. They rarely go to Munnar Town or any other place where there are non-tribals.

We accepted the offer even though we had to pay extra for this experience. To get to the tribal settlement we left the main road and drove for a few kilometres on flooded and stony side roads. We then had to walk a few kilometres uphill through humid forest and narrow tracks. However, the worst part was when we had to cross a tribal bridge, i.e. two narrow, two metre long tree trunks that had been placed across a fast flowing stream with a big, sharp rock underneath. For some reason, Mort found this challenging (something to do with poor sense of balance which was worsened from carrying the bags). He didn't fall in (could have been deadly) but talk about shaky legs. Luckily he was carrying the camera, so there is no proof of the wobbling experience.

Finally, we reached the house where the woman with whom Palani has contact lives. The family structure of the tribals is very different to family patterns in the rest of India, the UK etc. It seems like husband and wife don't live together though the husband may occasionally visit the wife. The women have a lot of children (up to 12 each), but the child is removed from the mother when it is one year old; it then goes to stay with other children in a dormitory. Finally, the different tribal villages don't mix. A tribal person will always get married to a partner from their own village. The partner will be selected at the age of 12 and the marriage will take place at the age of 18.

The tribal woman was extremely friendly and took a particular liking to Sarah; they seemed to form a certain bond by the fact that they both has two nose studs; a traditional tribal characteristic. The tribal woman didn't show any of the shyness that Palani had warned us about. However, the other women living close by were very shy and only approached us after being encouraged by the tribal woman. When we left we walked by a group of tribal boys washing themselves in the river and they sprinted off into the distance as soon as they saw us.

We spent some time in the woman's hut sharing an unknown fruit that was freshly picked and cut with a machete. Thereafter we were shown around and saw how they grow their vegetables; they are strictly vegetarian. The photo below shows the growing fields and the woman's hut to the right. The stuff that can be seen hanging are combined scarecrow and warning systems; the area if often visited by elephants and water buffaloes.
One of the specialities of the male tribals is honey nicking; the tree in the photo below carries wild honey and the tribals are the only people possessing the ability to remove it by crawling up the tree trunk.
The tribal experience will be a lasting memory. Also, it was special experience alone because not that many people get to visit the tribals. Only two of the 600 rickshaw drivers in Munnar have access to the tribals. When we came back to the main road a few rickshaws were being rejected by the tribals controlling the entrance. We found this short paper on the Internet which is quite an interesting read for anyone interested in South Indian tribals.

| Back to top | Previous | First post | Next |

This entry was posted by pundabee, on Sunday, November 26, 2006. You can leave your response.