The Land of Tea

  

We took a trip to Munnar, an area of Kerala that is in the mountains and surrounded by tea estates.  We were told to be ready by 7 the next morning and that we would leave the house ‘at 8 maximum’.  We left the house around 9:30, dropped off a car, stopped for breakfast and were on the road maybe by 11, shortly after which we got in a small accident and waited for things to be sorted out and a new car to come til 1.  The drive up to Munnar was beautiful and reminded me quite a bit of Nepal–curvy, mountainous roads with beautiful views all around.  That evening we watched the sunset, or rather the after effects of the sunset from a look out and enjoyed a cup of tea as we took in the pleasantly cool air and the beautiful shades of dusk.  The next morning Peter and I woke up early and took a rikshaw to a different look out and walked about 2 miles back along a road curving through tea estates.  We joined Biju and his family and Siju and Jenny for breakfast and then headed up to a nearby park and after a busride to the top of that mountain, hiked as high as we could and saw some nearly extinct mountain goats and more beautiful views of tea estates.  That afternoon we visited a tea museum and sort of learned how tea is processed.  I say sort of because we could only catch about every 20th word the guide said:)  We then drove to where a dam is, hoping to see some wild elephants we heard about.  The closest we came to that was two elephants on the side of the road, being rented out for rides.  We decided petting the elephant was good enough as traipsing along the side of a mountain road wasn’t exactly the ‘jungle adventure’ we had hoped for:)  We also snuck into a tea estate so we could see the tea up close and then began the long drive home. 

On our way up–the non-forest area is a tea estate in the distance.

Enjoying tea and the view the first night.

That night we loaded up on spices in the market–vanilla beans, cinnamon, and saffron were some of our finds!

This was our view the next morning–well worth waking up before sunrise to see!

Of all the beautiful things we saw while in India, I think this was my favorite–perhaps because it reminded me most of Nepal!

Early risers!

A beautiful walk back.

The endangered goat on the hike and the tea estates in the background.

View from the top of the trail we hiked.

While this elephant was pacing back and forth rather strangely, it was no wild elephant!

Peter wanted to snowboard down this slope of tea.

More tea estates–a special shade tree is planted in the middle of the tea plants.

An expert tea maker–we had lots of good tea in India, but this might have been the best cup:)

The tea estate we snuck into for a closer look at the tea.