We ate breakfast in the Tall Trees restaurants, much impressed by the view through the roof, then packed our bags and descended from the plantation to Munna where we visited a tea museum and saw the mechanics of tea processing. There is only one tea plant whose leaf buds are picked and turned into white tea, (the tip before the leaf has started to open in growth), green tea and black tea (which are both processed mechanically (CTC – cutting, tearing and curling), to reduce the leaf size), winnowing to remove the stalks. Then black tea goes through an oxidation process and is winnowed into about 8 sizes – bigger means more aroma, small means more colour. Blending then produces types for different markets, customers or packaging such as teabags.
Then we set on our way here – a 100 km drive scheduled to take 3 hours but Sunil, our driver, explained that one section hadn’t been upgraded and due to a dispute was in very bad condition. After lunch in a Keralan style local restaurant (fish stew or fish curry and pink coloured drink made from infusing a local spice leaf) Sunil embarked on a detour which meant we only had 5 km of pot holes to negotiate, so that we arrived and went straight to Periyar lake (a reservoir) for a boat-trip – deer, bison and many birds – white heron, snake bird and cormorant nests built on some of the tree stumps which stuck out of the lake – a close view of cormorant fledglings waiting for more lunch – but no elephants.
We booked into our hotel and booked ayuvedic full-body and head and feet massages for both of us. Unlike my previous relaxing muscle massage, this was a vigorous stroking after application of hot oil (and while completely starkers) of (almost) every part – arrived at the blood-vein layout of the human form. Finally we were cooked, separately, in a steam bath apparently powered from a Prestige pressure cooker.
Still oily, we ate an evening meal, as it was nearly 9pm (the massage took about an hour and a half).
Under instructions to keep the oil on until morning, we soon opted for bed, when a gecko climbed up the wall to have a peek at the world.
I slept well, but was awake before 5am to hear the electronic peal of bells and striking of the hour followed by some uplifting (I presume) words. All this was followed by the call of the local muezzin – also amplified – half an hour later. For a state which is about 20% Christian the local churches are surprisingly prominent with their gaudy vernacular architecture, the many schools attended by neatly turned-out, uniformed children, (to judge by one extensive washing line, the school also launders the uniforms). The churches are also diverse – Anglican, RC, Orthodox, Syrian Christians, Seventh Day Adventists and no doubt many others.
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