To Thekkady

January 4th Munnar to Thekkady (forest) / Kumily (town) or Periyar (river and lake)

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.

Tea plantation at Munnar

Jan 3rd
We packed our bags and embarked on a scheduled 3-hour journey, which immediately got an hour added trying to get through the traffic jams in Cochin. Still wondered why it was going to take 3 hours to do 100km, but as the forest and hills approached, the road started to wind and the pace slowed as the spice plantations emerged.



We stopped after 2 hours for tea and a quick tour of the different plants in a small nursery – pepper, cardamom, vanilla, coffee and the amazing jackfruit.

But the pace slowed as the hills were only foot-hills – now it was in minutes per km. As we got higher the tea plantations started the road became more winding, narrower, potholed, and vertiginous; stomachs became queasy. Eventually at around 5,000 feet we arrived at the hotel too late for lunch, but a complimentary fruit bowl and a glass of beer sufficed (we had bought the beer en-route at a state liquor shop of forbidding aspect – metal barrier ensured a single file to the first grille where the order was placed and paid for, collected at a second grille before exiting).

We then toured the tea plantation on foot where the guide explained that the bushes, which by plucking and pruning would normally grow to 80 foot trees, were at waist height, closely packed, but with room to reach over each bush to pick the leaves (every 12 days).
The bushes are pruned every 3 years and live for 100 years. The complicated ownership of the plantation, and its history were explained by the guide who said that most of the product went to Tetley’s –thus soothing my annoyance at come to a tea plantation hotel and finding Tetley tea bags in our room. We also had a long discussion about the telegraph poles, made of old (1901) pieces of narrow gauge railway track (labeled BNR, which we later decoded as Bengal Nagpur Railway). Several red-bearded Bulbuls were spotted before the evening drew in and we returned to our room snapping the setting sun (see photos).



As we prepared for dinner, the phone rang and an invitation to a local dance demonstration issued – this turned out to be 3 young lads doing fire dancing to Bollywood hits – very impressive in close-up it was and left the mystery intensified as we felt the heat of fire-breathing a couple of yards away, but almost unable to feel the heat of a handful of flames as they were offered to us.

I looked forward to a quiet night’s sleep in the forest silence but as soon as I turned off my light something crawled down my arm – only after two attempts did I espy a hopping insect and give it a terminal sleep.