Munnar Inn

Today, we're in Munnar, high in the mountains, surrounded by miles and miles of green patchwork quilt tea plantations.
We arrived here yesterday afternoon after a 5 hour public bus in the rain (as usual!). We did all our sight seeing today however, and in the morning jumped on an all day tour and managed to remain relatively dry.
We stopped off at some mountain viewpoints ...

From an email sent on Tuesday the 15th

"p.s my Brothers, and I, are getting lectured in Malayalam...about something needs to be replaced tomorrow-regardless of costs. Not sure if it's a glass, a tyre, or a key...oops a books now being slammed I feel like a six year old that may cry, or a note taker in court as I tap away on the computer oblivious to what the problem may be............"

It turns out Tony had a very valid ...

... and the overall treatment was excellent. I want to go back again whenever I am in Cochin and I get a chance to escape from the hotel room in a concrete jungle to a place where I can mix with Nature. For more details visit the website: www.wildelephant.net

Album Link http://picasaweb.google.co.in/welresmnr /WildElephantResortMunnar http://picasaweb.google.co.in/welresmnr /WildElephantEcoFriendlyResortMunnar

... and Tamil Nadu border where we enjoyed a misty mountain viewpoint across the rolling hills and ran around like pixies in the tea plants. The drive up was a goodie goodie gum drops experience. We stopped at a small cafe with milk urn seats where we drank masala chai made from the proper spices of pepper, cardamom, ginger, cloves and cinnamon. We were also surprised to find the good old carnival game of shoot a balloon with an air rifle gun was alive and kicking in Munnar ...

... to how did we get here. From Kollam we took ferry/jetty boat to Alleppuzha, which took 8 hours. It was nice and relaxing, just sitting on the boat and enjoying whatever passed by:) We had 2 stops, one for lunch and second just for a tea. We arrived to Alleppuzha 6.30pm we decide to push it little bit further. So we took another 2 hour bus drive to Kottayam, where we wanted to sleep and continue in the morning. But we had ...

... in the Western Ghats. Two issues were prominent in this landscape: wildlife-people conflicts and forest fragmentation. Both were related to one another. One of the main conflicts is between elephants and humans. Elephants migrating between forest areas enter plantations. During this migration they can damage provision buildings and kill or injure people. Humans, in turn, harass elephants, forcing them from one plantation to the next with ...

... I had tears in my eyes. I wonder if she woudl remember me if I showed up next year.... such a beautiful spirit in such a beautiful landscape. After that heartwarming experience, we hopped back in the auto, swayed back and forth as the auto in its little 1st gear style does and climbed back out of the valley. We sorted accomodation for the evening (while the sweet auto driver waited), picked up bags from the adorable, very Christian homestay the night before, and headed off to ...

I had started to worry that I had stopped noticing all the little differences around the world, mainly the scenery. I was anxious that I wasn't appreciating it as much as I should. Now I realise that I was wrong and that I shouldn't worry about being jaded; the little things are still taking my breath away. Munnar was the best few days of the trip so far. There are quite a few hill stations in South India, but we went for one that was hard ...