Rangerwoods Hills Resort Munnar

... in disbelief, knowing what awaits me. It's not cold but freezing. Up here it's also chilly. That combination does not register well with me, so early in the morning as I stand there shivering with teeth clacking together. I go for it and wash my hair, feeling a brain freeze coming on. Completely unhappy and downright in a foul mood I finish clearing my hair and get the horribly pink towel (which smells like ass), and jump into bed, trying to warm up. I spend over an hour and ...

... high until we reach Sethumadai. Not too much but we analysed for our next trip. Then from there I took incharge for taking in the hairpin bends to our guesthouse.. Thanks to Sreeni for his guidance, now I know how to drive in Ghats section. We reached guesthouse @ 8pm and had some delicious dinner and enjoyed the chillness in the lawn till late night with great discussion of life and travel.

Day3

Wake up early and finished our breakfast @7.30 and winded up @8am from ...

... and verdant forests, and the climate gets less punishing to us white folk. Actually, it’s a bit like betswy-y-coed, apart from the troops of monkeys lurking on the side of the road. Who could not love a baby monkey staring at you on the side of the road, all eyes and fluff? Dan and I stick our faces out the windows and try desperately to quell the travel sickness as we wind round and round and round the mountains. A nice little lady ...

We took the local KRSTDC state bus to Munnar, a four and a half hour journey in a 50 year old bus that comes with air-conditioning (no windows), luxury seats (blue, *************e vinyl, discoloured to grimy brown because of the years of use), private seating (get your place if you can), careful driver (will race any other bus to prove he is the fastest), tranquil (exhaust noise that blasts away the Richter scale) and open views (if you look through the jail bars). In fact it ...

... t care if we were rude, but I felt a bit better after. F minus minus for Coimbatore. (Oh, side note on this story, it takes EIGHT hours to get to Munnar from Coimbatore, don't believe them when they say two) Now - let me tell you a little something about these government buses we were on. . . While the ride was much less terrifying than our over-night Harry Potter ride to Goa, it was much more painful. Government buses are nice ...

... such beautiful creatures! ROSE: We also stop at a spice farm along the way where see and smell cardoman, nutmeg, curry leaf, pepper, coco beans, cinnamon trees, tumeric root and basil. We were surprised at the inside of a cocoa sheell: the first layer is sweet with the texture of lychee and the centre is bitter, which contains the raw cocoa beans. We also watched how rubber (consistency of glue) is tapped from trees, left to set ...

... floating, with such a sensuality about them? The women here are different. They are more rotund in shape and definately do not glide. We have a theory for this. It's all that coconut oil and coconut milk here! The cooking is very different as well. The food has a different smell and even the textures are different. They use much more spices in their cooking. Personally, I find for example the briyani to be too ...

... In other words NAWA provides healthcare to the tribal communities who are situated far out in the middel of nowhere. These people doent have acces to a doctor since transportation to the nearest doctor is way to expensive for them to afford. Dr. Raman who works for NAWA is their mobile doctor and we've been with him on some trips. Sometimes he goes to the schools or daycare centers that service the tribals and does ...

... of the pill*r with your h*nds, *nd you c*n he*r *ll different tones *nd sounds! Some sounded like w*ter, others like t*bl*s *nd music*l instruments. App*rently when they used to h*ve festivities there, you could he*r the music for miles *round. Anyhow, *fter ye*rs of Hindu rule, some Muslims inv*ded H*mpi *nd r*ns*cked the city. M*ny of the buildings *nd st*tues were d*m*ged irrep*r*bly, but they still st*nd to this d*y! Despite this p*st conflict, Hindus *nd Muslims seem to get ...

... but not stale with an overtone of animal... skunk or wild pig maybe. If I could bottle it, I would. We hired a rickshaw for 5 pounds and pootled off into the hills for the day. I love long rickshaw rides, as the ground speeds just beneath your feet and the air hits you full on in the face. We stopped numerous times to take photos of people picking tea in the most incredible fields... Acres and acres of tea bushes, up and down the ...