Ela Ecoland Munnar

... enjoying the place. We are alone here most of the time. We walk the wooded roads along a jungle river here. They grow all sorts of spices here. You can see coffee plants, cardamom, pepper and pineapple. Lots of strange insects, and spiders. On one morning walk I came back with a bloody sock. I noticed it after I showered. I think I may have had an encounter with a leech. It's always ...

... where we saw how tea was made. The assembly line for drying the leaves and converting to the different grades and types of tea (white, green and black) is rather interesting. Unfortunately pictures were not permitted. Then lunch at a hotel restaurant where I had what was a truly tasty and hot dish of Chicken Chettinad, a typical south Indian dish. Dessert was fried apples with vanilla ice cream. All very good.

Next our driver ...

As I am in the mountains, taking a train or a bus is tricky. Turns out the only bus leaves at 6am, which of course I miss. I decide to bite the bullet and just take a taxi for 30 bucks as it's about 5 and a half hours away. We leave, and after hours we enter Munnar area, up in the Ghats, with Kelly green rolling hills covered in tea plants in zigzags. The roads are seriously curved and you can't drive further than 20 feet without a turn. I find myself beginning to feel slightly ...

... br>
There must be a god. As an agnostic, I say this for a few

particular reasons. First, there is no humanly way all of Kerala hasn't

succumbed in traffic fatalities unless their prayers have been answered. The

Keralan's obviously believe this. It is evident after one glance at the

transport. Most auto rickshaws, cars, trucks and buses have a message of faith

decaled to the windshield. 'Lord Jesus', 'God bless' and ...

... the small kitchen at the back with a wood fire stove. Sometimes 3 adults and 2 or 3 children share this space. We are treated like guests of honour and the next day we returned taking some small gifts of pens and stickers for the children. We've ended up staying in Munnar for 7 nights as it's stunningly beautiful and there's plenty to see. The hills are carpeted in neatly plucked & trimmed rows of tea ...

... and ferns dripping off all the trees, we went in deeper where it was very damp. Back on the road, we discovered to our horror that slimy leeches were creeping through our trousers, oozing their way through our socks and desperately attempting to permeate our shoes. It is amazing how much blood they extract in seconds. We pulled off as many as we could, hoping there were none left [discovered one more slimy fat blood-filled horror in the evening]. For reasons not hard to fathom ...

... tea estates the landscape was dominated by (surprise,surprise) TEA planted on every available inch of mountainside. God knows how they managed to pick some of it because some were planted at almost ninety degrees. It was very beautiful, green,misty and cool and you could see why the British chose it as one of their Summer retreats. Our acommodation here was a place called Tall ...

... Periyar Lake, a dammed reservoir created over 100 years ago. The lake destroyed core stream and evergreen tropical forest, but at the same time created the perfect opportunity for the masses to visit remote areas safely--for both the wildlife and people. The boat tours on Periyar Lake packed dozens of people every day. I took two boat tours and on each tour, saw dozens of bison, deer, birds, and elephants. The kids loved it and no one had to worry ...

... d, but I just couldn't f*ce it! I w*s much h*ppier to sweep the floor *fter everybody w*s gone, *nd I left the *shr*m promptly the next d*y. I think Amm* h*s done * lot of good in the world *nd I respect her in m*ny w*ys, but her followers h*ve gotten * bit out of h*nd. She's just * person....* loving *nd good person, yes....but they h*ve tried to m*ke her into something Godly *nd Divine, *nd th*t just m*kes me w*nt to puke.   Well, everything I've described here seems to be tinged ...

... Soph ate exactly the same food? Ah-ha, but did we really eat the same food? I went back, back, back to that fateful trip along the buffet line. Did I see Soph miss out the Mutton Rogon Josh, whereas I dolloped it on school-canteen style? I think we'd cracked it. That staple diet of many a wide-boy in the curry-houses of South East London was the accused. What was usually a safe-bet on an Indian menu had kicked me in the ribs and spun my brain around. By the third day I was getting ...