Tea Plantations

Trip Start May 11, 2005
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Trip End Ongoing


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Flag of India  , Kerala,
Saturday, February 28, 2009

    Munnar is famous for it's tea plantations.  The weather was nice and cool due to the elevation.  It was so nice not to be hot for once!  I actually used a blanket at night!  The main activity in Munnar is hiking around the tea plantations.  This is very easy to do since the countryside is covered with them.   Everywhere I turned I could see tea bushes.  Surprisingly the tea was not that good but the hikes and views were epic.  I actually reminded me of the tea plantations I hiked in Malaysia. Anyone that can tell me what entry number that was gets a cookie!
     
       I took the bus to Munnar with Roi and Liora (Israeli couple I met in the Ashram)  Everyone knows everyone in Israel and it turned out that Roi knew an Israeli guy I traveled with in Asia (Nir)   What a small fucking world!   The Israeli connection was in full force in Munnar and we ended up befriending a couple more Israeli backpackers and once again formed an Israeli posse.  Only this time there was one English girl dating one of the guys so everyone spoke in English....Thank God!  Not that I mind normally but in the past (Peru) it proved to be to much! 
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     Our first day we wondered around the hill side and found a random Hindu Temple that some local village women were only to happy to show us around.  Later we bush whacked our way up a hill only to discover that we were on private property where the tea is actually packaged.  The security guards could not have been nicer and were baffled as to how we snuck past them..... a
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 From there we hitched a ride in the back of a dump truck to town.....I  bent their tail lights getting in!  Sorry!
     
    The next day we hired a tuk-tuk to take us to the tallest point of Munnar.... this was an all day excursion that was actually pretty lame.   We saw more tea fields and other really random lame sites.  Roi convinced the driver to teach him to drive the tuk-tuk (which I guess is very similar to Vespa).  After learning, the next day Roi convinced yet another tuk-tuk driver that he drove one in Israel.  He then produced his Israeli license which is in all Hebrew but looks official.  Since no one could read it they let him go for a test drive in the tuk-tuk.  He passed the test and was allowed to drive us all home with the driver as a passenger.   
       
    With one last day to kill we all went for yet another hike.  Roi and Lioara love to pack around fruit (Watermelon or Pineapple) so between all the tea huts and fruit stops it was very leisurely way to check out the lush country side of Munnar.
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