Munnar

The Western Ghats are well-worth a blog post... Last weekend, Joshua and I caught a Saturday morning bus from Kottayam direct to Munnar. Munnar is a tea plantation town high in the Western Ghat mountains that form the natural border between Kerala and the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu. Recently, Munnar has become a big tourist destination in India, and for good reason! The scenery was absolutely breathtaking. As our lengthy bus trip took us up the gradual climb in elevation almost from sea level to over a mile high, the gradual changes in scenery made for a fascinating ride. Coconut palms, an ever present sight here in the lower parts of Kerala, began to be less and less frequent, replaced by towering mountain trees. There was no loss in Kerala’s characteristic monsoon lushness, though. Monsoon rains fed rushing waterfalls that fell hundreds of feet from mountain slopes, in turn making the Ghats one of the greenest places I have ever seen. It is for good reason that these mountains are the native habitat of many of India’s famous spices, most notably black pepper.

Our trip up the mountains was relatively slow (4.5 hours); blessedly, Indian bus drivers’ characteristic insanity was tempered by the difficulties of driving uphill. The first sign that you are arriving in Munnar is the sight of neighboring mountains lined with tea fields. The sight is frankly amazing. I have been a lot of places in my life and seen a lot of things, but the sight of the tea plantations had a unique exotic beauty that is difficult to explain. There’s something about the way that tea grows (it is best at 30-45 degree angles), clinging to the sides of mountains, that makes for a beautiful harmony of natural features and human agriculture. Most often, agriculture wrecks natural beauty, but with the tea in Munnar, it seemed to work. Added to this is the fact that - from the outset of the late 19^th century development of the tea plantations in the Ghats - the developers made a commitment to leave a considerable portion of the land unfarmed: “One third of the land is for tea, the rest is God’s country,” the Kannan Devan tea factory proclaims.

So, despite the fact that when we first arrived in Munnar, it rained the whole afternoon, and we were disoriented by a busy tourist town packed with touts and cab drivers eager for our business, we managed to find our way out of town, into the quiet of the hills. We hiked to a lookout point over the valley and had a cup of hot spiced tea (Munnar is also a prime location for growing spices).

After we made our way back to town, we enjoyed some downtime in the nice little homestay we found to spend the night, with the joys of Indian TV (oh, the soap operas and music videos…), and hot water! Let me just say… having never lived a considerable amount of time without hot water, I never thought it would be so nice! If I had a list of best showers in my life (which I don’t), that one would be pretty near the top!

The next day, we took a morning bus even higher into the mountains, to the border with Tamil Nadu, the plantation village called Top Station. Up there, over 6000 feet in elevation, the scenery was even more remarkable. My description can’t really do it justice. I took a lot of pictures, which are on my facebook, so you should check them out! The whole experience was made even more golden by the blaring Tamil pop music on our ride up, and the way that kids would wave and gather all their friends to point at us as our bus stopped in villages. It’s like being a celebrity!

Up at Top Station, we took a few hours and soaked up the quiet solitude of the mountains and the sunshine. We trekked down to a lookout point, where we could see the mountains all around us, and look for miles into the distant valleys and plains of Tamil Nadu. Afterwards, we had some more tea, and friendly villagers recommended that we walk through the tea fields. All, in all, an excellent change of pace from hectic Indian town/city life.