After the early bus I arrived at Munnar. I was of course welcomed by many rickshaw drivers wanting to bring me to my place and offer me their good deals with tours around Munnar, because that seems to be the thing to do here.
I just took one to the JJ Cottage I was staying in, a nice small place and asked them about the tours and such. He said they arrange trekking tours and such aswell and a few tours are definately worth it. But for the treks I'd need company, because if I were to do it alone it would cost alot...
I just took one to the JJ Cottage I was staying in, a nice small place and asked them about the tours and such. He said they arrange trekking tours and such aswell and a few tours are definately worth it. But for the treks I'd need company, because if I were to do it alone it would cost alot...
After a stroll through town I was told, someone was found for the trek next morning so I could join them and have a nice walk in the mountains. Great! So in the morning I got ready and headed down, 2 french women were waiting there I thought I'd be hiking with them, but then 2 guides appeared and one of them took me somewhere else, while the other guide waited with the french. Kind of confused I followed and was wondering why I wasn't going with the otheres but soon found out, that my partner was a woman from Austria and was staying somewhere else. But we met the french ladies and their 3rd hiking member a couple of times later on. So I'm still not sure why we were seperated (except those 3 wanted to do it alone?).
Anyway we hiked up the mountains and all of it was through the gigantic tea plantations, now and then our guide showed us things or explained something. For example how white, green and black tea are made and how the teaplants grow over 100 years old untill they aren't useful anymore. I forgot the specifics, but white is handpicked and is made out of the freshest and youngest leaves (therefore being very expensive), the others are usually just cut off of the plant and then the process of how they dry/... the leaves makes it either green or black tea.
Anyway we hiked up the mountains and all of it was through the gigantic tea plantations, now and then our guide showed us things or explained something. For example how white, green and black tea are made and how the teaplants grow over 100 years old untill they aren't useful anymore. I forgot the specifics, but white is handpicked and is made out of the freshest and youngest leaves (therefore being very expensive), the others are usually just cut off of the plant and then the process of how they dry/... the leaves makes it either green or black tea.
A tea plant with a flower - the smalles light green leaves are handpicked for white tea
The other light green leaves are used for green and black tea
We had a nice breakfast on a mountain top (higher than the plantation) and headed further along the ridge of the hills. After a viewpoint without view (Ah! Pretty clouds) we walked down into the forest. Katharina (the Austrian girl) joked it wasn't really a trek but more of a pleasant stroll in the mountains and fearing our guide was too exhausted. She had a point, our guide was always suggesting breaks and so it took longer than we would have needed.
Our guide said: Go up there, I'll take a picture. Apparently they do it for all of their trips ;-)
The viewpoint... Pretty clouds =)
Tea plants! Woohoo!
At a small spice farm we halted and had good expensive tea. Well expensive tea. It was good, but rather not worth 4 times a normal tea... Around it were treehouses and alot of other expensive things/ accomodations and so on.
Anyway we came out of the forest and came back into the plantation area. Crossed a dangerous river (well the bridge was rather dangerous) and met our guides brother on our way back to town, he was in his tuktuk, so we hitched a ride for the last 1.5 kilometers I guess.
Katharina had to head to her Bus, so after a quick lunch she left and I had to make my guide happy by promising he could take me on a tour the next day.
Anyway we came out of the forest and came back into the plantation area. Crossed a dangerous river (well the bridge was rather dangerous) and met our guides brother on our way back to town, he was in his tuktuk, so we hitched a ride for the last 1.5 kilometers I guess.
Katharina had to head to her Bus, so after a quick lunch she left and I had to make my guide happy by promising he could take me on a tour the next day.
Sleepy Jakob
Powered up Jakob
Spooky treehouse...
So this is the way we're going? I think I saw some barbed wire just cut and moved to the side...
This explains that!
So the next day he picked me up and we went to a viewpoint, called top station. Wasn't really what I expected... "Top station" sounded like a station on the top of the moutains. But it was just the side of a round with a nice view towards the highest mountain in south India and over the border of Kerala to Tamil Nadu. But I could have imagined the road might lead even higher, but not sure... My driver himself is from Tamil Nadu und is native tounge is Tamil, as he told me. But alot of tamils came to Munnar as workers in the tea plantations. He told me this while looking at the tamil nadu border.
On the way we visited a few sites, I took pictures of nice views from dams, of rivers and lakes and of course pictures in all the mountains.
He convinced me to take another tour in the afternoon, so that I spent almost all day in a tuktuk. Before lunch he took me to the tea museum, nice place but small and should therefore be cheaper (in my opinion) (it cost about 200 Rupees). In the tea factory (where one could see how they dry and chop up the tea leaves and such) the group of tourists (they show a short film about the tea plantation company and this audience was the group) was sent upstairs where an older indian guy appeared. He started talking about how great green tea is. He told us that chinese and japanese aren't fat or overweight because they drink green tea and no black tea as indians do. He was making it sound like the best thing in the world which could cure all problems. Not sure about that.. but sometimes the amount of tea consumed in India might actually not be that healthy (especially with all the milk and sugar they add into it).
But it seemed kind of weird to say a speech like this in that place (where they mainly sell black tea) so... yeah.
On the way we visited a few sites, I took pictures of nice views from dams, of rivers and lakes and of course pictures in all the mountains.
He convinced me to take another tour in the afternoon, so that I spent almost all day in a tuktuk. Before lunch he took me to the tea museum, nice place but small and should therefore be cheaper (in my opinion) (it cost about 200 Rupees). In the tea factory (where one could see how they dry and chop up the tea leaves and such) the group of tourists (they show a short film about the tea plantation company and this audience was the group) was sent upstairs where an older indian guy appeared. He started talking about how great green tea is. He told us that chinese and japanese aren't fat or overweight because they drink green tea and no black tea as indians do. He was making it sound like the best thing in the world which could cure all problems. Not sure about that.. but sometimes the amount of tea consumed in India might actually not be that healthy (especially with all the milk and sugar they add into it).
But it seemed kind of weird to say a speech like this in that place (where they mainly sell black tea) so... yeah.
Nice waterfall on my tuktuk trip
The tuktuk which took me to all the places on that nice sunny day!
Tea pickers at work! They use scissors with bag attached, so the leaves are saved directly, then are put into bigger bags, into bigger bags....
After that I had some lunch and then the tuktuk driver took me into the other direction (more downhill) for my second tour. I saw a cool waterfall and the last stop was a spices farm. Here they grow all sorts of different plants, many would be used in ayurvedic medicine and stuff like that, but some are just planted for making food spices and such. The guide was very kind and explained all sorts of things to us (a north indian couple joined me) and told us about his farm (apparently it belonged to him).
Here I bought some spices and seeds (like muskat, anis, kardamon, in the package were cinnamon and curry leaves aswell) and had to go back in pouring rain. I think the driver wasn't too happy about that, but that wasn't my problem. After argueing about the price (he said the tea museum was extra) I convinced him the other tours were so much shorter than he said (4 instead of 6 hours, 3 instead of 4), he could handle the waiting there with the "normal" prices - that actually worked! It cost 1000 Ruppees, considering I was in the riskshaw about 8 hours (well and him waiting at the spice farm, tea museum, other viewpoints) and we did about 100 km (going there and back again) I'd say a fair price, but the distances could be much less and he just told them to me to justify the price. Anyway it was fine.
Here I bought some spices and seeds (like muskat, anis, kardamon, in the package were cinnamon and curry leaves aswell) and had to go back in pouring rain. I think the driver wasn't too happy about that, but that wasn't my problem. After argueing about the price (he said the tea museum was extra) I convinced him the other tours were so much shorter than he said (4 instead of 6 hours, 3 instead of 4), he could handle the waiting there with the "normal" prices - that actually worked! It cost 1000 Ruppees, considering I was in the riskshaw about 8 hours (well and him waiting at the spice farm, tea museum, other viewpoints) and we did about 100 km (going there and back again) I'd say a fair price, but the distances could be much less and he just told them to me to justify the price. Anyway it was fine.
A tomato tree?! In the ayurvedic garden
I was actually planning to do a cooking class in Munnar, unfortunately it didn't work out. The chef asked for at least 2 people and when a couple called in sick I would have been the only one and so she canceled. Instead I was able to do a "safari" with the tourist corporation. We (a spanish couple and I) drove in a Jeep up the hills, saw nice mountain ranges and stuff untill we reached a wildlife sanctuary/ park where we tried to spot some wild animals, unfortunately it was midday so most animals were in hiding and not to be seen. We got a short glimpse of Bison (the ones like in Kodai) and a group of monkeys. Our guides seemed to be on an elefant trail (they had found some footmarks and poo at one point) but weren't able to find the elephant. So we just walked through the forest, we were shown a few spots with cave paintings and old graveyards which are supposedly 4000 years old, but it was very hot, so it was kind of exhausting. In total really expensive, especially because we paid for the tour and then for the trek was additionally.
We arrived early back and I wasn't suprised we saw so few animals considering we were almost always close to the street (I realised when we started heading back we crossed the street twice).
We arrived early back and I wasn't suprised we saw so few animals considering we were almost always close to the street (I realised when we started heading back we crossed the street twice).
No animals, but nice views!
And rock paintings! Supposedly 4000 years old
On monday the 29th of August I packed my stuff and took the lunch bus back to Ernakulam. I missed the stop at the train station so had to take a tuktuk to the station from the bus station. Wow next stop is Bangalore and I would be staying at Prashanth, a good friend back in 3rd and 4th grade... amazing and still sort of unbelieveable for me. I was very excited!
Gut, dass Du Deinen Humor nicht verlierst. Ja, manchmal ist es schon komisch mit den Indern. Das mit der Brücke kann dir überall passieren. Sie soll zwar repariert werden, aber da es keiner macht, wird dann irgendwann die Absperrung wieder weggemacht, weil die Leute ja rrüber müssen...
AntwortenLöschenZum Tomatenbaum: Es gibt "Tree-tomatoes", die den Tomaten ähnlich, aber nicht wirklich Tomaten sind. Die hatten wir auch öfter mal. Wie die "Bäume" aussehen, weiß ich allerdings nicht.