Marvellous Munnar

The rolling hills of covered in deep green tea plants, cool atmosphere (awww felt so good, finally cold air!) and tranquil surroundings made Munnar the sweetest treat. We stayed at a humble, adorable guest house named Zina Cottages. The host Velu was never seen without a smile. We tested that theory when we unexpectedly extended our stay there another night after he had already booked people to take our room.

The 3 days there were spent enjoying the natural beauty that surrounded us from every angle. After Mani, the auto-rickshaw driver, dropped us off at our guesthouse the first day, we decided to ask him to be our guide for the whole trip. So each morning he would meet us at the guest house and drive us to somewhere new.

The first day we visited the Floriculture center with gorgeous flowers, stopped by this tree that had heaps of bee hives hanging from it and drove around the mountainous town. We kept asking him to stop so we could take pictures and absorb the beautiful surroundings. I know I do have a photo taking addiction ha, but Munnar truly is one of the most stunning places I’ve visited. My jaw was dropped when the bus was approaching Munnar…I mean I killed my camera battery just on the bus ride. Made selecting pictures to post here challenging!

Lotus flowers in this pretty pond.

So many beehives!

So I asked this guy how he extrapolated the honey and collected the honey comb...he smokes a joint around them, bees go to sleep and then he climbs the tree. 

The most special part of the day, however, was the walk we did in a local valley village. We spent 45 minutes walking through a random village near Kundale Lake and enjoyed the tranquility – a rare find in India.

Roadside masala chai tea stop.

Mani our awesome rickshaw driver!

What a way to seal the day.

Day two was spent trekking in the Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary. We hiked 3 km in the heat to thoovanam waterfall. Nobody else was around so we treated ourselves to a cold dip in the water; made the trek completely worth it. We saw an insect similar to a sacaida and heard its loud shriek (reminded me of my YTT in Costa Rica). Later we found a dead one on the floor and admired the beauty of its wings. Mother nature at its finest.

Munnar has the stunning Eucalyptus forest in town. Funny thing is how the seeds were smuggled in the mayor's wifes pantyhouse from Australia. Random fact I learned haha.

In heaven.

Our final day in Munnar, or extra day, was spent at Cinnamon Garden learning about different plants and trees. We saw how cardamom, pepper, curry leaves, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, turmeric, allspice, and cacao grow. The most amazing was cardamom as we learned it grows pods next to the stalk and leaves of its own plant. Another interesting one was all spice – had no idea that it actually is one leave that tastes like many spices. I always assumed it was just a mix of spices. 

Cloves

Tumeric

Figs grow from the bottom up. intersting.

Cobra head orchid

Cardamom pods

The second half of our last day was spent at the “Tea Museum”. We were very lucky to have the process explained to us by one of the employees. Without that opportunity we wouldn’t have learned anything. Unfortunately the museum is barely related to tea and much more focused on the company’s manufacturing tea and the history of Munnar. Tea was first planted in Munnar in 1880 as the conditions are perfect for growing tea; 3,000 – 7,000 elevation and slopes of 35 – 45 degrees. The lifetime of a tea plant is forever, literally…oldest plant in China is 400 years. They also grow very quickly and are cut from the top every 7 days for CTC (aka commercial black tea bags).

I was completely fascinated when I learned that white tea, green tea and black tea all come from the same plant. What makes the difference is how the tea is processed whether it’s just dried, oxidizes, fermented etc. White tea is very expensive as it has to be hand-picked every 10 days and is just the tip of the bud. White tea is only dried in the sun. I lost my notes on the detailed process for all the other types of tea but I did take lots of photographs J

White Tea is just this little bud and as I mentioned before just this little part is plucked for white tea. I forgot the exact statistic, but I believe it takes a picker a while day to pick just 1 kg of white tea. Makes sense why it is so pricy!

Green Tea is the white tea bud and the leave closest to the bud.

Black Tea.

CTC or Commercial black tea bag uses all of the leaves.The women cutting in the photo above were harvesting CTC.

I’m still dreaming of the magic of Munnar. Munnar even has “light bees” or as we would call them fireflies. Here’s a few parting shots that make me smile even now, I will return someday I know it.

MASSIVE dosa. That kid is ecstatic!

Kerala Parotta obsession continues. So tasty!

Views from our guesthouse. Epic right?

Rooftop yoga practice, not a bad view right?

Dang we have a lot of shiz! I miss you 3 ladies, we had such a good time!!

Toms soul sisters! So random - each of us were traveling with a pair of black toms , but with our own unique style.

Thrissur Pooram

Travelling, and India especially, always has many surprises and adventures up its sleeve. Well here’s a good one: we were emailed by booking.com two days before our arrival to Thrissur that our hotel booking was cancelled due to overbooking and they found us a hotel 30 minutes outside of Thrissur. Not going to work!

Had we already received a confirmation email over a month before? Yes.

Was the hotel actually overbooked? Nope. We called, they just wanted 10x as much for the same room we had “confirmed”…. India for you!

Were there any other hotels available in Thrissur for a reasonable price? No.

Were we really really frustrated with booking.com?  Most definitely.

That little bump in the road was a miracle in disguise though. Couchsurfing came to the rescue. I sent a message to a few different hosts in the area and within 2 hours had 2 hosts willing to let all three of us stay with them. We decided to stay in Aniket’s family home with his mother, and auntie - unfortunately, his wife was out of town. His sincerity was evident as soon as we met him at the train station on Saturday evening. He picked us up in an AC car and we all exhaled in relief of the cool air.

We arrived at his home around 10:30PM and his mother greeted us with a smile, broken English and mango juice. The next morning at breakfast was when we got to know more about the family. They are actually Maharastrian but relocated to Kerala about 25 years ago. We learned they were Jain (religion - same as Ami’s family) and began asking more questions about the religion. Staying with Aniket’s family was so comforting and such a great experience to learn about family life, religion, arranged marriages and Indian customs.

Thrissur is not on the backpacker’s beaten path, so what were we up to in Thrissur? It was Pooram!! Hunderds of thousands of people gather at Vadakkunnathan Temple in Thrissur for Pooram each year. The Thrissur Pooram is considered to be the Mother of all Poorams, a culture highlight that towers above all other festivals .Thrissur pooram is a festival unique in its pageantry, magnitude and participation. It is not a mere temple festival in its strict sense but at the same time it is the festival of festivals of Kerala.

The festival is a competition between two main temples (Krishna temple named Thirumbady and Shiva’s Bhagwati temple named Parmekavu) and involves 51 elephants adorned with decorations to show dedication to the temples. 

The festival goes on for a day and a half straight (7AM Sunday – 4PM Monday). Aniket walked us down to the temple area where Pooram was taking place. The first event we attended was around noon where somewhere between 9-13 elephants walked up to the Thirumbady temple. From there they receded back to Swaraj Road (a 3 km road encircling the temple). After the event, we walked around and found some of the decorations for the next event. 

Mona, Myself and Ami all festival ready!

Awww I loved this photo, so sweet leaning in to eachother!

Now that is some massive poo!

Getting hennafied.

The second event we attended was Kudamattom (kuda – umbrella, mattom – changing) where 15 elephants from each temple, Krishna and Shiva, compete in the changing of umbrellas. Each temple takes turns showcasing an umbrella (the middle one is always a different color). This went on for about an hour and a half as each temple showcased over 50 umbrellas. Over 100,000 people gathered to witness the competition and the crowd cheered for whichever umbrellas they were most impressed by. Each temple started off with mildly decorated umbrellas and concluded with polka dots, neons, and even LED lighted umbrellas. Luckily for us we were able to get free passes for a foreigner/VIP stage that an incredible view of the event. Money photos! This video I took shows the energy and excitement at Pooram. I love re-watching it.

Ice Cream time!! - Myself, Mona, Ami & Our new CS friend Andrea

The final event we attended is called Vedikettu- a firework display at 3:30AM. It was a…memorable experience. Aniket reserved tickets for us to view the fireworks from a building on Swaraj Road. We were required to be at the building by 11:30PM, so in true India form we arrived by midnight. The fireworks, as promised, began around 3:30AM. What we realized first was that our definition of fireworks was different from Thrissur’s definition. What went off at 3:30 seemed more like bombs to us. I swear I felt like I was in the middle of a war, I could feel the explosions in my body. I learned later that each explosion was propelled by a 30-40kg bomb that created a crazy loud flash in the sky and shook the crowd with its force. Windows in the building we viewed from taped the windows to ensure they didn’t shatter and car alarms sounded effortlessly. The “fireworks” were done by each side as part of the competition. After about 5 minutes of explosions there was a 15-20 minute break and then the other temple showcased their “fireworks”. After that round most people left. We stayed because Aniket told us the next set were slower and more beautiful. They were- similar to the 4^th of July fireworks I’m used to in the states, these were beautiful and weren’t blowing me away by their force.

 We were so fortunate to have an amazing host for our time in Thrissur. His mom (Shweta auntie) even gave us a cooking lesson the next day and we tried to make those Kerala parootas we were obsessing over, a vegetable pulau, veg curry and raita. If you are interested I did take notes & have recipes for all of these! Thank you so much Aniket, what a wonderful experience. Thrissur Pooram was incredible too so if you happen to be in India in late April or early May definitely go to Thrissur for Pooram.

Writers Credit goes to Ami & her awesome blog!