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After 3 weeks of non stop sightseeing it was nice to arrive in Kerala, South India, with absolutely nothing planned. We arrived at Cochin airport at night and were taken to our homestay one hour away in Fort Kochi. We were told in the taxi that monsoon season had well and truely started and to expect heavy rain for much of our stay. Because of this, not many international tourists visit at this time of year, so the town was quiet.
We had booked into our first homestay for 3 nights. It was quite a nice place although the hot water relied on solar power and so we had to make do with just cold water. The house was 10 minutes walk from the centre of Fort Kochi however it took us a lot longer to find our way on the first day. We felt like we were in real India - old colonial houses mixed with more traditional Indian houses, dirt roads, and the sound of animals all around us. The town was very relaxed with several empty hotels, restaurants and cafes, a few tour operators and some general stores. Late in the afternoon we returned to our homestay to find we had guests in our room - lots of ants and a lizard. In the evening we set off back into town for food. There was so much noise surrounding us - frogs, crickets and god knows what else. We stuck to the middle of the road to avoid any creatures and shone the torch at anything that looked suspicious. We saw a huge rat on a wall scurrying around. We went into the first restaurant we found and unsurprisingly we were the only people there. The food was fine but when we were paying the bill I saw a mouse scurry across the floor. We returned to our homestay and told the owner about the things in our room. He explained that it was due to a mango tree outside and moved us to a different room. We had had too many creature experiences for one day and left the homestay the following morning.
We moved to a hotel much closer to the town centre so as to avoid the long walk at night. The new hotel was well sealed so no creatures could get in. It was very nice. We spent the next five days relaxing and enjoying life in Kochi. Shil had a couple of massages and we went to pretty much every restaurant and cafe. We walked along the sea front and saw the massive Chinese fishing nets and lots of little stalls seling a huge range of freshly caught fish. It was mostly dry weather (although very humid) however when it did rain it was incredibly heavy. The storms were mainly during the night or very early morning and we only once got caught out in the rain.
We then went on a 3 day/2 night tour to Munnar Hill Station - a tea plantation. We got picked up very early from our hotel in an 'Embassador' car which looked very posh from the outside but inside it was very 80s i.e. old - no seat belts, and a leak on one side, the seat had a growing wet patch as it was raining very heavily all day. Our driver was a very nice guy though. After about an hour and a half of hectic and bumpy driving we stopped at our first place, which was an elephant training camp. Here we were going to watch some elephants being bathed which we were both very excited about. However, when they elephants came down the path towards us we were sad to see they had chains around their ankles. There were 2 adult elephants and 3 baby ones, they were led to the river by their keepers. We were told to stand either side of a baby one and our driver took photos of us. The guy with the elephants was saying commands to make it do things like lift its trunk up. It all felt a bit hideously touristy, but it was good to be so close to the elephants. One of the babies in the river was squirting itself with water and looked really cute, but then one of the guys stated whacking one of the adult elephants with a stick, to make it lay down in the water. It was really horrible to see, as he was using his whole body weight/strength to deliver the hits :o(. So we left soon after this and drove for a few more hours down country roads. We stopped off briefly to look at some waterfalls, a pineapple farm and paddy fields. Then we visited a Spice Farm, where a very nice woman showed us around (in the pouring rain). They grow all the spices here like pepper, cardamom, ginger and nutmeg, and they had a lot of plants used in Ayurvedic medicine (the traditional medicine in India). We then drove to our homestay, through the beautiful tea plantation. The tea trees are every where, it's a huge area - it looks very pretty and hilly though. Our homestay was ran by a very nice, pot-bellied guy, who seemed quite camp as well! He made us really nice traditional Kerala food throughout our stay there. We went on a short walk to the viewpoint of the 'Tea Valley' and took some photos, it's incredibly picturesque (and it had stopped raining by this time!). It was definitely colder here than in Kochi, we even had to wear a jumper! The next day was a full day of sightseeing - we drove to the Top Station of the tea plantation, and on the way we stopped off at a dam, and a pretty place called EchoPoint, as it echoes very well when you shout here. We also took a short elephant ride as it was only 500 rupees for both of us! We finally got to the Top Station and walked around here to look at the views of the tea plantation. In the afternoon, after driving back down to Munnar, we went to the Tea Museum. We watched a short film about the tea plantation and its workers, then a guy told us about the process the picked tea leaves go through to make it into tea, and then we got to see the machinery actually doing the processes, which was cool to see. We both had an Ayurvedic massage that evening, which was very good.
We then stayed in Fort Kochi again for a few more days, but we were at another homestay called the Jasmin Villa, which is ran by the guy that we booked our Munnar tour with. His wife, Jasmin made us feel very welcome here and she cooked us some proper Indian meals, including Indian breakfasts! We also did a cookery class with her, where she made lots of different dishes including Fish Masala, Veg Korma, Dahl, Stuffed Okra, Veg rice and Chapattis. The only other tour we did here was a day tour to the backwaters, which I really enjoyed. Dave had taken a travel-sickness pill in the morning and it seemed to sedate him as he was asleep for most of the day! We started off on a large river that had a busy road by it, so I wasn't too sure at first. Our boat was 'man-powered' so the guy (who looked quite old) had a very long bamboo stick that he used to move the boat, it was very impressive, and you could tell he had been doing it for years. It was very slow-going but it was nice not to have the noise and smell of a motor. We turned off this large river into a narrower stream, and then we couldn't hear any traffic or see anything apart from the water and the grass growing on either side - it was all very 'still', like entering another world, and it was very relaxing. There were several backwater families in their wooden houses by the water along the way to look at, and some of them were in canoe-type wooden boats transporting things like huge piles of reeds. It was nice to see authentic villages, rather than something set up for tourists. We turned off into an even narrower stream where the grasses at the side stuck into our boat, we all found this quite funny trying not to get hit by them! Then there was a sudden loud "moo" - and we saw a cow looking at us over the tall grasses, then it followed us a bit further down and mooed again! Then after a couple of minutes it suddenly appeared in a gap in the grasses - it made us all jump a bit :o). There were also lots of interesting and brightly-coloured dragonflies and butterflies to look at, and huge lily pads with big white flowers and some large red wild orchids. Our guide also pointed out a green fruit that grew in the trees at the side, it looked like a mango, but he said it was very dangerous - if you eat it you'll be dead within 2 hours! He said it's an insecticide, pesticide and suicide! We stopped off at a place where some of the backwater guys make cement out of shells, and another place where some women make rope out of coconut fibres, and the rope is used for carpets. We then had a traditional lunch, served on a banana leaf! We had a pile of rice in the middle and then several vegetable or fruit curry things around the outside - it was very tasty; and we got a little rice pudding for desert. After lunch we were just taken around a large lake (in the boat) but we could see a bridge with heavy traffic on it from here, so it wasn't quite the same as the first half of the day - actually most people fell asleep or were listening music! But overall I loved this tour.
S and D
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