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We were on the bus heading north from Alleppey to Cochin when we decided to change our route and instead of heading further up the coast, we now planned to get another bus at Cochin and head inland to the tea plantations to a place called Munnar.We arrived at Cochin at around 12pm and caught the 1.40pm bus out to Munnar, the 5 hour journey up the mountains was spectacular... if not a bit terrifying driving along the mountain face all the way up (around 5000ft above sea level). At times we were driving through the clouds which was a bit strange as you could feel the cool air and Laura's ears kept popping.When we finally arrived (around 6.30pm) we set about trying to find accommodation for the night, we found a place just off the main bazaar which cost us 300rps which is a little more than we wanted to pay but it was really big with sky TV and hot water which is needed in the mountains as it gets chilly at night.
After getting a good night's sleep the following day we woke up and went to find out some information about trekking through the tea plantations and how to visit the Chinnar Wildlife park where you can trek for wild Indian elephants! After visiting a few information centres, the plan was to trek by ourselves in and around Munnar's tea plantations and then tomorrow first thing we were going to catch the bus to Chinnar which is 60km north west of Munnar on the Tamu Nadu boarder, then from there we can pay 150rps each for our own guide and trek for elephants! Then when we have finished our trek we are going to catch the overnight bus to Bangalore so Laura can show me where she worked and so she could meet up with her friend Vinay who she trained 3 years ago. So that's what we did... we brought some bananas and water, got a map and started our 4 hour trek around the Tea plantations of Munnar.It's amazing to see it all and the pictures don't do it justice but the landscape is so mountainous and all you can see is green Tea for as far as the eye can see! By the time we had nearly finished Laura's legs were hurting (didn't see that coming) so we caught a rickshaw back to the hotel.That night we decided to eat some street food so we pulled up a stool on the main bazaar and we had Tikka chicken, spicy beef, and some parota (bit like stringy naan bread)... was really good, we then washed it down with some local made chocolate, then off to bed as we had a bus to catch early in the morning.
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