Sometimes in a children’s fairytale, the illustrator will depict pristine, well manicured, low-growing hills of green. Once upon a time, G and I felt we had found the source of their inspiration. Surely, they were depicting the Italian and French hillside vineyards. But, alas, we were mistaken. We now believe the inspiration came from the hills of low-growing tea plants in Munnar.
We were immediately struck by the area’s natural and imposed beauty. Home to the country’s largest tea plantation, owned by Tata, the plants are manually trimmed every 15 days. This keeps the plants at a uniform height and green color and gives the world the caffeine boost they need to get going.
Fortunately, we were staying at a small resort that sat atop a lofty hillside overlooking the Tata tea plantation. With panoramic views of the hillsides below, our balcony was the perfect vantage point to see both the area’s immense beauty and the workers’ pain.
Thanks to Sulfr’s quick reflexes and driving skill, we arrived in Munnar after a 4.5 hour car ride (about 75 miles) from Cochin. Upon arrival, we first helped ourselves to tasty and complimentary snacks: a tomato-like fruit we still don’t recognize, another strange fruit, a local banana, a local orange and banana and tapioca chips. Then, with a bit more energy, we hiked down the treacherous trail amongst glowing purple morning glories and wild lantana to join the paved plantation trail. We were greeted by gorgeous hillside views around every bend.
Marketing materials boast trekking within the tea plantations as one of reasons to choose to stay in Munnar — and specifically our resort. The plantation workers had returned home for the day so we chose the small, distant tea-town as our destination and hiked along our way. A man on a motorcycle met us early along our journey as we stood atop a paved street taking a photo of the beautiful hills. Appearing to be a plantation manager, he adamantly warned us not to take photos and said that we were not free to roam about the fields. We could stay on the paved path to “see the waterfall” (which we never found), but we should not loiter as this was private property. Upon reaching our destination, we realized that all which appears ideal from above is not so. Tea workers’ families appeared to be living amongst cows and livestock within dilapidated workers’ quarters. Rumor has it that employees are paid extremely low wages for their grueling work only to then spend their funds in the company-owned stores in the town. Perhaps this is the reason for the manager’s adamant request that we do not take photos? While our encounter with the town was brief, the work-camp scene repeated itself many times as we traveled about the area by car. During our travels, we couldn’t help but wonder how Tata’s owners could live in their opulent palaces whilst their workers lived in such dire accommodations. Suddenly, the view from our hillside hideaway didn’t seem so sweet.
Back at the Blackberry Hills resort, we learned the general manager there is an advocate of the arts. And as support and interest in the region’s Kathakali and other arts wanes in favor of more western entertainment (like discos and clubs), he’s taken it upon himself to provide renewed support in any way he can. Hence, the resort commissioned a popular Cochin muralist to create artwork for the rooms. And he sponsored a Kathakali group from the arts school in Cochin to entertain his guests during the week between Christmas and New Year’s.
After cleaning up from our hike, we headed back up to the restaurant for a buffet dinner and Kathakali performance under the stars — an open air performance. We dined on heavenly curries and sampled a bit of all the local cuisine as the theatre troupe entertained with Kathakali shadow puppets, Rajasthani marionettes and Kathakali hand puppets. It was so enjoyable, we did it again the next night :-).
By day, we headed up to Eravikulam National Park to see their semi-tame goats. The park is huge and home to lots of typical Indian wildlife (tigers, monkeys, wild dogs, and elephants), but this small portion of the park is easily accessible and meant for viewing the mountain goats (Nilgiri Tahr). Our driver knew the ropes and immediately positioned us into the foreigner line where you must pay up to 10x what locals do, but are allowed to short-cut all the lines. Still our ticket price equated to around £2.50. The next bus to the summit pulled up, our driver ensured we were safely aboard (before the 100+ locals in line) and off we went. We exited the bus and walked a kilometer or more to view the mountain goats and as we did, India travelers approached us. Every few steps, friendly Indians (mostly from Kerala and Calcutta) came up to try their English, shake our hands, ask us to be in their photo, or to simply say hello and welcome. All were really interested to hear our impressions of their homeland. In fact, these types of encounters were commonplace in India and helped to paint our pleasant view of the region.
The mountain goats were once nearly killed off when Europeans visited the area to set up tea plantations. Hunting was popular amongst the Europeans and these goats were certainly easy game as their reflexes seem stalled by fear and panic. But, these days, the goats have good reason for being tame. Unlike the tame deer in Nara, Japan, you’re not allowed to feed the goats, but we did enjoy getting up close.
The area’s tea culture fueled the development of a tea museum. It was here that we saw the tea making process first-hand and learned that the various types of tea (green, masala, black, white, etc.) all originate from the same plant. It’s simply the way in which the leaves are processed or the leaf-stage that’s used that makes the difference. For instance, some leaves are crushed and then dried. Others are dried, then crushed. And the tender green tips of the tea plants are hand plucked and kept separate during processing to make the very expensive, but tasty white tea.
In the afternoon, our driver escorted us to Mattupetty Lake where tea plantations meet the shores of one of the area’s first hydroelectric plants. We rode a motor boat about the lake. And I, perhaps naively, kept my eyes peeled for wild elephants.
As G mentioned in his Goa post, it was strange but refreshing to experience such wonderful weather during the holidays. And every once in a while, we saw a throwback to typical American holiday cheer. In Munnar, wild poinsettia’s were abundant and put us in a festive mood.
We finished our second day in Munnar watching sunset from a panoramic point with masala tea in hand. A typical Indian ending to an amazing day.
View additional photos from our Munnar, Kerala album.
And check back tomorrow for New Year’s in Periyar.
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