Not Even One Cuppa Tea!

View From Guesthouse, Munnar, India
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Up really early as the taxi was scheduled to arrive at 6:00am for Munnar. It was very punctual and as I headed towards it, the taxi plus Alison headed off leaving me behind. Bewildered, I stood there as I watched them drive away, but figured they would return soon and they did. I guess the driver had to turn around. Not sure why he couldn't wait until I was in the car.

Once in the car we took off and Alison and I chatted away. After about 2 hours, we made a pit stop for breakfast that was less than inspiring, but at least it filled us up. We also bought some Indian snacks not really knowing what they were but looked half decent. Back in the taxi, we headed on again trying to snooze a bit. As we got closer to Munnar we started driving through tea plantations which were very beautiful, low, extremely green shrubs.

Tea Plantations, Munnar, India
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We arrived at our home stay around 10am which was pretty nice, but not sure $30 a room nice. The booklet was definitely a bit deceiving making it look like the home stay was amongst the tea plantations - a little creative license? Alison needed a little snooze as she wasn't able to sleep in the car and had been up late the night before hanging out with some women she had met. As she did this, I talked to the owner to try and figure out our game plan for the day.

Around 11am, we left the home stay and headed first to Eravikulam National Park, the highest peak in all of South India. Our driver dropped us off as we had to take a bus the last 4 km (2.5 miles). After paying 10 times what Indians have to pay and a camera fee, we waited for the bus which we were told would be there in 5 minutes. Oh no, not the 5 minutes thing again. But amazingly, it really was just 5 minutes! The bus wound its way up the mountain and then dropped us off from which point we had to hike the rest of the way. I had to laugh at one Indian woman who said very loudly that she was going to lose weight from the exercise. It wasn't that hard of a trek!

Tea Plantations, Munnar, India
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We reached as far as we were allowed to go and I was a little disappointed not to see any of the rare, almost tame Nilgiri tahr (a type of mountain goat) but found out later that this wasn't really the season for them. With not anything else to really see except for the views, which were very nice, we headed back down.

Once on the bus, Alison and I had about 10 school boys sitting next to and behind us, all crammed in on top of each other. They chatted away, obviously amused by the two of us. Then Alison asked if she could take their picture and they went absolutely nuts! They sat even more on top of each other trying to get in the photo. I then had to get in on the photo action and managed to get a few shots, but they weren't too good as the bus was rocking back and forth down the hill. After the photo shoot, the boys practiced their English on us with phrases such as "What is your name?", "How old are you?" (they obviously don't know that you should never ask a lady her age ;)), "Do you have any babies?", "Are you married?". Alison joked with one of the boys asking if he would be her boyfriend, which sent the group into fits of giggles.

Yikes! Eravikulam National Park, Munnar, India
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After an amusing bus ride down, we got back into the taxi and headed into town for lunch. Our driver, Lal, took us to a place for lunch, which after we ordered I realized it was a place mentioned in the LP that had great butter chicken (one of my favorite dishes) which I would have tried figuring it would be safe. Instead, we ordered a paneer (called cottage cheese, but more firm, kind of the consistency of tofu) butter marsala and a vegetable biryani. The paneer was good (I see a lot of it in my future in India!) but definitely not a substitute for meat. Well, let me rephrase that, it is my substitute for meat, but not nearly as good ;) Done with lunch we noticed a sign for homemade chocolate so we decided to check some out and it was actually quite good which made up for the so so lunch.

View from Eravikulam National Park, Munnar, India
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Back in the taxi, we headed up to Top Hill Station, or so we thought. On the way, we stopped at the Mattupetty Dam which was gorgeous, followed by another dam, Echo Point which as its name suggests did echo as people tried it out. I forgot for a minute I was in India as I could have easily been up in Northern California.  Back again in the taxi, I thought the way to Top Hill Station would be further on, but the driver started heading back. I didn't say anything figuring he knew where to go. However, not too far from town, Alison mentioned about Top Hill Station and the driver said it was back beyond from where we had turned around and said that we only had wanted to go to Echo Point. We had never said anything about Echo Point! A definite misunderstanding. We did turn back, but definitely grudgingly by the driver, wanting to get up to Top Hill Station. Just past Echo Point, there was a gate where the driver had to sign in. We headed up through many tea plantations on a good paved road that finally turned into a very bumpy road. We hoped that the trip was worth it.

Eravikulam National Park, Munnar, India
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Finally, we made it Top Hill Station and what a disappointment! First it was foggy but really there was nowhere to get a good view anyhow. I think that made the driver have even more of a grudge! We headed back down into town, stopping on the way for a few photos.

Back at the home stay, we had a little time before heading out to dinner around 7:15pm back in town, as the home stay was a few miles outside of town. We went to the Food Court (actually the name of the restaurant, not a food court as we know it) and I risked having the butter chicken, feeling the need for some meat. It was extremely tasty :) Upon leaving the restaurant, we noted that we felt like kids being picked up by Dad as the taxi was waiting just outside. Alison got in and I tried to get in, but the door was locked the driver wouldn't open it up. Confused, I stood there. I then heard someone say something and I started to respond that we didn't need a ride because we already had one, then realized it was our driver. We had tried getting in the wrong cab! Alison then figured it out and we were both embarrassed at our mistake, but did find it very amusing.

Kids on Bus, Eravikulam National Park, Munnar, India
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We headed back to the home stay hoping to have a hot shower before bed because it was actually cold in Munnar - probably in the 40's and 50's which I hadn't expected at all and had no real warm clothes to speak of except for one cardigan, but even my pants were pretty thin. We did have hot water but it wasn't out of the shower head, but out of a separate tap. So that didn't sound too appealing. Instead we got an extra blanket and we each bundled up the best we could.