In this blog: hiking through tea and spice plantations in the mountains, and a day out on a bus.
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| Munnar tea growing region |
A nice cup of tea solves everything, I love the stuff. India is one of the leading tea producers, growing about a quarter of the worlds' crop, and a visit to a plantation has been on the cards for me since planning this trip. A week ago, I briefly visited the Wynard region where they grow it and had a taster of the plantations, but in the mountainous area of Munnar, I had a mug full.
My last day in Cochi had been a bit of a catch up day of writing, planning, getting my sleeping bag liner repaired at a tailors, and having my second haircut in India; fortunately much less disastrous than the first cut a few months back. Feeling a bit more up to date, the following day I headed up from the coast into the tea growing region of Munnar, 1,500m above sea level and a total relief from the heat and humidity of Kochi. The bus journey up into the hills was very enjoyable, especially since most of the buses in Kerela don't have side windows, which makes you feel like you're outside the whole time, the breeze blowing in. We passed mostly tree covered hill, with the odd town or waterfall as we gently rose into the mountains.
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| View on first day stroll |
The bus entered the Munnar region, and the scenery was a striking sight straight away, absolutely beautiful. Tea comes from China originally, but in the 1870's some Scottish planters discovered it grows very well in the hills of South India and established tea estates, turning inaccessible forest into rolling hills of tea bushes. Munnar is one of the largest areas, and today much of the surrounding hills are covered in neatly groomed plants. By the time I got off the bus in the wrong part of town, walked a mile or two back, had lunch and found a guesthouse, the day was too far gone to do much with. I went for a stroll up a quiet road through a tea estate, seeing the plants up close and simple terraced workers cottages set nearby in the valley bottom, before reading my book on the hotel rooftop and chatting to some of the other travellers. Perfect.
Plantation and Spice walk
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| Early morning - just beautiful |
I generally prefer to hike independently, but with a lack of decent maps in India it's often easier to go with a guided group, as I did in Munnar. Our group of six - two young English guys, a father and son from Austria, the guide, and myself - set off at 6.30am from the hotel and headed along the valley bottom. It was the perfect time of day for it, with mist rising from the rivers and the sun breaking through over the hill tops. We were led into one of the tea estates, and wove our way up the dirt tracks. The guide was very good, stopping every so often to give a bit of insight into both the local area and the world of tea, making sure we didn't forget by repeating himself at least two or three times.
So hopefully of interest, a few facts from what I learnt: Tea leaves are grown on what looks like bushes, but are actually trees which are kept pruned to 3ft high, and are always grown at altitude, in warm areas. The trees are generally replaced every hundred years, though can live much longer, and the leaves are harvested all year round on a ten to fifteen day cycle. There is only one type of tea tree used, and the different types and qualities of teas that we buy, in fact are determined through the picking and processing afterwards. Green tea is made by steaming the leaves, black tea by drying with heat. The best tea comes from the larger pieces, the worst from the dust that's left over afterwards - literally known as dust tea, and common in India. The tea pickers are mostly female (men do the heavy work), and although they get housing, health care and pensions, earn just £2 (200 rupees) per day. Enough?!
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| English guys, Austrians and I |
The walk up the hill was far from arduous, and by breakfast we were slightly disappointingly already at the highest point, which at 2,200m wasn't really that high compared to nearby hills. We ate and rested for an hour, and I chatted to the Austrians - the only father and son combo I'd ever come across backpacking together, and a pleasant and interesting pair of guys. Senior installs equipment for electric power stations around the world, junior manages a nightclub in Vienna, and they'd now spent a couple of months travelling India, starting off by cycling along the south west coast on some cheap bikes they bought in Kochi.
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| Cardomen plants |
We headed downhill, through grassland and forest before dropping into vast swathes of cardamon plantations, shielded by the sun under taller tree; very pleasant and peaceful to walk through. The plants grow a good ten feet tall but the seeds which contain the spice, the only useful bit, grow within small pods near the base. We spent the rest of the day cresting hills or descending, passing a huge range of exotic plants, stopping on the way to chew on the fruit or seeds, or to chat to the local growers via the guide translating. It was truly fascinating to see where all these things we consume at home actually come from, and best of all it wasn't some tourists special plantation, but real farmers growing it for cash or themselves.
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Local guy hacking
open a betul nut |
Alvin (!) the guide had a diploma in agriculture, and was extremely knowledgable on all the plants, constantly picking stuff for us to try, or getting locals to hack things open for us with a machete. We saw grapefruit, mango, and papaya which all hang from the branches of trees. Jackfruit, gooseberry, banana, betel nut and cashew nuts trees. Bushes growing coffee, tapioca, nutmeg, chilli, turmeric, vanilla and cloves. Pineapple was an interesting one - it grows from a small plant low to the ground and is mostly red coloured before maturity. But my favourite of all was of course cocoa, which I didn't realise was grown in India - the cocoa beans grow within a larger fruit hanging from a bush, which you pick, crack open then dry the beans. Pretty bitter when fresh we discovered.
Finally, after about a ten mile walk we reached the end at a rural homestay, eating a simple but tasty lunch of mixed rice, beetroot, and daal, cooked by the housewife. And a very late 4.30pm lunch at that, thanks to all the stopping and talking we did. It may not have been a challenging hike this time, but it more than made up for it in what we saw along the way.
Bus tripping
I don't generally like the tourist bus tours in India, as they're always on an unnecessarily tight schedule and rarely give you any information, but sometimes it's the cheapest and easiest way to get around the local sights, as was the case in Munnar. Luckily there were a couple of young ladies to keep me company - a Scottish nurse, and an Italian van driver who were both good fun.
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| Lake en-route |
Heading along the roads above Munnar town, there were considerably fewer houses and the scenery got even nicer - in places looking like a bit like Switzerland, what with the forested mountains and grass clearings. The tea estates in between meant it certainly wasn't though. We stopped for a stroll at a couple of dams and reservoirs, as well as a nice stretch of river unfortunately known for it's echo - meaning many Indian holiday makers annoyingly shouting over each others to test it out. Startlingly, I saw a herd of cows grazing real grass, and with numbered tags in their ear - a strange sight after all the skinny rubbish grazers I've seen. We reached Top Station, a small hamlet with a fantastic viewpoint that went for miles, bizarrely having to to sign our names and phone numbers to get into. More pointless Indian beaurocracy.
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| Tea leaves |
Back in Munnar again we were taken to a tea museum run by the company that manages most of the local estates, which had a bit of information from the early colonial period. A very dry presentation then started by an old Indian guy, who decided not to tell us anything about how tea was made, but instead heavy scientific details about health benefits. He seemed to not worship any Hindu gods, but instead the god of tea - he was almost evangelical in his passion for the stuff. Finally free of him, the best part was the small working tea factory they had, where we could see all the machinery the leaves go though to be processed. After the plantation walks, it was the final piece of the tea puzzle and satisfied my curiosity just enough.
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