A Nice Cup of Tea

The next day the situation with the electric hadn’t improved , it was really intermittent. We had another lovely breakfast of pancakes, bananas, pineapple and honey served in an old Gin bottle!
Then we went out with Vaiju in the car for our morning visit to the tea museum and plantations. By now the weather had slightly improved and as we drove upto Munnar it became very clear why we were here. The views of the mountains and the tea plantations way exceeded my expectations. It really was stunning.
We visited the tea museum with Ansell our guide and watched a short film about the history of tea production in the area and how the English had bought land concessions and using the shy local tribal people’s skills learned to plant tea. Ansell then gave us an explanation of how they process the tea. This was all very nice and we even enjoyed a cuppa but Jane and I really wanted to be out in the plantations taking pictures. It seems we were not allowed to do this, possibly because of the bad weather and it being (too dangerous) but Ansell did take us for a great walk up a small road which passed through the tea pickers village which we loved. He was also really good at pointing out the birds we passed which included a red whiskered bulbul, a shrike, sunbirds and plenty of others I can’t remember!
Next stop was the manufacturing centre which Tata tea company have set up for Differently Abled young people to work. So we had a tour of the paper making plant and the dying centre. It was interesting and we were particularly impressed that Starbucks in Mumbai had put in a massive order for bags from here. Good on ’em as it was a v good cause. We did our own bit to help by visiting the shop.
After this we met up with Vaiju again and he drove us back down to Munnar town itself where Ansell gave us a short tour round, mostly of the fruit and veg market and then what he called the main bazaar. The town was very busy as it was apparently going to be a festival of some sort the next day so town was packed with the local tribal people (the shy ones from the forest) and they were strikingly different, very small, very dark and with facial features of Australian aborigines. The girls had also decorated their hair with pretty flower pieces.
After a brief stop at his office, so we could hook up to wifi and touch base with civilisation, he started driving us back to the homestay but suddenly we came across a tea field where the pickers were at work so Jane and I got out and we merrily skipped down the road towards them taking the pictures we’d really wanted to get. They were all really friendly and didn’t mind at all the strange English ladies, happy as Larry in the rain.
We then decided we were rather hungry and needed lunch even though it was about 3-30pm . We decided the posh hotel Vaiju took us to to start with saying we only wanted something small, where he would eat. So the. We stopped at what looked like a Vegetarian fast food place where, although it looked unpromising and empty when we went in, we ate some great food. A buttered bhaji (basically a bun) with some sauce and then a huge pile of vegetable pakora and some tasty homemade French fries on the side. Yum.
Then it was back to the homestay where after a nice rest we had another lovely meal and this time there were 12 of us eating. Pudding was always bananas, out of the garden of course.