Thursday, February 28, 2019
Cochin-Munnar
Goodbye Cochin, Hello Munnar! We’re Nestled in the Mountains
Namaste from Munnar!
So, as all good things must come to an end, our wonderful South and Central Asia Fulbright Conference ended after breakfast this morning. We will be leaving the sheer luxury of Le Meridien Hotel in Cochin, saying goodbye to the new friends we have made and would leave warm memories in our hearts of impeccable arrangements meant to satisfy our every need. I packed my case and went down to Breakfast and ate a South Indian breakfast today—one idli, one vada and one dosa with sambhar and chutney and a bowl of muesli with mango yogurt and fruit as I knew that my next meal would be in Munnar, several hours later. I met up with Michelle, the friend with whom I would be traveling to Munnar in the breakfast restaurant and we made plans to meet in the lobby about 15 minutes later. Accordingly, I brought my case down, checked out and met up with her. Our driver arrived at 9.30 am on schedule and we began the long ride to Munnar.
Drive to and Arrival in Munnar:
About ten years ago, when I had been invited on a sponsored trip to Cochin, I had seen a vast part of the many attractions the state of Kerala could offer. What had been left out then was Munnar—a hill-station nestled in the southernmost end of the Western Ghats and an ideal place for the growth of tea and coffee on its dozens of slopes. I was determined to see Munnar this time and since Michelle, a fellow graduate student Fulbrighter who also lives in Bandra and with whom I have become friendly, was also keen to go there, we made plans to travel to Munnar after the conference. I left all the planning to Michelle and she did a great job reserving rooms in our hotel and organizing a car and a driver who would stay with us for the entire length of three days—so that we would have conveyance when we got there.
The drive to Munnar from Cochin, without any stops, and in ideal conditions would take 3 hours—I think most journeys take four as you do not ever get on to a highway but are driving through rural villages throughout at very low speeds indeed. Once you get to the foothills of the mountains, progress is still slower as there are hairpin bends on very narrow roads that could scare the bejesus out of those endowed with the stoutest of hearts. We were not in a hurry and our driver Abhijit (who spoke very good English and was the dearest man) took it easy and was a very cautious driver. Once we got into the hills, we saw signs telling us about a chocolate factory and so we asked him to stop so that we could check it out.
Visiting a Chocolate Factory and a Spice Garden:
Visiting the chocolate factory was only a chance for us to buy some chocolate from the store attached to it—we got dark chocolate studded with cranberries (as that was Michelle’s preference) and with nuts for me. Basically, we did not see the chocolate being made at all—so factory was a real misnomer there.
The Spice Garden turned out to be a much nicer stop as we had a conducted tour that lasted about 45 minutes given in English by a very knowledgeable woman who showed us such a variety of fruit trees, plants and flowers as to leave us astounded. We had a chance to taste peppercorns growing right off the tree, to smell basil (different kinds), cardamom (while still green and on the plant), cinnamon (we scratched the tender bark to release the fragrance), all spice (it really had leaves that smell of the different spices that make up graham masala), plus we saw the fruit that splits open and falls to the ground to reveal mace and nutmeg inside. There were loads of cacao fruit from which chocolate is made (which explains why there is so much chocolate sold in Kerala), as well as jackfruit, mango and cashew trees. It was a lovely walk that wound through these trees that are very well cultivated and nurtured. When we were done with the tour, we were taken into the shop and encouraged to buy either the Ayurvedic oils, face crams and masks or the packets of spices that were sold in varied quantities. Neither Michelle nor I were in the market to buy anything, so we did not.
We then told our driver to take us straight to our hotel as it was almost 4.30 by then and we were keen to arrive at our destination and relax. Our hotel is called the Lake View Hotel and we did get there just before 5.00 pm.
Settling down into the Lake View Hotel:
The Lake View Hotel is beautiful, but it is literally in the middle of nowhere. It would be the prefect place for a honeymoon or for an elderly couple who would want to do nothing other then rest. We soon discovered that it is about 30 minutes away by car from the town of Munnar on a winding mountain road that is very scary once night falls. But, of course, at that point, we had no idea how far away we were from anything. We seemed to be tucked away in a fold of the mountains with nothing but peaks rising all around us. The sun would be setting in about an hour and we were sure to have stunning views from our room.
We were given a room with a queen bed but asked for a change to be made to a twin bedded one—this was on a lower floor which meant that our view of the river and the lake below us were completely blocked off—much to our disappointment. The receptionist told us that she would move us to a higher floor tomorrow...but I rather doubted that would happen. When you are in such an isolated place, you have to hope that you will have a good TV set with some great channels—so guess what? The entire cable system in India is currently screwed up with the government having recently interfered in the regulation and charges of cable channels. This means that most hotels are not able to offer the variety of channels they once did. We had nothing decent—thank goodness we had good books to read (Michelle on her Kindle and me on my Ipad).
Not long after we checked in, Michelle went for a swim as we have a very nice swimming pool overlooking the hills. I sat down in our balcony overlooking hills on the other side and blogged. Then I got up to stretch my legs and to explore the property before I joined Michelle at the pool to see the sun go down. It was a spectacular sunset as we had cloudless skies. As the sun sank beyond the hills, more peaks came into view, some shrouded by mist. It was truly beautiful.
Dinner at Ali Baba Restaurant:
We told Abhijit that we would like to go to Munnar for dinner and he said he would take us to a place called Ali Baba. It was at that point that we discovered how far away we were from civilization—it was a good 35 minute drive around hairpin bends on narrow roads that had no guard rails. I was not comfortable about this situation at all and decided that we would eat dinner in our hotel tomorrow night as it does have a full-serviced restaurant.
Ali Baba was not bad—it offered a multi-cuisine menu with the emphasis on Middle Eastern offerings. We chose to eat Mutton Dry Fry (a Keralite speciality) and something called Nalan Chicken Stew with steamed rice. The mutton was awesome but the chicken stew was very ordinary. For dessert, I was delighted to find Kanafi on the menu—this is the layered dessert that Llew and I have eaten in Jordan and in Israel: it consists of a creamy under layer, a crisp top made up of thin strands of fried dough and a top most layer of chopped pistachios. The entire dessert is then soaked in saffron-flavored honey. Indeed, it was superb. I have eaten many different kinds of Kanafi in various countries of the Middle East but none comes close to the ones we had in Jordan.
Abhijit drove us back home along that same scary mountain road at the conclusion of our meal when we sank down on our beds and spent a little while reading and unwinding before calling it a day.
Our first introduction to Munnar had been lovely and Michelle and I looked forward to the next two days in this clear mountain air.
Until tomorrow...
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