Munnar Hill Station - Tea and Cardamom

We arrived in Munnar yesterday (Sunday) after a very pleasant 4 hr drive from Cochin. What was extra special was that the driver was calm and didn’t lay on the horn the whole drive like the other driver we hired. We were able to stop and take pictures, have the best chai ever and even stopped at a pharmacy for some more cough medicine for Steve.

Our homestay and the Munnar Hill Station region is truly magnificent country. 4,000+ feet above sea level in the Ghats mountains with lush mountain and deep valley vistas of tea hedges and cardamom fields nestled in by huge rock formations. It is drop dead gorgeous with fresh cool air and a calmness we now realize we needed. After a couple weeks of hectic Indian-style city life this is the India Lite we need to recharge. Olive Grove Homestay in fantastic with wonderful tea of course and EXCELLENT food. I went for a great walk with the hotel guide through the tea and cardamom fields then we had our first Indian cookery class. It was everything we dreamt of and more. We made fish molei with coconut milk and a symphony of Indian spices, and then they added several others dishes to our dinner table living up to Kerala’s’ reputation of some of the best Indian food. We met two other independent women travelers from Germany and Australia and had very stimulating conversations from books, travel to investment banking. We love this part of travel – fellow travelers always open the window to the world even more than travel itself.

Tuesday went for a morning walk and vegged, reading on our veranda all cozy with the outside rocks, flowers and birds.

Laurie