Munar Trip Day 1

We left at 10 am for a long drive to Munar. However, before we left Changanacherry Xavier has to perform an opening ceremony at new business premises that belonged to one of his cousins.

We travelled in a 17 seater minibus that Xavier had hired for the three days. Driver Anil showed his skills on what was mile after mile of winding roads up many valleys. The roads themselves were often very broken so the journey took a long time. After tea stops and a food break we arrived at the Paradise Getaway hotel near Munar at about 9 pm. It was dark but judging by the lights we were high up in a valley. We had dinner and retired for a good nights sleep. The hotel was very high quality with every comfort and great food. Food is very cheap in India and even in this high class hotel a meal for seven people cost about £40.

On the journey we saw many tea plantations, as well as rubber, pineapple, tapioca, coconut and banana.

The partially ripe coconuts are sold at the side of the road and opened up for their milk. The young or tender coconut inside could be scraped out like a cream.

The bananas were a bit smaller that what we were used to but full of flavour and an ideal size for a snack.

Kerala Backwaters Trip

Along with about twenty five of the wider family we enjoyed a trip on a river boat for a six hour trip in the Kerala Backwaters. This area is riddled with waterways that feed canals and irrigation for the paddy fields.  Our boat, the Bluebird, had seating on two decks and food was provided about lunchtime. There were plenty of birds and wild flowers to see. A lot of the plants were very familiar to us as indoor plants.

We stopped near a Toddy shop which serves a sort of beer made from the milk that is tapped from the trunk of a coconut palm tree. This is a similar process to tapping rubber.

The young ones had a lot of fun with their smart phone cameras and Yvonne managed to get a few singing Corrymeela songs!