Post #106 – January 25, 2013 – Kochi, Kerala, India

What we did: bus to Munnar

Budget: 3500R/$70; Spent: 2680R/$54

We got up feeling very sleepy but managed to drag ourselves down for breakfast. It’s been great the past few mornings. We have been playing loud party music first thing and that has been giving us a serious boost of energy. Why don’t we do that at home before work?!

At breakfast we met very nice couple from San Diego, California. They really know how to travel and it sounded as though they were having an amazing time in India. They managed to find several hidden gems that not too many tourists go to. They had a lot of experience travelling, especially the man. He had been all over. He was telling us about his time in Calcutta and giving us advice on where to go in Thailand. The key to their success in India seemed to be their ability to make friends easily. They said that’s how they would end up at unique places, just based on advice and experience from others. We’re going to try to challenge ourselves to start talking to more strangers from now on.

We ended up talking too long and we checked out a little later than we had hoped. We needed to catch a rickshaw to the ferry to get across to Ernakulam to grab a taxi to then catch the 11am bus to Munnar.

We managed to get to the bus depot no problem and hopped right onto the bus headed for Munnar. It was another scorcher and it seemed we chose the wrong side of the bus. Half my body was in the sun for a lot of the trip until finally we figured out how to close the window. It was overall an uncomfortable 4.5 hour ride into the hills of Kerala, but for less than $4 for the two of us, we can’t complain too much. We did sit in a tight space with no AC packed in like little sardines in the heat for 4.5 hours, not to mention with all our bags sitting on top of us, but for $4 and a safe arrival to beautiful Munnar, it was worth it. Climbing up the green hills, India was unrecognizable. I have never seen anything like this place. I have never even imagined a place like this. I can’t even really compare it to anything we have ever seen. It is so different. I could compare it to what I imagine the hills of England and Ireland look like but it’s just not a good comparison. The sun is too bright and the sky too blue in Kerala. There are coulourful wild flowers that grow everywhere.  There are these perfectly symmetrical tea trees in the valleys below the road on the hill. It’s a stunning sight. Some of the best views we’ve seen the whole trip: tea plantations on the sides of huge hills as far as the eye could see, beautifully manicured plants, tall, elegant trees, areas where the trees were planted around huge rocks sticking out of the ground; it is an amazing place that hopefully we can get pictures of!

Fortunately in the hills the temperature is much nicer. We got off the bus feeling excited to be there and explore. The first item on the agenda was seeing if a cheaper alternative to the hotel we already booked was available. We decided it was a better option for us since it was closer to town, giving us more options, it was also cheaper and Lonely Planet’s top choice for accommodation. Sadly they were completely full. So, we moved to plan B and decided to head to the place we booked. We were still positive about it though since the Trip Advisor reviews had been glowing with an unreal 67+ “Excellent” ratings. And it was also one of Lonely Planet’s recommendations. So we figured we couldn’t go wrong. The only downside would be the location, which was 22 km from Munnar. It’s quite isolated. The hotel offered cheap pick up from the town so we gave them a call for a ride using our taxi driver’s cell phone. A guy told us they would be there to pick us up in 10 minutes right outside the Green Leaf restaurant in Munnar.

Munnar has a traffic problem; it took us about an hour to move a kilometre or two into the city centre; traffic was actually just not moving for 5-10 minutes at a time; we would inch forward then stop again. Before getting picked up we realized we needed to take more money out so we ran to ATM and then went in search of the Green Leaf restaurant we had seen on our way into town. I couldn’t remember where I had seen the hotel so we grabbed an auto-rickshaw there.

We waited for about 20 minutes for our ride to show. We started panicking a little because we thought we had missed him. Finally just as we had asked a stranger to borrow his cell phone to call them again, an auto-rickshaw showed up.

The ride to hotel took about 45 minutes and was a bumpy one. As we got closer, we realized it wasn’t anywhere near the tea plantations or the views we loved so we were somewhat disappointed.

We were greeted by a worker and led to our room. We had the choice between two rooms and we chose the cheaper option. The other room was a little more expensive but included dinner; we inquired about the cost of dinner and it didn’t seem to make sense to go for the more expensive option.

We were starving and decided to go check out the restaurant and the view Lonely Planet mentioned was quite lovely. The view was okay but nothing worth noting. It was no different than the surrounding areas of the rest of the hotel so I’m not sure why they made any mention of it. So this was also slightly disappointing for us since we had banked on having some wonderful views of the area at this hotel.

It turned out the restaurant didn’t open for an hour. We went back to room to shower, but couldn’t get the hot water working so we went to check whether the hotel set up any tours and discovered that none of the workers really spoke any English at all. We got more information from a taxi driver that had been hired for a couple days by a guest. He told us about a nice route we could take. By this time we were starting to feel pretty negative about the hotel, its staff, and its location. We should have known better, but I guess we figured if a hotel is going to be situated in a forest, 22 km away from the main town, there would be tours and transportation to and from the town available… or at the very least there would be staff who spoke enough English to assist us with making our own arrangements. None of the above applied at this place so we were beginning to feel a bit trapped and as though India was taking back 10-fold what Mr. Walton’s had given us. This is another example of the extremes in India. Outstanding service in Kochi, and poor to non-existent service at this place. Dew Drops is the name of the hotel.

So, disgruntled, we began asking ourselves if maybe we were just tired or being too negative or high maintenance. We sat in our room discussing our options and decided we would cut our losses and head back into town to find somewhere else to stay. By this time it was 7:30pm and we were hungry. We sat down at the table. Naturally there was no menu. The meals were the same for all guests. We could only choose between veg and non-veg; dinner was OK. In good Patty fashion, I dropped our bowl of rice in the veg dish I was enjoying.  Being so terrified of bacteria, I decided not to eat the rest. The taxi driver we had met earlier sat down next to us during dinner and we chatted with him for a bit. He said he would give us the name of a reputable travel agency in town so that we could arrange for a tour in the coming days. What a gentleman. This guy didn’t even work at this hotel. He kept assuring me and Jeff that this was a nice place to stay, but that they were simply understaffed and the service was lacking. He almost sounded apologetic for them. He even started clearing our table of the dishes to help the server out. I wasn’t too fond of the German guy he was driving around though. He was much too interested in what Jeff had to say, and had little interest in anything coming out of my mouth. I’m beginning to notice this trend more than ever here. Indian men all too often won’t even acknowledge my presence. They won’t say hello to me, they direct all their questions and niceties to Jeff. I open my mouth and have to repeat myself several times. Just today, I asked a guy if I could use his cell phone. I asked him 3 different times in the exact same volume and tone and then finally he said “Oh, cellphone!” They won’t even look at me. Then there’s the European men we’ve met who will say hello, but then have no interest in holding a conversation. I have never felt so invisible before. It drives me crazy. And it’s too bad, really, because now I have stopped trying. I have to keep reminding myself that it’s not everybody. And by closing my mouth, I am perpetuating an unacceptable cycle of treatment of women. I’m worried I’m going to open my mouth in the wrong way, though, and say something I will regret.

After dinner we met up with the taxi driver and he gave us the contact info of the travel agency. We went to our rooms and showered and watched Django Unchained while eating KurKure chips - a blessed snack invented by the Indians and real joy to munch on these days. Django was a disturbing depiction of slavery in the several years prior to the American civil war. I literally had to turn away from watching some scenes. Tarantino has got a twisted mind I tell you. Aside from the unnecessary violence I enjoyed it. Jeff not so much though. I have to say that Leonardo DiCaprio was amazing in it. The bad guy from Inglorious Basterds also gave a great performance. But both Jeff and I have been noticing more and more that movies these days lack heart. Almost every night we have been watching movies both recent and old. And it's become apparent that nobody dares get too emotional in their movies nowadays. Good stories like Lincoln and even Django Unchained have very little character development and there's often no moral to the stories. Again there's just no heart. Does anybody else agree with this? Anyways we've been ranting about this lately but I won't delve into the details of our conversations to save you from boredom.