What we did: toured Munnar
Budget: 3500R/$70; Spent: 2545R/$51
We slept in a little later than we hoped but it didn’t matter much. Today was one of the best days we have had in a long, long time. We ate the buffet breakfast at our hotel, packed our stuff… again… and left our hotel to find the other hotel; 3 nights in Munnar,3 different hotels, but that’s okay.
We didn’t know the way to the new hotel so we stopped at another hotel to get directions and learned the hotel was 12 km out of town. We didn’t believe it or want to believe it so we went to an internet café to check. Google map showed our hotel was closer to town, but we figured the map must be wrong.
We talked with the other drivers and confirmed it was way out of the city. The purpose of changing hotels in the first place was to stay close to town, so heading to the new hotel was pointless. We hired a driver for 20 rupees to take us to some hotels nearby to find a room. Fortunately for us the festival was pretty much winding down so rooms were opening up in most places! At this point we just wanted to find somewhere decent to stay in the town of Munnar. The third place we went to fit the bill and we booked it there. It was 700 rupees for the night ($14)! And get this, it was by far the best value of all the places we stayed. Again, we learned that more money does not necessarily equate to better value or higher quality. We spent more than twice as much to stay in the previous two hotels and we were in the worst spirits of the whole trip. It all made us reflect some more on where we had been and what had led us to this point. For the past two weeks or so, we have been spending more money than usual on accommodations and expecting more. It was as if we thought a more expensive room (hopefully a nicer room) would make our time in India better, more comfortable. But sitting in that 700 rupee room made us realize that we were the problem. It was our attitude toward India that had caused us so much misery. In fact, this inexpensive little room had everything we needed.
We walked into our new room and had another small breakdown. India has been breaking us down since December 13. We have been slowly changing and evolving and this was yet another defining moment for us. Again, we reiterated how disappointed in ourselves we were. What had become of us? We had turned into the worst of ourselves. And after some talking and beating ourselves up all we could do was pick ourselves up and make the decision to be better. It was hard to do this. It would have been so much easier to hide away in our rooms and be mad at ourselves, but it was time to stop being babies and start being good to ourselves and the world and become our best selves. Once we got going it was as simple as turning a switch. And when we turned the switch, our world changed. We now have an analogy about life: be a leaf and let the wind carry you. We sound like Gandalf/Yoda/Uguay (Kung Fu Panda), but this motto resonated with us in a really important way as we began reflecting. It all reminds me of the movie The Exotic Marigold Hotel. We had become too rigid and too cynical to enjoy the vast contrasts between our culture and Indian culture. It was time to become leaves.
The driver who took us to find a hotel told us he could take us around for the day. It was already about 11am and we hadn’t done any exploring in our 2 days in Munnar so we took him up on his offer. We asked the driver to take us to grab a quick bite to eat at a cheap place nearby. When we got there the driver ordered something for us at the place next door which was not the place we wanted to eat at it. Instead of fighting it, we went with the flow and quickly learned how much it pays off to just relax and go with the flow (like leaves). It was the cheapest lunch we have had to date (about $1.25). And it was really tasty. It made us realize how we had been programming ourselves to fight to get exactly what we wanted because our initial reaction was to say no to the taxi driver and order for ourselves at the other place.
After eating he took us around some back country roads up in the hills and tea plantations. Turned out he loved photography and had quite a good eye for photos. He had us pose and would stop us to take our picture together. We got along really well with him. Despite a bit of a language barrier we managed to communicate pretty well. He had a good sense of humour. We took a picture near a fancy bungalow on the top of a hill and he joked that we should tell all our friends we stayed there. Now that I mentioned this, I guess we can’t go ahead with the joke.
After this he took us to his home. We met his mother and son, and other relatives. He brought us coffee and we sat there looking through his wedding album. He and his wife did not have an arranged marriage. They married for love. Their house has two rooms, a kitchen and a bedroom/living room. He works at a tea factory nearby and this type of home is given to the workers as part of their compensation. He works full time at the factory and part time as an auto-rickshaw driver. He also owns a home in town. We were lucky to get him. He stuck to his guns about where we should visit even when we had other ideas. He really hosted us the whole day. It was neat too because he was 25 years old, so to see first-hand how local around our age lives was interesting. He told us he was planning a trip to Goa with about 15 of his friends. It would be his first time going to Goa and he seemed pretty excited.
Before we left his home, we gave his son a Snickers bar and his little cousin a Canada pin. We took a picture with them and said our goodbyes. We decided to head into town to buy a bottle of wine for sunset. It took about an hour to get into town because of the traffic and it was already getting late.
Jeff had some stomach issues on the way in and had to jump out of the auto-rickshaw and run into a restaurant while we waited in the stagnant horde of traffic for him.
We went to buy alcohol at a nearby shop. Everyone was looking at me because women apparently don’t buy alcohol in India. But of course men are allowed to be drunk in line buying more alcohol. Heaven forbid a lady buys some wine to sip on for a beautiful sunset. On our way back to the Tuk tuk, I stopped at a little shop by myself to buy some chocolate to go with our wine. A guy who had been standing in line at the alcohol store was also there. He looked at me and asked me if I really bought wine. I responded smiling and said “yes… why do you ask?” He mumbled something and said “just wondering.” He looked disappointed and I think he was expecting me to be embarrassed or something, but the whole time I was thinking to myself “honey, I couldn’t care less what you think.” And it felt good and I hope he read it on my face.
We jumped into the car and our driver took us to a popular lookout point across a big bridge that took us to a valley and to a string of large hills. We had seen these hills when we came in the first day and I was hoping to go there so I was happy he took us there. It was indeed a beautiful view, but there were too many people. We ventured up the hill to find our own spot to settle in for the sunset. When we got up the hill the sun was shining so brightly and we saw a big group of guys playing cricket further ahead. We walked through some thick tea plants and found a secluded spot on a huge flat rock overlooking the valley and the hills with the sunset just in front of us. If we were in a movie, Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” would come in and it would be cliché and cheesy, but for us it was simply precious. Turned out we had an hour before the sun actually set. We talked for a long time about how far we had come since our travels first started. We sat there with our wine and chocolate in hand just looking out at the view. We filmed ourselves on Jeff’s Iphone to capture our thoughts in those moments. We talked about how India has changed us and made us rethink the kind of people we are. It was a beautiful moment. In the end, we came to the conclusion that despite the rough times (and there were lots), we have an unconditional love for this country and its people. India taught us some tough lessons about life. India taught us important things about ourselves. We’re not as worldly and open-minded as we believed we were when we arrived in Tokyo in October. We’re so privileged in Canada that we often felt entitled. Our sense of entitlement: this was our biggest obstacle during our travels. Life’s enjoyment does not come about by getting what you want when you want it. We learned first hand that life’s greatest thrills and joys come from adapting to what life throws at you. It’s about making the best of the moments we have. If life’s crappy now, that’s okay. It’s not about pretending it’s not crap, it’s about asking yourself, how can I learn from this. How is this going to build character and how can we make the best of it. The toughest times are the most important opportunities to grow and learn about yourself. For too long we have dwelled on unpleasant situations. For a time, the negativity consumed us and we felt utterly lost. It wasn’t until we reflected on the toughest moments that we realized we were our own worst enemy. I believe attitude is one of the most powerful tools we have as human beings. If it wasn’t for India I’m not sure we would have ever learned this. Actually, scratch that. If it wasn’t for India, we would not have learned that we were powerful enough to change our attitude and furthermore change our experience. For that, we are grateful.
Once the sun had set, we walked back to the main road and caught an auto-rickshaw into town. We then went for dinner at SN Restaurant again and had a pretty nice, cheap dinner.
After dinner, went back to the hotel and watched Back to the Future: Part 3. We both really enjoyed it. A great end to a great day.
Tomorrow, off to Kochi for one night before heading to Kolkata!
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