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Other entries in Munnar

Alan Shearer!

(Sorry, this is going to be a long one!)

Once we'd satisfied our Keralan backwater-cruise urges, we decided to move on to Munnar, which meant moving further inland, and several thousand feet up into the hills. We couldn't get a direct bus from Alappuzha, so we had to make a change en route. Fortunately, this all went smoothly - the only problem being that we ended up sat next to several wicker baskets that smelt really badly of fish. I think they were being transported to a market or restaurant or something...not the nicest smell to have with you throughout a long bus ride!

As the bus pulled into Munnar, we didn't even have time to get off and set foot on the ground before a Boss stormed the bus and started helping us with our bags. We had no chance, it was a total Bosskrieg. He was asking us where we wanted to go, and we told him the name of a hotel recommended by The Books. He said it was full (that old chesnut!) and that he knew a better one anyway. He asked us where we were from, and in an unsuccessful attempt to throw him off, we said Germany. This only served to make him even more animated, as he insisted that many German tourists go to the gueshouse he had in mind for us, and that we'd like it there and make many German friends! It reminded me of when we arrived in Mahabalipuram, and the Boss tried to take us to a guesthouse that would give him commission for getting us to stay there..."You will like - many English people stay here", he'd said. "But we like Indians", Agent Dolac had retorted. It worked on that occasion, but this Boss was different, not taking no for an answer. Taking a giant leap of faith, we let him take us to his guesthouse of choice...and sure enough, it was really nice. The guestbook had the details of several German people(!), the room was nice and had hot water...could we really be this lucky?

As we filled in our passport/visa details, he realised that we are in fact not German, but British. At this point he started shouting "ALAN SHEARER! ALAN SHEARER!" - apparently the man himself had made a trip to Munnar a few years ago, and the Boss had personally driven him round in his rickshaw. At first i found this hard to believe, but then, hinking about it, Alan Shearer has made some strange decisions in his life, so i figured anything was possible. The Boss then told us that the room we'd got was "not very good" (even though we thought it was fine) and that he would ensure we were moved to a better one the next morning. He also promised to bring a photograph of him with Alan Shearer to prove his story. Intrigued, we went to bed...so far so good...

The next morning, Agent Dolac ventured out in search of his daily chai fix whilst i enjoyed a hot (bucket) shower. When he came back, the Boss was with him. He'd forgotten the Alan Shearer picture, he said, but he'd definitely show it us later. We started to negotiate a fee to hire him for the day to take us round the hills to see the sights. Everything seemed to be going well, so we got our bags together and prepared to move rooms. We assumed that we'd be moving to another room in the same hotel. And so, when he took us outside into his rickshaw, telling us that we were in fact going to the other side of town to a different hotel, we were a tad surprised. Oh well, we thought...

We arrived at the new hotel only to find that the "better room" was in fact a dump, and much worse than the other one (but for the same price). There was no sink, it absolutely reeked of cigarettes, and was generally a bit manky. In our rush to move rooms, i hadn't brushed my teeth (having assumed i'd be moving a few doors down and would therefore be able to do it in a minute anyway). I hate having dirty teeth, so by this point i was just desperate for a sink. We pulled the Boss up on the room situation, pointing out that it wasn't a better room at all. Then he said we could have another room upstairs, that has a sink etc...but it was a few hundred rupees more expensive. We weren't really arsed about the money, but we were pretty annoyed at being messed about. Agent Dolac went upstairs to view this second room, only to discover that it was in fact already occupied by someone else! The Boss was rapidly losing his charisma and charm. Agent Dolac tried to figure out what was going on whilst i nipped into a spare room and brushed my teeth using a bucket of water (eugh). After about an hour or so of messing about, we walked out and down the road, with the Boss chasing after us promising he'd get us a good room. Here we risked getting egg on our faces: clearly, we had no idea which way to walk, and after a few minutes he started telling us we were walking away from town into the middle of nowhere, and he was right. Stubbornly refusing to turn around and go back, we kept walking, and managed to flag down another Boss. We never did see the Alan Shearer picture...i wonder whether it really exists?

Having being saved from one Boss by another, we still needed a place to stay/drop our bags. We were quickly wasting a day so we asked the new Boss to take us to a good guesthouse. He took us to the one we'd stayed at the previous night! Not wanting to stay there in case the Bad Boss spotted us again, we asked the Good Boss to take us down the road to another - much more expensive, but much less hastle. Thankful to finally have somewhere settled to stay, we hired Good Boss to drive us round the sights for the day. We threw an aap kaa naam kyaa hai? into the mix (what is your name? - i think it was Prabhu, for the record), and before we knew it, we'd made ourselves a new friend. He was a young guy, looked about twenty, but very friendly. I liked him because he talked to us a little bit, but not too much like Anthony the boatman in Alappuzha. For the most part we could just sit back and enjoy the scenery as he drove us up into the high hills to see the tea plantations...

Speaking of scenery and tea plantations...it's taken me six paragraphs to mention these...which i feel illustrates the way we were pinged back and forth between rooms on our first night/morning in Munnar, to the extent that we didn't have the chance to really notice just how amazing the landscape around us was. It is absolutely gorgeous, and the tea plantations...such fantastic shades of green as far as the eye can see over the hills. And the climate! Perfect weather - sunny, but very cool. One thing i noticed when we arrived in the evening was that all the Bosses were wearing hoodies, balaclavas, gloves etc (they looked like Ninja Bosses), and they had windshields covering the sides of their rickshaws. I never got an exact temperature reading, but during the nights it must have been close to freezing. Without my sleeping bag, i'd have been shivering the whole night through. With my sleeping bag, i was comfortably warm - such a good feeling after spending the last few weeks lying on sheets soaked with sweat, unable to sleep properly due to the heat.

Anyway, back to the scenery. Prabhu was driving us around the roads that wind up and through the hills, stopping every now and then at good photograph spots so we could take a few snaps. I took so many pictures here, you wouldn't believe...sadly, looking back at them, very few of them capture the sheer colour that stretched out for miles in front of us...you can see darkish skies - lots of cloud and mist, but that's because we were so high up (around 1,600 metres above sea level, so i'm told - home to Anamudi Peak, which at 2695 metres, is the highest peak South of the Himalayas).

We went all the way up to the Top Station, which is right on the border of Kerala and Tamil Nadu (about 35km from Munnar itself). From here we had fantastic views and had a brief chat with some Indians who were themselves tourists from elsewhere in the country. Keen to relax and take in the wonderfully fresh, clean air, we got some chai and sat down for a bit.

On the way back down to Munnar, Prabhu stopped at a public park for a break (he'd been driving all day), and we had a bit of a wander. We stumbled upon a group of Indian guys playing football in the park. All of them were wearing (fake) football shirts - each one of them with a different team or country. Monaco, Inter, Brazil, Arsenal...all of them different, as if they'd decided to not buy the same ones as each other. They called for us to join in. Agent Dolac took off his shoes and socks to play football Indian-style, and i sat back and watched/took some pictures whilst chatting to their own camera-wielder, who bore an uncanny resemblence to Snoop Dogg. Watching these guys playing was proof - if ever it was needed - that football is the greatest sport in the history of the human race.

Next up was some waterfalls. Again, Prabhu stopped so we could take some pictures. We were feeling adventurous, and started doing a little rock climbing to get right up to the water. One rock was particularly steep and slippy - sliding down it was one thing, climbing back up was another...Prabhu saved the day with a death-defying grab of my arm as he himself teetered on the edge - my hero.

We'd had such a good day and were loving Prabhu's work so much that we asked him to take us to a wildlife reserve the next day. It was a long, long drive (several hours in a rickshaw), but again, the scenery was so amazing we didn't mind. Sadly, we didn't really see any animals, just a few deer, buffalo, and a hell of a lot of devious-looking monkeys that tried to steal our water out of the back of Prabhu's rickshaw. On the other hand, we saw some workers picking the tea on the side of the hills, which looked great. Also, on the way there, we drove past a gang of Indians wearing bright orange clothes, walking up the hill roads. Prabhu said they were making a 120km pilgrimmage to a temple somewhere up in the hills. Poynton High School sponsored walk, eat your heart out. And yes, they were still making their way up the hill at the end of the day as we made our way home. Dedication, that's what you need.

When we got back to Munnar, we found ourselves slap-bang in the middle of some sort of festival - lots of people marching in bright colours, wearing headresses, marching bands...huuuuuuge lines of women divided into groups of colour. I never did find out exactly what it was, but it was great to see anyway - everyone out on the streets watching as the parade went along, people dancing and singing in the streets - great stuff.

Munnar is mint - it's a close tie between here and Mahabalipuram for my favourite place so far.

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