Great to find some coolness

Nice to have a little coolness after four months of heat.

The mountains in this area at about 1500m makes a huge difference in temperatures and great to cool down a little from the heat in SA before we left and what we experienced when we arrived in India.

Our trip to Munnar. 165kms in four hours from Fort Cochi was very monotonous with not much change of very busy roads and getting through the towns by hooting to overtake, but very tolerant driving.....our new driver Ashmid  is brilliant. There is very little open land in-between the towns, but noticed that the bigger wealthier homes are outside of the towns. Arrived in Munnar in the afternoon updated our blog and went to the Kalarippayattu martial arts traditional village in the evening. 

Amazing talent and the entire "Punarjani" family, with five  sons are involved as the performers. Using all types of weapons, fire rings, the passion by these men is incredible, the body control and the connection between the them is to be experienced. I have amazing photographs and note the orbs in some of them. They pray before each and every fight and give thanks and ask for protection from the spirits. They end with an amazing chant, which I have recorded and will try and paste on FB.

It seems that the only other tourists about are Indians from Delphi who speak a different language to the locals here so everything is in English, which helps us tremendously. A family we came across today, asked if we were enjoying India, I replied, very beautiful, "Bohut sundar hai",  the man took  my hand and said," thank you so much for appreciating our country". 

The friendliness of all Indians has really surprised us and I have a totally different sense of respect for them. There is absolutely no aggression in anything that they do, the drivers, hotel staff, the vendors on the streets, the school children that you encounter who seem to have never seen a white faced person before and all they want is your photograph with them. We have been embraced by everyone that we meet, taxi and rickshaw drivers, shop keepers who cannot speak English, chai (tea) and coffee sellers on the train and in the street. Say "no thank you" and they leave you alone. Police and guards, to bus conductors and woman in the toilets!! we have just not encountered any problems at all, its smiles and your need is their command, ask for anything and they will make a plan, literally! A land go my that brings only one song to Ming "no worries, be happy"!!

When walking up the mountain today at the Evarikulim Natural Park I was bombarded by a bunch of school kids who could just not leave me alone and they insisted on taking photos all the way. At one stage they were told by their teachers to leave me alone and stopped. I carried on walking, enjoying the openess and a quietness. Came across many endangered Nilgiri Ibex (looks like a muntain goat). I then realized that someone was following me and when he caught up, it was the schools History teacher and he had followed me furthwr along the road, without the school kids, so that he could take a photo of him and I with his cell phone!! 

When I mentioned to the kids that i was from SA, they immediately said that they knew Nelson Mandela!!  So enjoyed been in nature and not hearing hooting and crows!! The only clean place that we have seen so far, not too much litter, but what a bus ride that was. A single windy road all the way up with packed busses going in both directions it was very hair raising!! 

Who said that you only get "groen millies" in SA. We had our own roasted by a  very old couple along the side of the road, just before going over the Madupatty Dam, which was under construction in 1953, after the roads between Munnar and Aliva in 1939 were completed. 

From there to the Kavan Devan Hills Platation Company tea museum, which began since the roads and mono rails were built to assist with supplies in 1900. The British pioneered and started the plantation and this has now become a multiple million industry in India.  In 1964 James Finley & co limited enters into collaboration with Tata and in 1976 Tata purchases the entire Indian interest and Tata-Finley Limited is born. There is supposedly an active NGO which has collaborated with the Government to create a Environmental Preservation association, which is rather difficult to believe when you see the pollution about and especially in the local Dam! 

In 1980 Tata tea comes into being and in 1983 becomes the largest Asian Supe Tea Factory, and becomes fully automated in 1990 and organic tea cultivation starts in 2005. The KDHP is now the largest participating management company in India with more than 12500 employees as shareholders and Tata now only own 16 percent shares. Which probably has some ups and downs........

Off to Thekkady tomorrow.