A Few Stops Along the Way

I'm going to break this trip up into a few different posts so you don't get bored reading...and well I don't have all of the pictures off the camera yet.  This past weekend, we took a trip to Munnar, a city known for tea plantations.  The city name comes from munu meaning three and aaru meaning rivers and can you guess.... is settled in between three different rivers 2,000 to 2,600 meters above sea level.  Thanks Wikipedia, you are so knowledgeable.

Munnar is approximately 60 miles from Kochi, yet it takes 3-4 hours to get there due to road conditions and driving up the mountains.  We all piled in a van and left early Saturday morning.  We made a few stops along the way to stretch our legs (Jason, Eric and I were crammed in the back and glad for the stops to stretch).  First, we stopped at a rubber plant farm.  I have no idea what to really call it.. but natural rubber or caoutchouc is produced by some plants.  An incision is made into the bark and the latex sap is collected and refined into rubber.  How's that for naturally awesome?  The sap felt just like elastic sap basically.  A little sticky and stretchy.

One of the workers with the rubber tree

Jason and Eric posing by the waterfall.  They were afraid to get wet (awww...)

The second must have been a popular waterfall as there were many tours that stopped there.  Eric and I even saw one of the guys from our Backwater tour there with another group.  The cute, little old Japanese guy just tapped my shoulder, smiled really big and waved.  He asked where Eric and I were from and we said the US.  For most people, that's enough, but he wanted to know what state.  "Indiana" we tell him.  He got a big grin on his face and said he'd been there before.  Of course, I ask what city and it takes him about 30 minutes to figure out the name (Columbus, IN) but he did manage to tell us it was south of "Indiana - polis".  Said just like that!  It even took me a minute to understand.  Apparently he works for Toyota, but hadn't heard of Princeton...or it was just lost in translation.  Still.... small world.

Elephant riding!

Another stop along the way (I promise...we WILL make it to Munnar eventually) was to ride elephants!  I don't think I've ever been on an elephant before unless it was at the circus and that doesn't really count.  For a 25 minute trek it only cost $7.  Take that Hadi Shrine Circus!  What do they charge now to ride one walking a circle on a stadium floor?  Too much, I'm sure.  While riding, the elephant decided it needed to take care of business.  All of a sudden, Jason and I heard a few big thumps and then what sounded like someone pouring water out of a 5 gallon buck.  Bathroom break!  Jason and I started laughing and the guide took a picture of the elephant doing it's business.  This is the same guide that was missing most of his teeth yet still tried to get me to eat wild berries by showing me that he was eating them (and kept opening his mouth).  Eww.

Our elephant guide took my camera to take pictures along the way and had horrible camera skills.  He wouldn't stop moving and eventually I asked for it back.  Only 3 or 4 of about 30 turned out and I'm not exaggerating.

A manger scene at the Spice Garden

 
Our last stop along the way - actually I think the elephant thing was.. but I'm not rewording it - was at a Spice Garden.  Eric and I went to one on the backwater cruise Friday, but this one was bigger.  I took lots of pictures of different plants, but now can't remember which ones are which.  I should have been that tourist taking notes.  Instead, I uploaded a video of a touch-me-not plant.  I seriously want one of these when Jason and I finally settle down.  The mimosa pudica plant, also known as a touch me not, is a perennial herb whose leaves fold inward and droop when touched or shaken.  I am pretty amazed by it and surprised I hadn't seen one before.  Thanks to Peter for allowing me to record his interaction with the famous touch me not plant.


I attempted to keep this short, but failed miserably.  Stay tuned... I will post later of when we finally got to Munnar.