Needless to say but after getting to bed at 5:30am and waking up at 5:30am the day before, we needed a lie in. In the afternoon we ventured into Munnar and after lunch at the busy and popular diner Rapsy’s we took a rickshaw out to the Tea Museum at a tea factory a few kilometres out of town. Having passed kilometre after kilometre of tea plantations in the past few days we thought it was fitting to learn more about the tea business.
Busy downtown Munnar:
The Tea Museum as pointed out by our lovely model:
The surrounding area including homes and schools for the local workers:
The 100 rupee ($2.20) entrance fee included a free cup of tea at the end of the tour...what a bargain. We were first ushered into a room for a 20 minute video about the history of tea in these hills. I have to admit, I was quite surprised by the quality of the film which detailed the first British explorers discovering the area and realizing how ideal it was for tea trees to grow. It continued to describe how the working conditions had changed over time and it is impressive that the once company controlled set of plantations and factories is now majority owned by the employees with everyone receiving shares in the company. It’s interesting to note that the company was Tata, a large corporation still active today in products from mineral water to automobiles. They manufacture the Nano, the cheapest car in the world. Manu up in Manali took me for a few rides in his bright red Nano in Manali back in May. Not a bad little car but I’d hate to see it after an accident!
Naomi posing by a variety of tea plant seedlings:
Watching tea dry is about as exciting as watching paint dry:
After the movie we were led on a short tour of some of the factory where the tea leaves are dried and ground up to various leaf sizes to create different flavours of tea. Unfortunately the guide spoke with a heavy Indian English accent and we didn’t comprehend all of the information. To finish we briefly wandered through a few rooms with artefacts from tea days gone past and then went to receive our free cup of cardamom tea.
Naomi seemingly happy to be around large tea making machinery:
The Tea Museum in action:
Checking out the artifacts:
Enjoying our post tour cup of tea:
There was a super small room that served as a gift shop. On the shelves through the window were a variety of tea mugs with a background shot of the undulating hills surrounding Munnar covered in trimmed tea trees. For extra you could get your picture superimposed on the mug and also a slogan added. My eye was caught by one cup that had a young man probably in his early 20s with his mirror shades on, iPod earphones in his ears as he struck a super cool “bar star” pose with the slogan “Mesmerizing Munnar”. Pretty damn funny! There was a date of September 28, 2011 on it...so it was recently made too.
Earlier in our trip I had chastised Naomi a bit for using 5-6 paper cups each day at work for coffee. Not that I’m a super environmentalist but when there are simple habit changes that can make a little difference, why not do it? “Why not use a mug?” I posed to her. Convenience was her main answer. Well here was my solution to the problem. I asked if I bought the cup for her whether she would promise to use it at work and surprisingly she agreed. She too was captivated by our “Mesmerizing Munnar Man”.
Mesmerizing Munnar Man...now known as Mesmo:
It started to rain while we were in the factory, the first rain we’ve had since Naomi’s been here and the first she’s seen since February. Our rickshaw was long gone so we began to walk in to town but luckily were picked up by a rickshaw with one customer in it who didn’t mind sharing the ride.
One of two booze outlets in Munnar...more like a prison with the bars across the front:
We both enjoy Honey Bee brandy, my father would be proud as he enjoyed his “boat gas”:
We decided that even with no elephant sightings, we had “done” Munnar. Time to head south about a hundred kilometres to Thekkady where there is the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary...perhaps we’ll spot the pesky pachyderms there...
A recent pic from Naomi who is now back at work with Mesmo in action in Israel...good on ya Naomi!
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