Tea, glorious Tea

A good nights rest was welcomed by some fantastic pancakes with coconut sugar and home made honey fort breakfast. Mouth watering isn't it?

We took a tour of the Munnar tea plantations taking a peek at the various spice plantations in the area too. It was surprisingly interesting to learn about how they make tea and different variations of tea, and did you know when they pick the trees they only use the top two leaves and the tip..? Well it was news to me too. Tommy taught us so much when he took us through the spice plantations, breaking off leaves here and there asking us to smell them. You never really think which plant all these spices come from and i felt like i was in school again, taking all this knew knowledge. Tommy studied botany at university and has his own nursery and plantation in his backyard behind the homestay, so i say he's is about the best qualified guy in the area to show you round the plantations.

Lunch and dinner were again no small matters. The curries in south India are really fantastic, so much flavour and not too spicy at all. When i asked Tommy why the food is like this, he reckons the curries you get in Europe is Punjabi food cooked by Bangladeshis passed off as Indian food. Point taken.

We also manged to get a real taste of what third world can be like. They live so far from the main electricity exchange that when there are loads of people using their power, theirs cuts out and during the worst instances they even sit in the dark. Writing this i realize it doesn't sound too dissimilar to SA these days..

All in all we had a great time in Munnar, walking along the waterfalls and seeing the villages. One thing i hatet was the leeches that feast on your legs and between toes when you walk through the bush. So vile... if you do not notice them when they bite, by the time you look again they have sucked so much blood they are the size of a jelly bean... just searched whether leeches can spread HIV cause i was worried... for the next guy, no seriously - looks like i have nothing to be concerned about.