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.

It's not about the taxi

We arranged a round trip of Kerala with our homestay. So he organized us a taxi to take us round as all the tour bus prices were exorbitant. Biiig mistake. Our taxi driver could not speak a word of English so when he arrived at a place where we wanted to go to let us know by saying "yes". Celia and I by the third time of asking were as well trained as the Elephants we were going to see, so we knew to get out the car.

We stopped off first at this Elephant training camp, it was amazing to be able to see fully grown Indian elephants at such close range and we even fed them coconuts. The trainers ordered them to lie down on the banks of the river and with the left over coconut shells, we gave them a good body scrub. Celia's index finger clamped to the camera shutter release (gotto get that thing checked). It was really exciting and the young elephants were really cute too. The one adult loved you playing with his trunk so much and used to sniff away at anything you wore on your wrist, trying to grab it with the tip of his trunk.

This is about where the fun stopped because when they were turning them over to wash the other side if they did not listen they would whip them and poke them with this massive brass hook. Did not enjoy that, but they ensured us it was all for training. This carried on for a while and the elephants were calling out in distress so we left.

We left early and went from there to the training center where in this cage at the entrance they had 2 baby elephants separated from their mothers, apparently "lost from the herd", not older than a couple months. Their trunks not longer than my forearm. It was horrible, they were crying out when the trainers hit them... it's disturbing just writing this.

There happened to be a TV crew there from some Indian channel, obviously seeing Celia and I visibly distressed, asked us if they could interview us. We both gave our strong opinions. Mine obviously more elaborately expressed than Celia's (still want to be a TV star) and went on our way. Taxi driver bleak that we ditched this place without even going in (obv. a gem of a place to him) so service getting increasingly worse.

From here we headed off to Munnar, but first a couple introductory facts:

Munnar its nearly 1600 metres above sea level and happens to be the highest tea plantation in the world. Adjacent to the tea fields is Anaimudi, the highest peakin South India, standing there at a massive 8 842 ft.

Now back to my story. Just passed Munnar town is Eravikulam National Park and home of the Nilgiri Tahr, an endangered species of the wild goat and the only one to be found south of the Himalayas. Its really amazing to see, and the trek up the single windy mountain road def worth it albeit a bit expensive.

By the time i got out the National Park it was pretty late and time to find our accommodation, with the driver already starting irritating us, i wanted to get to my room as soon as possible.

The story of this evening could use another blog post but it's so tiring and so old i will not bore you. Basically I sent the idiotic driver home on the evening of the first day because he was trying to cheat us out of money and get home early the following morning, therefore ruining our time.

Now that he was gone for good we could enjoy our dinner at the Rose Gardens homestay with, Tommy, Rajee and their fantastic children.

I sat back with a cold Kingfisher, chapatee in hand and enjoyed the fresh mountain air Kerala was offering me.

Cherai Beach

So last night we went to see some tradional Kerala dancing which is not really my thing at all and were gonna leave halfway after the best parts were over, but surprise, surprise it wasn't bad and i actually stayed till the end. Just love watching these South Indians bobbing their heads from side to side and all.

No rain on this day so we decided to take a day trip down to Cherai beach as my tan needed some topping up after my shower. We hired a rickshaw for the day and had a fantastic driver, when the Indians hear you are South African all they want to do is talk about cricket which is fine by me. They are so passionate and their lack of language is made up by colourful facial expressions and head bobbing (love it).

Cherai beach was not all that it could have been. There's been a lot of rain here and they were experiencing a very high tide, so no swimming on the rocky beach as it was pretty dangerous even for a Baywatch veteran as myself.

Memories of Mauritius soon came flooding back to me as the local men found out about this white female lying on the beach. All taking turns to come and stare, young and old, eyes almost bursting out the sockets. I had to put a stop to this, getting seriously bleak. One guy was taking the mick so i told him where to go, in the most polite way i could muster at that point.

The drive back was just as enjoyable, you can take in so many sights and sounds on a rickshaw and this guy was willing to stop whenever we wanted to take a photo. We saw a large male Elephant on his way to temple walking down the road. This is very strange as everyone just carries on as per normal. This nation really do have wild animals in their backyard unlike the rest of the world believe us Africans do.

On our way back in Fort Cochin we stopped off in the local bazaar to get Celia a sari, i splurged on the most expensive one there, a whole 900 Rupee. Celia chose while i got malayed by mozzies coming out of the infested drains, it was worth it. The sari is beautiful and im sure Celia will look lovely in it.

The rain in Kerala...

So we've been in Kochi for the most of a day and we've been fortunayte enough to be stuck in major storms which is why i am on the internet again. It's either that or Bollywood movies in the hotel room.

Just a quick one: Asking Celia this morning what the exchange rate is from the pound to the rupee, she says and this is not a lie... " 31 pounds will get you 2500 rupees", I still look at her in disbelief. You would expect someone to say "1 to 10 or 1 to 270..." but her answer was special enough to add to this blog...

Yogya

We arrived in Yogyakarta after a crazy 6 hour travel journey (minibus ride). The area where we stayed, Marlioboro, is a street of batic stalls, street vendors and sidewalk eateries Indo style.

We found a nicish hotel, but again, as always in Indo, it required lots of haggling. It was still overpriced in my opinion, but we were both too tired to care. Hardest thing in the world is to find a restaurant that serves beer in an Islamic dominated city. Celia and i walked the streets flat looking for that elusive Bintang to quench our thirst. We eventually ended up back at our hotel and smashed a couple in record time.

Can't really remember what we did on the second day there, but a lot of our time is often spent trying to get flights to our next destination or try sort out odds and ends, Internet, blah blah. Very time consuming. I'm glad people actually read this. Oh yes.... we went to pizza hut for lunch. A nice change from nasi (rice) but as usual we ordered too much and totally stuffed our faces swearing to never go back there again. Pizzas these days are hilarious, you get a thick based pizza which obv. has melted cheeze on top, a base which contains cheese and these cheese finger type things around the edges loaded with extra cheese... (Borat: What is this.....???)

The evening ends up with a trip to the Sultans palace and the bird market. Apparently the Yogya people are very proud of their pet birds. The cages and local birds are very beautiful, some people also sold exotic reptiles and mammals - not sure how legal it is, but it made for some interesting photos. When we got back to the hotel room i turned on to one of the very few English channels we have there and was treated to one of the worst movies i have ever seen - "Frankenfish", can somebody please hire it one day, pleeeaaaaassseeee??

We end up at Bourbadour (think that's how one spells it) on the last day which is the biggest Buddhist temple in the world, yes you heard it, the world! It's a registered world heritage site and looks truly impressive from afar, just as the pyramids do, but when you get on it there's not too much to it if you don't really understand Buddism and all that. Sorry to sound so uneducated... i will try read up on it at a later stage.... NAAAAAATTTT!

One really funny moment, you had to be there though, was when our Indonesian driver was trying to call these passengers in the bus, they never heard him, so he shouted "Hey Japanese..." Was rolling off my chair laughing, only in Asia could someone get away with that.

Evening arrived and we set off on our 8 hour (supposedly) train journey to Jakarta Executif class. I am writing this now so we did survive the bumpy ride home, but oh my word...

Anyway I love Singapore airport..

Nerves!!!

The two women at the reception are from the Compassion project and are as nervous as we are. It is the first time anyone has come to visit their sponsored child in this area. apparently the translator was up all night practising English dialog.

The hired car drops us off at the families home, i am first out the car, and there is a wierd moment as I greet the mother as we cannot realyl communicate in English or Indonesian. The father, the grandparents and the lovely Kathryn all come out of the house (it's still wierd).

Kathryn was very nervous and she has a cute little 5 year old pout on her, refusing to smile :) The morning went really well, they made is this fantastic Indonesian food, and we chatted (through the translator and the fathers broken English ) and played with their dog Manis and goats. The family dis seem to warm to us and i managed to make a frind for life by giving their 7 year old son a football and pump. We kicked it around all afternoon until the sweats got the better of me - not as young as i used to be.

They really are a fantastic family and are so thankful for our support through Compassion as it provides Kathryn as well as the family with benefits they would have never had :(

It's tough to say goodbye (you know me, i'm never good during these times), there's a chance will will never see the family again and we seem to already have a bond due to our support and love for their daughter. Its tough to see people in such need when you were brough up having so much more. All you can do is bless them with as much as possible.

We visited the Compassion project in the afternoon. This is where they feed the children, teach them and give them fun activities to do. They made a big fuss of us and even made us get up on stage for them. Once again i own the stage and that rendition of "I love you Jesus (deep down in my heart)" will be remebered longer than my rugged good looks and golden tan.

We get to spend the evening with the family at the arcade (without Gabriella the 14 year old daughter as she has to stay home with the grandparents). They have never been to a mall or arcade before which in itself is astounding, but knowing how much money they have is truly believable. The kids were in heaven, staying on the trin ride until the last millimeter of movement, playing the racing games and anyting they could fit a coin into. I played a couple of games of fussball with the dad and he loved it. Celia played air hockey with the mom and it seemed nobody wanted to leave but the kids needed to go to school in the morning so we went back to our hotel said some teary goodbyes and got some good sleep.

Compassion

What an experience! We flwe into Surabaya from Bali, having no real idea how to get to Blitar where we would visit one of our sponsored kids.

3 bus trips.. where you have to watch what the locals are paying so the conductor cannot charge you his own dream price, plus a trip on on the bicycle / rickshaw type taxis , poor guy had to cycle Celia plus a grumpy German and 150l of baggage. This all equals 6 hous to get to our lovely hotel. Not sure what day of the week it is, but Celia ensures me she took the pill that said Monday so therefore it is still the 22nd. We get a good noghts sleep as the following day we are going to visit Kathryn, one of out sponsored children.