INDIA & NEPAL Day 22 - Cochin to Munnar

Lip-smackingly good

Our early (06:30) Keralan breakfast today consisted of some very refreshing watermelon, followed by the least fried "fried eggs" I'd seen. Raw white not being my thing (I feel like if these had been poured back into their shells they may well have hatched), I had to leave these, a shame as they looked well seasoned. Next up were some pancakey type things which I intend to find out the name of, as well as toast, with, finally, some jam that actually resembled jam - hurrah! 

Half an hour later we were met by our driver, Amal. We found out through the course of the subsequent 3 hour journey that he originates from Munnar (where we were headed) and had not had a good night's sleep, not helped by the number of mozzies present in Cochin. These had also taken a liking to me at breakfast, meaning after six or so bites I'd gone back to the room to a) change my vest top for a tshirt and b) bug-spray up (or so I thought, I accidentally used the soothing bite spray instead, oops). 

During the journey I noticed a few reoccurring themes that I had also observed the previous night. Recreation is definitely a thing here, which is good to see. Also, there seems to be a prevalence of Christianity, with lots of wealthy looking churches (some very specific, like St. Mary's Jacobite Syrian Church) as well as cemeteries and adverts for Christian weddings. As we continued away from urbanisation, the scenery got pusher, and it's nice that in the south it seems that rivers are river-coloured, rather than a really skanky browny-grey. 

Our first stops were a couple of underwhelming waterfalls. Maybe in monsoon season these are thundering torrents of water, but the dribbles of water weren't exactly cascading down, and were not worth more than a short pause to watch. Next was a spice plantation, which happened to be much more entertaining. We were shown many plants and their medical properties explained to them, most to which I can't remember as we were given full details of the doses of each one, plus the duration of the cure. The sexual power one certainly sounded intriguing, but I was more amused that the guide honed in on certain plants for Peter. For instance at the inevitable shop at the end of the tour he wash pushing the medicine that improved hair thickness and receding hair lines, and once that wasn't working he brought out a special bottle that would sort Peter's skin pigmentation issues (freckles!) whether they were a problem he had had from both or just a temporary illness. Peter made a fairly sharp exit whilst I fended off the offer of something to "improve my memory", although this probably would be of use to me! 

After checking into our hotel, we went to a tea museum. I'd been quite looking forward to this thinking we were going to be shown lots of types of tea, and taught how it was made. It turned out to be a fairly interesting film on the rise of the plantations and their development through the last three centuries, followed by a man standing on a load of tea leaves talking about how to make green tea, and the best way to do the inevitable toilet trip that followed. A bit odd to say the least. 

Having seen all their was of interest, we drove on (stopping briefly to by an expensive and weird banana each for lunch) to a cooking class we had arranged. Turning up, I was a bit dubious as it looked like a run down and quite frankly abandoned house, but as soon as we had worked out it was Nimi's place and were inside, it came to life. We had happened upon the only Brits we had spoken to all trip (and five of them!) who were a really friendly group, maybe do with the fact that six of the seven of us turned out to be engineers. Anyway, Nimi soon had us guessing spices and ingredients, then prepping veg (I learned the best way to peel ginger is with a teaspoon). Next it was time to cook a series of five dishes. "Breakfast" was a semolina and veg dish, surprisingly spicy and apparently to be eaten with mashed banana. "Dinner" was a red-coloured fish curry, accompanied by a stir-fry of French beans and ground coconut, as well as a milder pineapple yoghurt curry, the latter of which was my favourite dish of the day. "Snack", or pudding to me, was a sort of dough bun, filled with a syrupy coconut mix, and was very delicious indeed. Although over four hours long, I really enjoyed the whole class, and appreciated being given a big recipe book too keep afterwards so that I can make Keralan dishes at home (good job we have 14 kg spare luggage weight though as it's not light!).