Kerala, India - Munnar Tea Mueum

First port of call in Munnar

It goes without saying that there are many tea-related things you can do in Munnar. Experience Kerala, from which we hired the car, has arranged for an itinerary on places that the driver would take us to. I was not interested in all the places but was drawn to a riverside hiking through tea plantations to Attukal Waterfalls which was supposed to be in our itinerary on our first day in Munnar. 

But Jitesh did not seem to know what we were talking about and I was beginning to be pissed-off with him. We were lucky that our hotel was in the middle of a tea plantation so we could go on a tour of it later if we wanted to. So, reluctantly, we scrapped the riverside hiking and instead asked him to take us to the Tata Tea Museum.

The Tea Museum was located in the TATA Nallathanni Estate, just under a kilometre away from Munnar town centre. On the way, we passed it and as I have mentioned before, it certainly won't win the Most Enchanting Town in India competition anytime soon.



Tuk-tuks and tea stalls

Munnar town centre

On the way to the museum - Eucalyptus trees

We only had one hour but it turned out that that was just the right amount of time that you need. The museum is located in a set of buildings best descibed as rustic. It consists of several rooms displaying photos and exhibits relating to tea planting in Munnar and the colonial age, with random pieces including analogue telephones, bathtubs and an assortment of embalmed animals' heads. More significant exhibits included the original tea roller, the 'Rotorvane,' dating back to 1905 and the 'Pelton Wheel' used in the power generation plant in the 1920s. There was also a short video showing the evolution of tea planting in Munnar and how tea was first planted in Munnar by the pioneers. Sitting in that darkened musty room reminded me of my first cinema experiences ages ago back when PJ State was the most happening place in town.



Cool redefined

Then it was on to the factory/tea processing unit where there was a guided tour on the processing of tea. We were first taken to a small area where the tea leaves were sorted but it was complete mayhem and chaos with more and more (mostly local) tourists joining us. We decided to leave the group and made our own way. The other staff members were kind enough to show us the equipment and the tea leaves in various stages, probably because we were the only foreign tourists there. One of them even let Snufkin stoke the fire in the furnace, where they were trying to demonstrate how the boiler was powered by firewood. I think that kinda made Snufkin's day.

Sorting the tea leaves

Tea rolling machines

No, this is not child labour

Of course, at the end of it, you get to purchase a variety of tea at the TATA Tea sales outlet, for what is a museum without a touch of commercialism. Outside, it was starting to drizzle. The free tea offered looked very inviting and I was keen to let Snufkin get his very first taste of tea. Alas, it was green tea and he only needed to take a sip to decide that it was not his cup of tea.


Note:

Address:
Tata Tea Museum
Nalluthanni Estate
Munnar, Idukki district
Ph: +91 4865 230561

Opening hours: 10am-5pm Tue-Sun

Entrance fees: Adult: ₹75, Child: ₹35

Kerala, India - The road to Munnar

"Now India is a place beyond all others where one must not take things too seriously—the midday sun always excepted.” - Rudyard Kipling 

If there was any non-Indian who knew India best, it would be Kipling. I grew up reading Kipling's books and India never ceased to arouse my curiosity. It is a land of sacred sites and ancient ruins, of windswept deserts and palm-fringed beaches, of the Ganges and the backwaters, of the Raj and rich colonial history. Never mind the chaos, the slums, the beggars and the high probability of contracting Delhi Belly.

Alas, India is also vast and it was impossible to cover the whole country in the time that we had. For the time being, we were happy enough to start with Kerala. God's Own Country - surely that is enough to entice anyone.

At 8am on 22 May 2014, there we were standing at the Arrivals Hall of Cochin Airport. The AirAsia flight from Kuala Lumpur to Cochin was at the ungodly hour of 6 a.m. but this meant that we had an early start. Our driver Jitesh from Experience Kerala came and soon we were on our way to cover the 130km or so to Munnar, our first stop on the itinerary. Munnar is a hill station that used to be the summer resort for the British back in the colonial heyday. Today, it is more known for its vast tea plantations.

Jitesh, like most of Indian drivers, drove as if the Devil himself was chasing him and overtook at every single opportunity. There were many times that I pressed on the imaginary brake pedal. But they seemed to have a loose system in place so that cars could be overtaken with minimal possibility of a crash, blaring the horns incessantly being one of the techniques. After an hour or so, I sat back and relaxed. It was my first time on the Subcontinent and I relished every sight, sound and smell.

About halfway through the journey, we stopped at a roadside vegetarian restaurant for a late breakfast. The dining areas were in individual huts and and soon we were tucking in to our first masala dosa and masala chai in India; Snufkin, his first chapati in India.

Jitesh standing in front of the hut where we were seated

We continued our journey on National Highway 49 and at one point went on the Neriamangalam Bridge. This bridge was built across the Periyar river and is often referred as 'The Gateway to the Highranges' as it is on the way to the higher regions of the Idukki district.

Neriamangalam Bridge

After the bridge, the road became narrower and was flanked by lush hilly forests and ravines on either side.  It was an uphill drive with many corners and hairpin bends, and the occasional waterfalls. The journey seemed never-ending but after close to 4 hours, we were rewarded with our first sights of Indian tea plantations. Munnar town was still a short distance away but first we wanted to check-in at our accommodation, a place that I was looking forward as much as Munnar itself.

Tea plantation in Munnar

Accommodation

Although we had planned this trip relatively last minute, we managed to get a room at one of the nicest accommodation in Munnar (ranked 9 out of 103 on Tripadvisor). Gruenberg Tea Plantation Haus was 10km from Munnar town centre but that probably worked to its advantage as there's no redeeming quality in the town centre itself. The best part about Gruenberg is its location right smack in the middle of a tea plantation. And it only has 5 rooms.

The road leading to the front door of Gruenberg was just a narrow dirt track but that somewhat added to the charm of the place.

Our first sight of Gruenberg Tea Haus

A closer view of the building

Our room on the 2nd floor came with a balcony and big glass windows. Lying on the bed, you could see the endless rows of tea bushes on one side and hills, banana trees and more tea bushes on the other side.

Our Lorelei room

The piece-de-resistant was the balcony/roof terrace, to which we retreated in the evenings. There were bookshelves with books you could borrow and a small telescope that could keep the small ones occupied for long stretch of time.

Playing I Spy

On our first evening there, we ordered muruku and masala chai for tea and sat at the balcony  surrounded by tea plantations, trees and more trees. Everything were ludicrous shades of green. In the distance the hills of the Western Ghat were partly shrouded in mist. The only sounds were the chirping of birds and the occasional conversations in Malayalam wafting in from the staff quarters. This was the India that I had never imagined. India without chaos. India with cool breeze and greens as far as the eyes could see.

The only difficult decision to make that evening was which book to choose and what to order for dinner.

Note:
Gruenberg Tea Plantation Haus - Adress: Chithirapuram P.O Power house Road Dobipalam, 685565 Munnar, India.

Rates booked through booking.com was Rs9,200 (RM500) for 2 nights.