God's Own Country

Christmas eve day we arrived in Cochin, Kerala.  Kerala is a state in the southeastern part of India.  Our first stop on our vacation was the isolated mountain village of Munnar.  On our drive from Cochin airport we passed plantations growing every possible type of fruit and vegetable as well as some beautiful waterfalls (see below).  After quite a long drive we arrived in the city of Munnar. The scenery in this part of Kerala is absolutely breathtaking.  There are tea and spice plantations blanketing every possible stretch of land as well as beautiful flowering trees and shrubs.  However, our arrival in Munnar was only the start of our trek out to our hotel, Camp Noel.  It was just getting dark when we left Munnar and when the sun finally sank completely we were left to drive in total darkness, the kind of darkness that simply does not exist in Mumbai.  We drove about an hour, straight uphill, past the city.  The road grew narrower and more perilous as we inched along narrowly avoiding collisions with sadistic motorcyclists and rickshaw drivers seemingly intent on sending us hurtling downhill to our imminent doom.  We finally arrived on the top of the mountain and were then transferred from our car to an aging but sturdy jeep.   Our driver bid us a fond adieu as we nervously stepped into the jeep with two ominous looking Indian men smoking glowing bidis.  What followed was 40 minutes of white-knuckled anxiety holding on for dear life as we bumped along following a dirt path at a 90-degree angle.  It was COMPLETELY dark and for a while we figured we would probably be robbed and left for dead in the middle of millions of acres of tea.  Every few minutes the lights of a small village of plantation workers would come into view and we would think, “We are here!”…but alas.   When the hotel finally did come into view we were overjoyed!   It is a little piece of heaven in the mountains (like Dollywood, only it's India and there is no amusement park, no funnel cakes, no TV, and no cell service).   We had our own little cottage complete with two fireplaces to keep it cozy since it is only 40-degrees at night during this time of year!  We had a lovely buffet complete with tandoori goodies and jelabi.  Come Christmas Eve we were lazing in front of a roaring fire and thinking of all our wonderful friends and family and wishing they were here to share in our Indian adventure!