From Tea to Spice Country.....

Monday, 18th January 2010

Monday morning, the group left Munnar to Thekkady. The descent was as slow as coming up from Cochin, esoecially with the many photo stops that we made at every spot with a fantastic vista of the valleys of tea plantation. We managed to stop and view some groups of tea pickers at work, some who were carrying their leaves to the weighing stations and they were quite happy to pose for us! Most of these workers came from Tamil Nadu, so they speak Tamil, instead of Malayalam, which is the language of Kerala. Most of the tea estates belong to India companies like Tata and some belong to familiar British name like the Harrison ( and Crossfields?).

Although the distance from Munnar to Thekkady is only about 120 km, we took about 4 hours to cover that distance. As we descended to about 4000 feet above sea level, the tea plantations gradually became replaced by acres and acres of spice plantations, the most noticeable from the road are the cardamom (they look like ginger plants) and pepper plants.

the sacks of tea being weighed

to determine how much the picker earned...

carrying sacks of tea on the head

from the plantation to the weighing area..

the group's driver and guide...

John, with pakdokter's partner..