Munnar Tea & Backwater Kochi

When we arrived in Delhi, I was still very sick. I did little else other than sleep, eat and cough for our first week; so it was looking like we would stay in New Delhi for our first weekend, which happened to be a three-day weekend. I was so thankful when Meadows’ teammate, Fio, planned a fabulous weekend and invited us to tag along!

We flew three hours to Kochi, which is in the southeastern region on the coast of India, on Friday evening; then, a driver took us four hours inland to Munnar. Our driver whipped us around the winding mountainous roads in the dark. When we arrived, we all passed out.

In the morning, we could fully appreciate the beauty of Munnar. Tea plantations occupy the majority of the landscape. It reminded me of the Douro Valley with its rows of plants as far as the eye can see, except it’s more rolling hills than just a valley in Munnar.

The four of us opted to book a tour guide for the day through the hotel. Pro tip: never tour with a guide that doesn’t speak your language 🙂 We didn’t end up going exactly where we had planned, but it was a fun day nonetheless.

We began the day at the Lockhart Tea Factory, a 160-year old tea manufacturer and the only one open to the public in the region. When surrounded by tea, it makes you wonder… what happens to all that tea? We got answers.

 

The factory produces 21 tons of tea each day. They offer three varieties: green tea, black tea and white tea. The tealeaves are handpicked, ground for 15 minutes and sorted. Next, they cool for 30 minutes in the air conditioning before getting moved to dry in the 110° F heat (entering that room was not fun!).

You can see from some of the images just how old some of the equipment looks! The final process is thoroughly modern, though. Computer imaging separates the good product from the bad.

We climbed to the top of the lookout, which had the most incredible view!

To wrap up our factory visit, we tasted some of the Lockhart tea. 99% of it is exported because Tata has a monopoly on tea within India. It was so hot out that I could not be bothered to drink hot tea! Diana, Fio and Meadows tested it though.

We departed the tea factory and began our trek around the region. We managed to signal to our driver to pull over so we could take some photos of the insane landscape.

I can honestly say the rest of the day was a wash, but we tried to make the best of it! Our “guide” drove us all over, including two different “attractions” on the waterfront. This just meant you could walk along the river along with a bunch of other people. I think we vetoed the final stop (via hand signals) because we’d had enough!

Dinner at our hotel (Fragrant Nature Munnar) was awesome. The entire building overlooks the tea plantations. We devoured some delicious curry and called it a night.

The next morning, we went on a hike around the tea plantations. It was incredible to walk in the plantations. The tea plants are such beautifully manicured shrubs; they don’t even look real!

My photos hardly represent the beauty we saw in Munnar. Weaving up, down and around the tea plantations was a really cool experience.

 

The fresh air helped me immensely too! Unlike the highly polluted New Delhi air, the clean Munnar air gave me new life. I coughed less and felt much better!

We cleaned up after our hike, loaded up into another van and started the four-hour drive back to Kochi.

We booked Sunday night at the Marriott Kochi, which turned out to be a wonderful hotel! Not only did they upgrade us to a suite and offer access to their super nice lounge, the hotel was connected to Lulu International Shopping Mall. This name probably means nothing to you, but it’s the largest mall in India and one of the largest in the world! Naturally, Meadows limited my time inside as much as possible.

Since Monday was a national holiday in India, we got to enjoy Sunday night and a full day Monday before returning to New Delhi. We got up early on Monday to take full advantage of our extra day!

If you know anything about Kochi, then you know that the thing to do is to go on a backwaters cruise. We rented a traditional houseboat all to ourselves, and the four of us spent Monday cruisin’!

The whole day was incredibly peaceful and enlightening. We got to see how folks live on the water firsthand: washing clothes, fishing, swimming, boating, eating and more.

And with only four of us (plus the captain) on the boat, we had plenty of room to spread out and enjoy some quiet time.

 

Since Brad hooked Meadows up while we were in DC, Meadows even had a Cuban cigar to smoke during our backwaters exploration. (This is Meadows in his happy place.)

One of my favorite moments of the day was when a group of kids noticed us (clearly tourists) and started waving and yelling “Hello!” while swimming nearby. They were so cute!

Here’s a time lapse video of the view from the front of the boat.

When our cruise ended, we headed back to our Kochi hotel for a quick shower and then left for the airport. Our first weekend in India was action-packed and so much fun!

Final thoughts: with the benefit of hindsight, I can fairly confidently say that I would not have planned a trip to Munnar or Kochi if left to my own devices.  Munnar is not so easy to get to, and I’m not sure I would have been sold on the idea of visiting tea plantations. I am so grateful for Fio planning this trip and taking us somewhere I might have missed otherwise. Everyone should add Munnar and Kochi to their India itineraries!