Thursday, January 24, 2008

Kerala

Kerala
Driving from Kanyakumari at the southern tip of India northwest into Kerala, I did not expect to see much of a change. Almost immediately the food changed from savory to spicy sweet, the Hindu temples gave way to Christian ones and overall things were much more orderly and clean.
Woman thanking Jesus for curing her breast cancer
(if I understood correctly)
Class photo
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Munnar
Munnar is all about tea plantations. The British and 
Scottish did most of the planting in the 1920s.
  
Picking tea
Bagging it up
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Town of Munnar
Mall
Tidy vegetable stand
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Picking pepper corns
Pepper picker picking pepper corns
He was anxious to leave as he didn't 
quite have permission to pick.
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Elephant moving log 
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Making Jaggery
Jaggery is lightly refined from sugar cane, it is 
said to be a very healthy alternative to the stuff we use.
Jaggery
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If you are going to Munnar, I can highly recommend the Pavithram home stay, owned by Mr. N.C. Rajesh. It's a few miles out of town (quiet). He has a chef on premise who does an excellent job with traditional Keralan food. He will also arrange for a jeep with driver or anything else you might need. On top of that he is an extremely gracious host.
pavithramhomestay@gmail.com
Tel:91-9447214400
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Next and final stop Ft. Kochi (Cochin)