Munnar

My last weekend in India was spent in the gem of India: Kerala. Kerala is a long, narrow state at the southwestern tip of the country, bordered by the Arabian Sea on the west and steep mountains on the east. Woodson and I spent four days in this tropical paradise. We booked a car and a driver (who we named "Clegg") for the entirety of the trip. Clegg speaks English about as well as I speak Swahili.

A Lake Near Munnar

The first leg of the trip took us up windy roads high into the lush, green mountainside. We spent two nights in Munnar, the population center of that part of Kerala. Munnar is known for its tea plantations. The English began cultivating tea in the region in the 1880s and now much of the countryside is covered with tea bushes. During our visit, we went to a tea museum, drove through the mountains and hiked through a few tea plantations. Overall, the scenery was fantastic.

Tea Plantations

One of the downsides of Kerala is the difficulty in procuring any kind of alcohol. Kerala is a completely communist state and getting a license to sell or dispense alcohol is extremely expensive. An interesting bit of trivia, while I'm on the subject... Kerala, which is the only communist state in India, democratically elected communist leaders in the 1950s and has continued to elect them. It is one of India's wealthiest states and boasts a reported 100% literacy rate. Kerala and Belarus are the only communist places I have been to, but Vietnam will be added to that list shortly.