15th Feb - Munnar

We decided to completely let go and splurge by having night in a much more expensive place up in the tea hills. Ooooo i had such a good time!!! arrived and our room wasn't quite ready so we sat out on our lil proch and were brought some masala chai, YUM. in a themos jug, no less! so yum. lots of indian mags in english...almost the equivalent of an indian Time magazine, so interesting to see a bit of political and social pieces. Den managed to get the a couple of the guys to teach him how to use a motorbike and then go off for ride, so he was so happy. despite his 20 minutes of experience i decided NOT to double with him and to stay with my books and mags for an hour! lovely! Had a chat with a manager type thing of the sister homestay, about all sorts of social issues, mostly between guys and girls. his opinions seemed to be that despite being happily married with a lil girl, that the segregation of men and women and arranged marriages and not ebing allowed girlfriends etc, was not healthy for society. interesting to hear his point of view. Also about the communist party, apparently elections are every 5 years and it does seem to alternate between right and left wing. he seemed to be a bit anti as its not good for industry, he thought that it held Kerala back a bit.
So den came back all very happy and we headed into town for some food. Also for a bit of a shop, i got some Munnar grown black tea and an indian womans magazine in english of course...kinda like cosmo. Amazed if there really are tat many liberated indian women...where are they?? deifnetly is of the minority. Also got some classic indian mouth freshner (wuith seeds etc, i tried some its AWFUL. den quite liked it. i had to spit it out!) and some snuff! a v small packet for my scrap book, strange, never seen it sold before!!
Back at the hilltop homestay we we served a ice cold kingfisher outside and then went and watched a cooking demo. Almost more interesting to watch some of the other guests trying to take everything in. dinner time and it was GOOOOOOD. yum. Sat with a older british couple who were very interesting thnk goodness. The husband (dave) was a musician and even had a guitalaelee (half guitar, half ukalaelee) and was very very good so a nice night tho den drunk far too much kingfisher!