On a Hot Summers Night On A Train To Aluva.....

Some say a picture is worth a thousand words. You decide. WARNING - This story is not for the faint of heart. If you think you can handle it....read on.

It was about 0530hrs, we were on train ride #2 from Goa to Aluva. The two older ladies and the rest of their family had just gotten off the train at 0500. We now had lots of room. Randy and I had put the middle bunks down and had ordered chai from the many vendors now passing through selling coffee, chai and other breakfast goods. I was feeling pretty good even though I hadn’t had much sleep. The chai was delicious, just as I remembered it being when we would travel by train when I was a kid. I reminisced about our trip so far. We had been having a blast. No one had gotten sick. James and I had both “taken it easy” on the food over the last day. Both our stomachs hadn’t felt quite right but there was no other effects of nausea or loose stools. In fact,I had been passing gas with regular joy and pride as good gas usually brings! As I thought these good thoughts, I leaned away from Randy and lifted my left cheek and thigh to let one rip. As I pushed it out, I felt the usual bubble come forth, but accompanying it was an unusual warmth and moisture! My eyes opened wide with horror. I had just sharted! “This can’t be happening”, I thought to myself. “You are in a moving train with all your clothes packed in a suitcase and a nasty Indian style toilet with water/urine all over the floor”! I was almost in a panic. I didn’t know how much had come out. It felt like a gallon and I was reminded of Scott’s story of when he was driving to work and sharted in his truck and it ran down his leg onto the floor. At least he by himself and could drive home to shower. I was in a crowded train and there was no shower. I told Randy, “I gotta go, I need some toilet paper”, and I dug that out of my carryon bag. “You’re being pretty brave”, he said, “going to take a dump in that nasty toilet”. I didn’t reply, just grabbed the TP and left. I wanted to get there before I had a Scott moment. Fortunately, one of the 2 bathrooms was open and I got in right away. This one actually had a couple of dry areas on the floor. I turned my back to the mirror and looked behind. Horror of horrors! A big brown wet spot! Aaaghhhh! I can’t believe it. What was I going to do? I gingerly lowered my shorts and found the mess. After an entire roll of TP was used to clean as best I could, I padded the inside of my briefs and pulled up my shorts. I walked back to Randy quickly, hoping no one would appear behind me. It was still dark inside the cabin. I found a pack of anti-bacterial wipes and throughly cleaned my hands. I told Randy that I was a firm believer in “Photo Documentation”, and that he was going to have to take a picture. I pulled out my camera and handed it to him. He did not know what I was talking about until I turned around. I think his laughter woke up Merv because he looked down from above and joined in the laughter. James slept through the whole affair. After the picture, I pulled out my suitcase for new clothes. Thank goodness I had gone to Target the day before we left and bought a full size pack of Huggies baby wipes to bring with me. Back in the toilet, (the same one with a couple dry areas), I stripped and discovered that it is possible to have a bath with baby wipes! After cleaning up, I figured I might as well use the Indian toilet; I was already naked so it would be pretty easy. Would you believe……..nothing! Not a drop! I was so pissed. One wet fart and that was it? I was so wishing Pearl and Mike were here to witness this. They were so envious of me on our last trip to India. They both were living on the edge every time they passed gas. I was the only one of us three who could fart with impunity! Not any more…….....

Pictures Around Munnar

Around Munnar

We piled into the Toyota Innova with Mr. Sashi for a 4 hour ride to Munnar. It was a long but beautiful drive, travelling up the hills to an elevation of approx 6,000 ft above sea level. It started to rain during the trip but that was okay, we were in an A/C van so the windows could stay closed and we were comfortable. We got to Munnar and changed some US dollars at the bank before going on to the resort which was another 18 km outside Munnar. Once again, the Club Mahindra Resort was beautiful, just like it was in Goa but on a smaller scale. This one was older, reminiscent of the old British days, lots of old wood, big round staircase going up from the lobby, very nice! This one didn’t have a pool but we didn’t plan on swimming anyways. The food was delicious as usual, buffet style so we could pig out. At night, out on the patio, they set up a firepit as well as a large grill and the chef cooked Kababs, chicken, lamb, vegetables, hot fresh naan, all you could eat for Rs. 399 ($8 US). Have I mentioned I love this country?
The tea plantations which were all around us are truly amazing to see. It is like looking at a green quilt of tea plants with little pathways for workers to move through and cut the leaves off. Mr.Sashi took us on a tour of the area, up to the highest lookout around, to a couple of dams, and a couple of waterfalls. That evening, it was back to the resort for more great food and a somewhat corny display of fire dancing to the music of The Backstreet Boys LOL. The hotel was have a “theme night” and had some entertainment during the supper hours.
The next morning, it was back into the SUV with Mr. Sashi for a 4 hour trip to our next destination…
James and Phil's room at Club Mahindra Resort in Munar.

Enjoying the view and a morning coffee. Aahhh....life is good!

On the balcony of one of the restaurants at the Resort. Great place to eat. This is where we had kebabs at night.

Outside the Club Mahindra Resort in Munar

Another great mustache of India.

More tea ..... tea ..... tea..... tea..... everywhere.

These are some of the hundreds of tea leaf pickers working for $1.60 US a day. Apparently, this is viewed as a good job around here.

More tea plantations. TATA owns 90% of the ones around Munar.

Our kebab chefs for the night. As much as you could eat for $4 USD.

The corny fire dance...they were not nearly as impressive as this picture looks!

Munnar, Kerala

Kerala is a lush coastal state known for its palm trees, beaches and tropical climate. Less known is the Kerala of hills and mountain ranges with beautiful scenery and a much more temperate climate. This is where we began our visit to Kerala in the' hill-station' of Munnar. Munnar, a summer resort for the British during colonial times, is located at about 5500 ft. Life in Munnar primarily revolves around tea - the first tea plantation being started here by the Brits around 1895. The hills are covered in tea plantations and are truly an amazing sight to see. Today there are over 29,000 acres of tea. These are not fairly level fields but rather steep hill side. The thousands, probably millions, of hours of labour to make it what it is is mind boggling. Just the time it takes to maintain and harvest the crop is astounding. Each tea plant is said to be on average 80-100 years old. They are trimmed and cut constantly. Tea picking, said to be an art in itself, has to happen on all those acres every 2 weeks. Women do all the picking, laboring for a day for the sum of Rs. 80 (CND$ 2, US$ 1.60). During that day they are expected to pick about 35 kg (77 lbs). Somehow they know just which leaves are ready for picking and leave all the rest. The leaves are then all loaded on to a trailer and hauled off by a tractor to a tea factory to be processed. We unfortunately were not able to see how that process worked. The climate was a great change after the heat of Goa, having cooled off to around 27C (80F). In addition, on both afternoons here, there have been big thunder storms accompanying by torrential rains. We are told this is a little unusual for this time of year, but during monsoons that rain would be everyday for 3 months. It had cooled off enough that last night sitting out on the patio eating kabobs (yes it was great!), all four of us had a jacket on. I still had to leave on my shorts though. If we could only store some of this coolness. We met a lady during the afternoon who was visiting here from Delhi. She said it was 45C (113F) back home. Ouch!!

Mr Sashi loading us up the first time for the drive to Munnar

Another Kerala river

Our first glimpse of the Munnar tea plantations. Acres and acres of tea. The trees are supposed to supply shade in some strategic fashion to certain tea plants which alters the flavor of the tea.

And more tea...

A waterfall along our journey. The hotel we stayed at filled their water trucks here and trucked it up the mountain to the resort every day.

And more tea..

And still more tea! The labour involved to plant all this tea much less maintain and harvest the tea every couple weeks just boggles the mind!