Kerala - 6th November to the 27th

Kerala is a state in the south west of India, it is sandwiched between the Western Ghats on the east and the Arabian sea on the west. It's balmy climate makes it a botanical masterpiece; fruit and vegetables flourish and taste super sweet and juicy. The most common sight however are the huge number of coconut trees which is why the name Kerala translates to mean 'the land of coconuts'.

The first stop in Kerala was the city Cochin, it was a typical Indian city in the sense that it was busy, polluted and noisy but we found a wonderful, quiet little portuguese sector in Fort Kochi. We booked ourselves into a hotel on the arty Princess Street overlooking the nearby bay.

The Chinese fishing nets situated on Fort Kochi bay

Next stop, we visited Munnar. It's situated a hundred or so kilometers east of Cochin and is famous for it's tea plantations and it's silver tipped (white) tea. The Indians are absolutely obsessed with it and visit Munnar in their thousands (that's probably 2 bus loads!) to witness the endless rolling tea valleys. It's an incredible sight. We found out that the plantation workers have to pick 25kg of tea leaves a day in order to receive their daily pay.


Plantation lady picking tea