We thought we had seen some pretty impressive Tea Planations in Malaysia, turns out they were just baby ones compared to the sprawling hedges of Munnar.

A nice if not a little uncomfortable and squashed 6hr bus journey and we had arrived at a dirty, dingy, hectic town somewhere in the mountains of the Indian Ghats. We looked at some rather disgusting hotels and homestays before selecting our rather disgusting homestay as a temporary fix until the next day.

Luckily our stay in the main town was brief and headed 20kms out of town to a remote little hometay with its 6 little bungalow rooms in the middle of a forest and complete with our own little terrace where we could sit and sup tea and read our books.

We spent the first day doing our own laundry, Nic in charge of washing and me resposnsible for rinsing, spinning and hanging, our little washing operation took nearly 2hrs but after seeing so many Indians wasing clothes in muggy rivers it was time well spent on a sunny afternoon.

Tea Plantations are there to be walked amongst and our main day in Munnar involved our 20km walk up through the hills and plantations, amongst the tea picker ladies and roaming cows we walked til we almost dropped and had to get a 4x4 to take us the final kms back to the main town, cant wait to put up the pics but just hope they do it justice.

No power at the guesthouse for the next 24hrs but a candle lit meal and a chat with the couple from Balham (South London) in the next room killed and uneventful day of which it rained for the most of it.

Loved Munnar, its hard to describe places when nothing much happens but the sounds, smells and views where amazing.

Heading next to Mysore via a brief overnight stay in Coimbatore, we struck it lucky on the hotel front in Coimbatore and booked into a business class hotel for some luxury of a bed with a matress thicker than 5mm and a TV with signal. Couldn't tell you about Coimbatore we stayed less than 12hrs before heading to Mysore where I am writing from now.