A poor night's sleep for me having woken about 2 a.m. and then remained awake struggling to fight an increasingly heavy cold and battling to breathe through a challengingly blocked nose. Also I started to get stomach and rear end food removal problems. Due to the lack of hygiene of the food plonking boat men from yesterday? I wonder.

Anyway, having ordered porridge for breakfast, I failed to eat anything for fear of returning the food in an inappropriate manner to the breakfast table. Just managed water although Alyson seemed fine and more than keen to eat the aforementioned porridge.

Yesterday morning, I talked to Saj, the homestay owner who was arranging our taxi to Munnar about the travel arrangements and I expressed a desire with moderate firmness to have a good, safe driver. He just smiled enigmatically as a response.

Thus I was very concerned when I looked down from the breakfast balcony to see the same small taxi in which the smiling assassin of a driver had hurled us dangerously from the airport on day 1! Our luggages were being vaulted onto the roof of the taxi again. Oh no!

But our fortunes as regards taxi drivers had changed and instead of the mad man mismanaging our route to Munnar, we were now given the company of sedate Sunil. From the start, he was not eager to hasten his way up the mountains by harassing and hooting every other vehicle. Good man! Good driver! He was going to get a generous tip!

However, I wasn't in the best of spirits for travelling but even so I couldn't help but be impressed by the scenery. Car journeys here are a feast for the senses because there is always so much happening in front of your eyes and so much that is different.

Leaving at eightish, there were plenty of school children making their way beside the roads and each and every one of them looked sparkling and shiny new in their impressive stylish uniforms although most, I guess, came from very poor homes. A stark contrast to how our unkempt and scruffy students look in spite of their huge relative wealth.

On the way to Aranyaka Resort on a tea plantation outside Munnar which Saj had recommended over the internet some months previous, we passed many wild drivers taking chances as they skirted around us and onward. And many local bus drivers regularly claimed our side of the road as the barged their way toward us almost pushing us off the road as they hastened away. But in spite of these threats to our existence, our driver was calm and unhurried and in peace with himself and the world.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the energy to visit the palace he suggested on route but we did pause here and there for photo opportunities particularly of several wild running waterfalls that hurled themselves down the mountains beside us.

Four hours or so after setting off, we were parked in the mist at Aranyaka high on a mountainside amidst surrounded by fields of tea and across from a huge waterfall on the other side of the valley. I was feeling listless and longing for a sleep by this time but I had to sort out the accommodation arrangements with a pleasant enough man who wanted to put us in a one bedroomed cottage although I had the email to show him that they had confirmed that we would have a two bedroomed cottage. Caitlin had had enough of sleeping on a mattress on the floor already! He was doing his best to suggest that I hadn't booked this and that I had misunderstood the arrangements.

I didn't have the energy to argue at this stage as he clearly wasn't going to find a two bedroomed cottage for us for whatever reason. So the compromise was that we ended up in an upgraded cottage which had the best view of the waterfall, i.e. if the rain stopped and the mist lifted.

After settling in the cottage, we had a fish dinner with rice with vegetables. They claimed that rice was fried although I'm sure that it was boiled. Nice enough although Gordon Ramsey might have had higher standards.

I spent most of the afternoon after this, as did Caitlin and Alyson catching up on lost sleep and trying to recover my energies and enthusiasm. Too much of my time today had been fighting my cold and dodgy stomach.

The cottage was clean and pleasant enough and the people who worked in the resort of course were extremely pleasant and friendly. One made us laugh because every time we passed him as he greeted us with a four fingered salute a la Benny Hill. Not used to that!

The place was shrouded in mist for much of the first day and had the feel of that Jack Nicholson film where the axe crashes through the door. We seemed to be the only guests in the resort and there was a certain sense of isolation here.

But on our first day and evening, we all seemed happy enough to doze through the hours, read a little - I'm beginning the Stieg Larsson trilogy- and flick through the channels on the TV ending up watching Discovery Channel.

Tuesday morning, I woke feeling a little better but still not 100%. Breakfasted on some local curry and light pancake and toast and jelly and was determined to do a little exploration of the Munnar area today.

We arranged with Sunil our driver to take us for a drive starting at elevenish and the first stop was a Spice Garden. Basically, this was a short guided tour, costing 100 rupees each (about £1.40), led by a pleasant enough man around a smallish garden in the increasingly heavy rain. Interesting enough of course to spend half an hour or so finding out about the wide variety of plants that are cultivated locally. And of course, Caitlin and Alyson were persuaded to buy some of the soaps and spices on sale at the end of the visit. Cheap enough I suppose. And I think Caitlin managed to damage their umbrella bond repair somehow or other!

The plan was was supposed to visit a tea plantation and its museum next but apparently it was closed due to some unknown reason. We were clearly disappointed so our driver stopped near where some women were working in the rain amongst the tea bushes and up we went into the fields to have a closer look. No-one seemed to mind and the women were very friendly and welcoming and quite willing for us to take their photos. As tends to happen, they asked us our names and where we came from and then their command of English disappeared. Their jobs at this time involved trimming the tops of the tea bushes as they stood in the pouring rain. I got the clear impression that there was a mischievous camaraderie amongst them and as soon as we had disappeared they would be making a few ripe comments about us.

The joy of being in Kerala on holiday is these sort of encounters with the locals when you might get a real sense of the people and their lives. You can convince yourself for a while that you're a traveller rather than a tourist. But oh how privileged we are! The people have to graft for every rupee and their lives are clearly not easy. Yet you will see more natural smiles here in a few minutes than in a whole day in our towns and cities.

We asked Sunil if he knew of a vegetarian restaurant in Munnar itself and he parked up in the centre of the town close to a score at least of auto-rickshaws lining up for prospective customers. I didn't realise until today that (auto) rickshaws are the same as the tuktuks we came across in Thailand. I was expecting them to be man-powered vehicles. But no!

To get to the restaurant, we had to pass an imposing garlanded statue of Gandhi who is still clearly revered in this part of India. We have already come across a few statues of him here and there. Up then into a narrow lane past small stalls selling flowers and food and into the local vegetarian restaurant which was like a run down cafe where working men came to refuel before returning to their labours in the afternoon. There was a menu in English which was totally incomprehensible because I'd never heard of any of the meals offered and although I did ask about what particular meals contained I was none the wiser after a series of confusing sentences from the waiter. Of course, we pretended that we knew what was going on and with confidence ordered a variety of foods from the menu. Fortunately, what ended up on our plates, or rather banana leaf, was a rather interesting and tasty selection.

My daughter, Caitlin is a naturally blond child of ten years and she has had to learn to endure the interest of most Kerala citizens whilst in these parts. It is evident that she is so different from the normal run of the mill person they come across on a daily basis. And I should emphasize at this point that since travelling to Munnar, we have not seen a single white face apart from our own. Anyway, in this restaurant we, and particularly she, were stared at as so blatantly and with such curiosity. While we ate, the waiters stood within feet of us just peering expectantly as though we might produce some magic and disappear from in front of their eyes in a puff of smoke. Certainly at times, it feels not so much that we come from a different world more from a different universe and perhaps in some aspects from a different century.

Well fed, our driver headed out in a direction from Munnar towards some dramatic viewing points. But the monsoon and misty weather made these a limited attraction for us.

Unimpressed by the thought of spending our time using our imagination to picture the outstanding natural scenery, I wondered if there was anything else we might do with the afternoon. "Would it be possible to visit a school?", I inquired of Sunil.

With this, he stopped outside the gates fronting a long drive, hopped out of his taxi and engaged a suspicious looking woman in conversation. Her responsibilities based on my cursory glances in he direction seemed to centre on attending to some basic form of gardening and / or drive maintenance. However, Sunil deemed her to have enough authority to let us wander up the drive and into the school grounds.

With only a little more than a minute amount of caution, we made our way up the drive past a zooful of sculpted animals amongst the foliage toward the main yard. No-one to be seen there but we could here the familiar sounds of chattering children coming from dozens of classrooms. A little scurrying around by us beyond the undergrowth and we found a reception where we tried to explain to a mystified looking man that we had walked up into the school and we hoped that that was okay. He directed us to the principal's office where we found a whiskered man of some substance and stature sitting back in his chair behind a substantial desk and his focus on the contents of a broadsheet newspaper.

We were greeted warmly with handshakes and serious interest. The principal, who my wife kept referring to as Father because that was his title on the name plate and she being familiar with appropriate hierarchical forms of address to a Catholic head teacher, sent for some choice students to "interact" with us and in particularly Caitlin. And how delightful they were. Initially, they were quite reserved as we asked them questions in Father's office but increasingly the three of them - Robin who was about fifteen, Amber thirteen and a wonderful little girl of nine who was clearly very intelligent but a bundle of innocent mischief- gained in confidence and told us of their ambitions. The girl of nine wants be a paediatrician!!!!!

The principal, who seemed so at ease with the situation of receiving the uninvited guests, then told the three of them to take us around the school and give us a guided tour. The school, we had found out during our talk with the principal, educated the poor children from the area from the age of 3 to 18 and many travelled an hour and a half to get to school for the start of day at nineish and an hour and a half home at the end of the day which was four o' clock. This included the three year olds!!!

The tour took about an hour and a half!!!!

Firstly on the playground, we were the centre of attention for a bundle of eight to ten year olds who were roller skating. Everyone wanted to talk to us and get us to take their photos and shake their hands. Seriously, for a few hours we were getting get an idea of what it must be like to Cheryl Cole!

I could write for hours about the time in this school. We went into every classroom in the school and witnessed the warmth and discipline and respect for learning there. We were welcomed by every child and teacher. We observed yoga lessons for older students, met a student who had won a prize for Science as the best student in South India and were regaled in traditional song by a classroom of students and also a brave teenager in front of his peers.

We left with a very positive impression of the school and the students. Everyone was very respectful and welcoming. Also the students seemed to laugh a lot. Plenty of humour there and many mischievous, likeable characters in this school.

Caitlin was highly impressed and so enthusiastic about her new friend Amber, who was thirteen but seemed to be more mature than that. She made Caitlin feel so special as she introduced her to her friends.

Two hours or so after gaining us entrance into the school grounds, Sunil was as laid back as ever as we came back to him at the end of the school day. The school buses lurched past us through the mud down the drive filled with children waving at us as many of them made their long journeys to their home.

Time to return back to our bungalow. We ate another fish and rice supper alone in the little restaurant in the resort and had coffees and teas brought to our bungalow by the four fingered saluting, over-reverential employee.

People back home so easily forget how privileged their life is!

So many fine and civilised people here spend endless hours striving to earn a pittance yet we have seen no signs of any expression that there is an unfairness about the way the world is set up. It is so easy to take our ability to travel to different countries with relative ease for granted. But we should treasure our good fortune and reflect sensitively on the fact that the wealth of opportunities we have are but an unattainable dream to almost every one we have met.