Kerala Relaxation

If India is the land of a thousand faces, then Kerala must be the land of smiles. As soon as I stepped off the bus in the small mountain town of Munnar, I was overcome with a sense of relief. Everything about this place was different from the dusty, crowded, rapid-paced cities of northern India. The air is clearer, the trees are greener, and at the end of the day I can blow my nose with turning the tissue black from pollution.

Kerala is one the southernmost states, and has developed at its own pace separated from the rest of the country, resulting in a profusion of languages, religions and foreign cultures more evident here than anywhere else in India. The climate is perfect for creating tropical paradises of inland lakes surrounded by waving palm trees, and also for agricultural industries that bring rice, tea, rubber and coffee to the rest of the country. At 91% literacy rate, Kerala has the most educated population, which has led to the 'People's Campaign' to decentralize the government to local communities, improve public services and bring about greater caste, ethnic and gender equality.

I guess the people here know how good they have it because they're all just so darn happy all the time. Munnar in particular is filled with shopkeepers, pedestrians and roadside food vendors all grinning from ear to ear, whether or not you decline their service. Whether it was dancing by firelight to Bollywood music at a local celebration, learning to create delicious flaky parottas on sizzling woodstoves at the night market or going on a homemade chocolate sampling tour of the city, I couldn't stop smiling in Munnar either.

I was also totally unprepared for the gorgeous scenery of the town's surrounding hillsides. Tea plantations of waist-high bushes in brilliant greens make beautiful patterns etched into the mountains.


On our last day, we took a day long tour driving through the winding roads past tea, cocoa and coffee plantations, sandalwood forests and waterfalls. We ended with a trek through the Chennai Wildlife Sanctuary. After an hour of sweaty hiking and seeing nothing but animal droppings and termite mounds, the guide suddenly grabbed my arm and motioned for silence. As I looked to where his finger pointed in the distance, I saw the outline of a huge animal foraging in the trees. It was a family of wild elephants, only 200m from us. Two more emerged nearby, and you could hear their trumpeting across the entire valley. We watched them for almost 20 minutes, but the sun started setting and we had to turn back. With a heavy mist creeping up the mountains at dusk on our drive back, the scenery was even more beautiful than during our journey there.