I had a plan in my head for today, but I was not sure I would be able to execute on it because I had not actually made plans. Before coming to India, I knew I would need to ease up on my Germanic, type A personality traits and go with the flow. What I didn't think about is plans can also come together at the last minute.
After being entertained by a troop of black monkeys who came through the resort during breakfast, I headed to the front desk. The woman there this morning was not the sweet young thing who checked me in, but a no nonsense, git 'er done person. When I told her I wanted a spice tour and as worried that I needed to have booked in advance, she asked me if I had a driver. I said yes.
"What's his number?"
"I don't have it with me, but I can go back to my room to get it."
"No matter. What is your room number?"
"112".
"OK." She shouts to someone in the back office and within seconds has my driver Prasad on the phone and wants to know what time I want to go. I said 10:30 because to gave 45 minutes for us all to get organized. And that was that.
On the way, I asked to stop at an ATM to get some cash. Fortunately, the ATMs are in English, and I figured out how many rupees I thought I needed for the day. This is like before the Euro and one would carry around thousands of Italian lira. It feels strange.
We arrived at Abraham's spice farm, and my tour started as a one on one, but then a couple from India who was very Americanized arrived. The wife had been a pharmacy major, so like me she knew a lot about plants because Indian pharmacology include ayurveda. While not formally educated, Abraham knew his stuff as he is third generation to run the farm.
His garden reminded me of one my mom and I informally toured in Scotland where a man with caterpillar eyebrows knew exactly where everything was even though he no longer pristinely maintained his garden. Only Abraham had hairy ears and knew where everything was on his farm. 23 varieties of bananas, cardamon (this is THE place for Cardamon growing), coffee, pineapple, jack fruit, avocados, bladk pepper, string pepper, mace, ginger, two kinds of giant lemons, hot peppers, and more. He showed us natural rubber and hives of bees they are allowed to harvest once a year from the preserve. One hive was swarming to relocate.
Turmeric is also a big deal here. He made a point of differentiating between food grade and cosmetic. He said is someone like me put food grade tumeric on their face, they would turn orange. We laughed about how a lot of Americans want to tan and turn orange.
Of course he had a spice store and of course, I bought some. There are tons of spice stores in Kumily where I'm staying, but I didn't want want someone just hawking their wares to me. I needed to ask questions and understand the benefits of what I was buying. The sales woman even nicely labeled the unlabeled bags at my request. I knew I would forget what I bought by the time I got home otherwise.
Now finally understanding better how this driver thing works, I asked Prasad what elst I could do. That is when he suggested the wildlife tour. It was too late in the day to get one inside the reserve, but other tour operators are allowed to drive along the perimeter. There are no guarantees to see anything and they made that clear. They thought I wanted an elephant ride also.
Prasad was somewhat confused that I did not want one. We walked over to where they were and he said 30 minutes ride. I said no. The poor elephants looked tired and bored. One was carrying some grass and handling that with its trunk. I thought, It should just be out on its own living its best life somewhere not w
alking in circles with people on its back. I hated to see the big chains around one leg. That was a hard no for me.
Confused but compliant, Prasad then rounded up my driver a rather taciturn older gentleman. We re traced the route to the spice farm and beyond. Soon we came upon tea plantations (still calling them that here). In some,
I could see women with small umbrellas attached to their hats gathering leaves into light bags they carry on their shoulder.
This driver may not be talkative, but he knew how to earn his tips. Our first stop was a river where he took some photos of me as I observed what looked like giant tadpoles in the pools and disturbed an iguana sunning itself on the rocks.
We continued bouncing our way up the mountain where there was the requisite refreshment stations for the locals to make money off of the tourists. However, my guide was conversing with another and it was back in the jeep. Elephants! He found them high up on the mountain where I would have never suspected elephants would even go. Once thinks of them as grazers on tohe plains. But there they were almost to the top of the mountain a mom and baby. They were VERY far away but what. treat to see them in their own habitiat undistubed by humans.
Then it was back to the refreshment stand where I got some sliced pineapple and cucumbers in little cups. The young woman had a sharp kinfe and she had some knife skills. Watch out Gordon Ramsey. She also offered an omelet, but Iasn't taking my chances on eggs that had been sitting in the sun all day. And the fruit was much more refreshing.
It was back into the jeep and more off road riding. I mean, I should have worn a sports bra for this. But it sure was beautiful and then we were back to semi civilization and he stopped at a tea farm. They love to take photos of us or maybe they think that is what we want, one or two is just fine, really! There were some women picking tea. They have these little umbrellas that attach to their heads to shield them from the sun. They are only picking the small leaves and putting them into sacks.
Of course, there was also a place to get coffee at this stop. These little hole in the wall kind of places are everywhere with packaged snacks and coffee or tea. I had a filtered coffee to which I have become addicted. It's made in a metal container with several pieces and there is a additive of cardamon and other spices and some milk. I order with no sugar because it is sweet enough as is. It's a little larger than a liquor shot and very tasty.
From there it was hell bent for leather back to the hotel. This guy was hitting 90KM in the 30 KM zone. I guess he wants to get back and see if he can get another fare, but he took Indian driving to a whole nother level. He was going to over take any and all vehicles on the road. One driver had the temerity to come up on us and start honking his horn. My driver found the first opportunity to pass the vehicle in front of him and left that driver in the dust. I could have told that driver he was making a mistake.
From other it was back to the hotel for a swim, a nap and some dinner. I elected not to go off the compound because there was terrible traffic getting back from the safari place to my hotel which was about a 10 minute walk. There was a big festival to celebrate Christmas of all things. Getting into a restaurant would have been a challenge and no fun being alone in that scenario. So I ate at the restaurant they called 50 mile diet because everything is sourced from a 50 mile radius. It was quite good and I even had a cocktail.
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