From beaches to mountains.

After finishing up on kicking concrete so my big toe fell apart, we took the train for Kottayam where we spent a couple of hours. We took the bus early in the morning for Munnar, a hill station with a cooler climate, more vegetation and lots of mountain tops. It was good to see all these things although it felt a bit cold with only 20 degrees. I actually had to put on a sweater, while wearing pants is now a habit I practice in cold areas as well as places with temperatures above 35 degrees. Munnar has a split population between people from Tamil Nadu and people from Kerala which results in a mixed spoken variety between Malayalam and Tamil. This is funny since we know a bit Tamil, but of course it could end horribly wrong as well. Yesterday two guys came up behind us and asked how we were doing, in really bad english. We answered back in english and soon realized that he didn't know much more to say and what he tried to get out was pretty much incomprehensible. So to make him feel better I tried som Tamil phrases, which resulted in the same incomprehensible dialogue, except the tables had turned. He was extatic and started talking, what to us was, gibberish. Anyhow, it was he who started!!

We walked into a small village up in one of the tea farms in the area and met some children. They wanted us to take pictures of everyone and then they wanted to take pictures themselves of everyone. Luckily we're both guys who knows how to say when enough is enough.

There are a lot of interesting signs around here. For instance we have found the "infant jesus radiator shop". I want a car just to go there to get some service done. We have also found a "very very weak bridge", and believe me; they are not kidding. The police has a slogan: "polite, but firm". What a relief.

That pretty much sums it up. Tomorrow morning we'll head for Coimbatore and then we'll separate again where one half goes up north and the other, which is yours truly, will be heading back to beloved Pondicherry to spend the last week with friends I'll soon be leaving behind.

That's it for now. I'll post more later. Mountain hugs to everyone!