Peace and tranquility in the tea plantation
Jackamy
Paul & Derry Harper
Fri 4 Feb 2011 21:09
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Friday 4th February
The Rose Garden home stay certainly lived up
to its name, it is nestled in amongst dozens of 20 year old rose bushes. We
soon felt at home thanks to Tomy, Rajee and Dileep (husband, wife and 19
year old son) and within half an hour Amy was in the kitchen helping and
talking to Rajee and two other guests. Dinner was served around a huge dining
table for us 3, and 2 other couples, then once we had finished eating Tomy
and Rajee joined us. We were completely relaxed, chatting away amongst ourselves
whilst the youngest son who was 8 years old played on the computer a few feet
away, whilst the other two sons entertained themselves elsewhere in
the beautiful family home.
 Breakfast was served on the
veranda in the morning and wow was it good. We had pancakes filled with grated
coconut, pineapple, banana, homemade honey and then fried bread with a homemade
pineapple jam that was to die for! It was impossible not to relax in this place,
surrounded by forest with the sounds of all different types of birds only a
short distance away, it was just fantastic.
  After breakfast Dileep showed us
around the gardens. All the plants and trees were planted over 20 years ago when
the family first moved to the house and now it is very substantial. In amongst
the beautiful flowers were small bee hives, the source of Tomy's delicious
honey. They had cabbage patches as well as masses of flowers and plants to
sell. The most interesting part was trying to guess what Dileep had given us to
smell or eat. We were all terrible at guessing the smells and only Amy got one
right, and that was Basil! There were miniature pineapples, gooseberries,
lemon/oranges, strawberries, bananas, papayas, sugar cane, cardamom and any
spice you could think of, as well as coffee plants and pepper plants. Pepper
would be the most profitable after tea and then coffee but the production
processes are so big and expensive they could never manage, so instead they
sell their produce on.
 Dileep guiding us through the
gardens........A bee hive hiding away
 Cabbages and
plants
 Pineapple...........Coffee
 Pepper
 Curry leaves
When the tour of the garden was
over we drove a short distance through Cardamom plantations to the edge of
Viriparai tea plantation. This was the nice thing about getting off the tourist
track and staying at a home stay, as the plantation owner was a friend of
Tomy's, we knew that we would be the only people strolling through the
plantation. The higher the sun got in the sky the greener the fields seemed to
get, it was just beautiful. We walked and chatted with nothing to disturb us, it
was so peaceful.
 Tea pickers only work two days a
week and today wasn't one of them and the area was relatively quiet. Even when
we walked past their houses no one seemed to be around, apart from a lady
heading off with cleaning supplies and a few people washing in the waterfall.
The pickers earn 120 rupees for a 90 kg bag of leaves, the minimum they must
collect in a day, then after that they get 1 rupee for each kg. When the
exchange rate is £1 to 70 rupees that doesn't add up to a lot does it!
But then again they do appear to be quite self-sufficient, particularly in terms
of fruit and vegetables, and the cost of living isn't very big here.
 Tea-pickers homes.......Washing
in the waterfall
 Stunning scenery.........What a
view out of their front door!
 Busy busy.....
 
 
 After snaking through the
plantation we ended up back at the waterfall where we could take a dip. At first
we were annoyed that we'd not brought swimwear as then temperature was rising
and the water was very appealing. But once we dipped our feet in and felt the
temperature we weren't so bothered, it was freezing!!!! It was a beautiful place
to sit for a while though as there were lots of butterflies darting all over the
place all around us.
  Feeling well and truly relaxed
and calm we went back to Rose Gardens. On the way back we saw a man drying
coffee beans at his home, as well as peppercorns drying on the roadside with
many cows dotted all over the place. We had enough time for a spot of lunch with
a young couple from Sheffield who had arrived whilst we'd been out,
and then we were back on the road again with Minesh for the 4 hour journey
home.
 Drying coffee
beans
 Drying peppercorns............A
random cow
 Rajee and Tomy found our
colourful umbrellas
 Rajee, Dileep and Tomy outside
their home
I think we all felt for our lives
on the way home, the driving was atrocious. We know that driving in India is
bad, as it is in many countries we've visited and we've had interesting
journey's in them as well but this has to top them all. We only noticed as we
came to leave that none of the tyre's had any tread, so as Minesh threw the car
around the sharp corners whilst overtaking on a blind bend we couldn't help but
worry. Paul and Amy hung on to the door handles but I didn't have that privilege
as mine came off within the first hour of being in the car. It was truly a very
frightening experience and he seemed to save his worst driving for this last
stretch home. He clearly hadn't enjoyed himself as he hadn't managed to
talk to us for the whole trip, so he was obviously eager to get home. But that
does not excuse the way that he was driving with 3 guests in his car. Amy
polished off a pack of biscuits because she said she was living for the
moment as she honestly didn't know what would happen in the next couple of
hours.
We made it back safe and sound
and when Paul shook Mineshs' hand and said "That was the worst driving I have
ever seen", Minesh simply smiled and wagged his head - not a clue! The peaceful
morning seemed like days ago and we were now aching, stressed and
tired!
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