Munnar

Munnar was a great place to kick back and take it easy for a few days, if for no other reason than I didn't break out into a fierce sweat when I sat up in bed in the morning. We had a chance to wander the hills with our bikes and amazingly enough our dumb luck led us to some nice trails. The tea plantations are pretty epic, undulating waves of green blanketing the hillsides.

Turns out on bus rides the undulating hills don't agree with some people. We took a bus up to a place called Top Station and I got to be witness to a little girl three rows in front of me letting her lunch loose all over the floor. If people were sick already, nothing brings out the naseau like the sweet smell of vomit wafting throughout the bus.

Sadly we had to roll out of Munnar and leave the cool mountain air to re-enter the humid plains once more. From Munnar we took off for Pollachi about 120k to the northwest just outside of Kerala in the state of Tamil Nadu. Fortunately on such a long ride about half of it ended up being downhill, a great way to cover long distances in a short time. The valley after we left Munnar was probably the highlight of the trip so far, the scenery was unreal. Early morning sun setting off waves of green in the hills, poinsetta trees lining the road; it felt like riding through a scene from somebodies imagination. Cheesy I know, but the hills were pretty damn epic. Alas the beauty did not last. By the time we arrived in Pollachi the rolling hills had dissolved into flat plains of dead grass littered with trash. The best and worst all in one day, the joys of traveling in India.