Off to Munnar

Tuesday 1/8

After checking out Kochi for the morning we hit the road with our driver for South India, Beni.  Super nice guy and more flient in English than Himraj.  Beni is more of a full service driver and acts as a bit of a guide giving facts and helping to coordinate the sights we want to see and adding some of his own.  He is also able to answer some questions.  I say some questions because if he initiates the conversation we seem to track well, but when I initiate then we end up in the weeds nearly every time.

The strike worked in our favor and almost our demise.  Beni was rockin' it like Mario, Mario Andretti.  A few times he was hauling 90km in a 35km.  He has been driving these roads as a professional for 23 years, I supposed he knew them well.  Still, there are so many more random road factors in India that nearly 3x the limit seemed a little excessive.  It might have helped that there were no commercial vehicles large trucks, buses etc. to clog up the roads.  Here are a bunch of parked and resting buses which are normally on these abnormally narrow roads.

After a getting a complete core workout from the bracing I had to apply for every turn I finally discovered that his speed was inversely proportional to his talking.  The more I could get him to talk the slower he would drive.  It started as we drove through his town and I would point to all the mansions and eagerly inquire "Is that your house?", he would laugh and let up a little on the gas.

The South seems like a different country from the North.  The pace is a lot slower, the green is a lot greener, rarely any cows on the road or street fires.  An incredible amount of churches.  I think I only saw three in the North where here you cannot go a few kilometers without seeing three.  Catholicism dominates the Christian religious landscape here while Protestantism is very much a minority.  We noticed something prevelant here that only seemed to be equaled in Slovenia (could have been Croatia, I forget), the presence of numerous roadside shrines to various saints.  It brings to mind that followers of Christ are the temple of the Holy Spirit and a physical space is no longer required.  Jesus tells us this in John 4:21 - Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father."

We arrived in Munnar to find that Patti had once again scored in the accomodation space.  This homestay was in the hills outside Munnar and has absolutely stunning views.  It was incredibly quiet, such a difference from the big cities of the North.  The only thing more quiet was the glamping, here in Munnar there is a lot of wildlife, not beeping horns, making sounds through the night.  Speaking of that, time for bed.  Trying to get caught up on this here blog.

Images coming soon in next post.