Un-Jaded

Today was a great change of pace. The tour took a radical turn and headed more for the sort of stuff I like. Seeing temples day after day was about the drive me crazy and Meenakshi temple an the gift shops around it just about did me in. Starting today I'll be on the other side of the ghat mountains. The monsoon should have moved to the east side of the ghats where I was staying before. But it seems like it's still raining here. From what I understand, the monsoon is late in moving on this year.

On the way to Thekaddy, which is in a different state called Karala, I saw many small companies producing what Satprem calls Country Fired Bricks. They make the bricks by hand. The bricks are sun-dried and then stacked in a giant pile which the brick-makers cover with a mud/dung plaster. The bricks are fired using nothing but the plaster as insulation. The process works, but it requires lots of wood. The bricks tend to be weaker than factory bricks as they are not fired as throughly. Worst of all, when quarrying for the required earth, careless brick makers often use top-soil, which of course ruins the land where it was quaryed and also makes poor bricks.

In Karala, donkeys rule the road.

One of my favorites. Fresh lime soda. You add the sugar and soda water yourself. Perfect, every time.


Part of my day I was set aside for a plantation tour. The place I toured specialize in spices, but they had some tea and coffee plants as well.

Vanilla beans


Can you see the dove in this orchid?

Entrance to the drying room


The guide shows me some cardamom in it's dry state.

Coffee plant

Nutmeg


cardamom
A colorful spider


Leaches! Leaches! [shivers] I hate leaches! ... if you walk around in one of the plantations or parks you are bound to pick a few of these up. But if you keep checking your shoes you'll see them before they have a chance to crawl up to your legs. Tabaco powder applied to your socks/legs repels them also.


Karala style architecture of the hotel where I'm staying.