First Impressions of Munnar - The TEA CAPITAL of SOUTH INDIA | Kerala, India

Wow! Munnar! I've heard so many good things. This is exciting. This is my room, man. This is nuts. Good morning, everyone. I hope you're all doing amazing. This is David Hoffman from David's Been Here in Tehkadi, Kerala, India. Today I'm very excited because I'm driving three hours north to Munnar. Munnar is the most famous place in southern India for tea. Lots of tea plantations there. They actually have the highest tea plantation in the world. I'm so excited to visit that. It's also a very big honeymoon destination. Today what we're doing is very easy. We're driving from Tehkadi all the way to Munnar. Along the way we're going to see possibly elephants, possibly tea plantations. We're going to have some breakfast, maybe some chai. Are you guys ready? I'm excited. Let's go to Munnar. Munnar is the tea planet of Kerala, actually, of south India. It's a beautiful place. Lots of hillocks. In the morning you will experience fog and if it is drizzling, it's better. The road from Tehkadi to Munnar is a winding road through the mountains and forest. As you can see, lots and lots of fog. We can't even see in front of us right now. That is why we left at around 7 in the morning. If you leave at 5 in the morning or 6 in the morning to try to make up time, it's not worth it. It's going to be too hard, too dark, too much fog. It's riskier, it's dangerous. Wow, this is crazy, dude. This is crazy. Today I'm going to give you my first impressions of Munnar once we get there. But along the way we're going to see if we see anything. Besides the food, I'm sure we'll see a few different towns. Wow, dude. We really can't see anything. We can see like 6 meters. Dude, how are you driving this? I've experienced it here. We use like fog lamps, so it's okay. But you shouldn't leave too early, right? Because it's way too dangerous. At times it can be very dangerous. And right below us, you know, the bottom of the mountain, we have Taman Nadu. We visited it yesterday. Really, really hot. Huge difference in climate and scenery. That's just like all farmland down there. This is Tegri to Munnar. Yeah. It's beautiful. Actually, it's beautiful. Fog is an experience. If there is no fog, there are no greeneries. This is not Idukki. Idukki is a district, by the way. The distance between Tegri and Munnar is somewhere around 70 kilometers. 70 plus, slightly. But it takes around 3 hours, sometimes more than 3 hours. Because the roads are winding, as well as the mountains. Steep, slope, everything. On the plains, you may be able to reach in one hour. Maybe in India, maybe one and a half hours. David, what you are seeing, all these, these are cardamom plantations. And in between, you can see the trees with pepper vines. Those are pepper vines. Wow, so many. So many. You'll see many more. It's like a never-ending forest of pepper vines. Yeah. And cardamom, and tea, and coffee. It's like everything is here. Everything is grown here. Everything is high. We've been driving for about an hour. Couldn't find any tea stalls, no food, nothing. And we finally found a little shack here. Viyam Kul Palace. I do not know Viyam. First time here. Let's try some tea. Need to ease my throat. Hello. I'm just trying to wake up. My brain is still asleep. What have we got here? Spicy cookies. Oh yeah? Yeah, really. For real? Try it. Spicy cookie. Nice masala. Like a spicy biscuit. Dense. Not too spicy. The smell. Whoa, what is that? Baby, get a chai. Here we go, some chai. Are you almost finished it? No, not yet. Ooh, hot. It's a potent cookie. No? So I guess that's breakfast. Yeah. No. Yeah, actually we broke fast. Sun's coming out. This is a great little spot right here. Another town. Just right in the village. Just one shot. That's it. The big chai. So they have masala chai, ginger tea. Lemon juice. Everything. Coffee. So if you're not a tea drinker, you can have some coffee. But we're in the middle of a tea plantation, so you gotta have some tea. Yep. Got a second cup of chai. I had to. They usually have like five of these every day. And this has no cardamom, no ginger. I really thought it did, but this has ginger. Ginger, masala, sesame seeds. Chai, chai, chai, chai. So it's 54 rupees for three cups of chai and what? Four biscuits. Four masala biscuits. The bag of masala biscuits looks incredible. How much is that? How much is the bag? 200 rupees. 200 rupees for the bag? I'm good, I'm good. Thank you, my friends. Thank you. Let's go. I was just playing around, but that bus came out of nowhere. As you can see, we're going through another junction. You know, these are basically like centers of villages. And they're always concentrated, a lot of traffic. Everybody's coming in and out. And one thing you'll notice here is that you can see mosques, Hindu temples, and churches. And the reason for that is because this is one of the most diverse states in terms of religion. So you have 18% Muslims, 26% Christians, and then 54% Hindus. So Hindus are the majority. But again, you have everything here, which is amazing. Everybody's living in harmony. Very peaceful state. And yeah, spicy, spicy food. True. Spicy, spicy food. Friendly, friendly people. Smile always and live happily. We'll stop for breakfast. I don't know what they have. It's not a prominent place. But I'm going to try it first time. You also. Yeah, we're really, really hungry. We only have about a 45-minute drive left to Munnar. So we decided, why not? We saw this place open right next to this temple. As you can see, it's like, what's happening? It's a temple and there's a festival coming ahead. A festival? Yeah. Tomorrow. This is aneen vadas. What do you think? The bigger ones, these are aneen vadas. And this one is lentil vada. And this is known as bonda. You'll try it and see. This is a very, very local spot. As you can see, the walls are painted pink. Over here, they have the menu. They have dosa. They have idli. They have paratha. They have chicken. They have biryani. They have everything. And over here at the end, they have this guy doing meter chai. So basically, he throws chai up a meter high and back down. Pretty incredible stuff. Let's see. David, these are snacks. Fried snacks. These two are vada. This is aneen vada. And this one is lentil vada. We call it parippu vada, ulli vada. And this one is sweet. These two are sweet. And these two are spicy. This is bonda. And this is sugiyan. This is stuffed with green gram and jaggery. Anyway, you try and tell us how it is. Here we go. Vada with onion. Bonda. Regular vada. And sugiyan. Sugiyan. Sweet and sweet. So these are spicy and then sweet. So I'm going to break this one off first. So you can either just eat the whole thing straight or break pieces, right? Like that. Not so spicy. Very crunchy. Crispy. Soft dough in the middle. It almost tastes like pizza dough. That's how fluffy it is. And here we go, the bonda. Break it off in pieces. Wow, this is like a super hard ball. Looks very sweet. As you can see, the inside is like spongy. It's airy. Super tough. Super crispy. Let's try it. Super sweet. It must have sugar or jaggery in here. Great contrast. Spicy. Sweet. Now this. This is one of my favorites. You have corn in here. Wow. This is like really tough. Very crispy. That piece. We're going to eat the sambar. Last up we have the sukiyen. So I'm going to break it for you. Look. Black grand. And... Wow. Jaggery. Right there. So different. As you can see. So it's like obviously on the outside, nice dough. Good batter. Inside, it looks very like flaky. Lots of grains in there. It's sweet, right? Super sweet. Oh yeah. The jaggery. Oh, delicious sweetness to it. Oh, great contrast. Sweet. Crispy. Now what I'm going to do is get some of this and also go into the sambar. I love sambar. It's so sweet, guys. It's like the sweetest thing here. Yeah, the spice is the spice. Sweet is sweet. But this is like the best sweet. It's all so fried. I ate the whole thing, but... And here we have delicious idli. This was actually a little harder than the regular idli. So it's like very spongy. Made out of the same batter as dosa, which is basically rice and lentils. And this one's steamed. So what do we do? We go in. Break up a little piece. Yeah, it is hard. Way harder. Let it absorb all that delicious sambar. But yeah, it's a lot harder. It doesn't break off so easily. It's still very spongy. And what I like about it is how it absorbs the sambar. And this sambar is a little spicy. Next to it, we have the chutney. And this is coconut chutney. So let's put a little bit on the idli, right? Yeah. Wow. Simple and the spice. Pure coconut. Oh, man. You have to just let it absorb it. Which clue is it going to be? Because here's a random spot. But in India, anywhere you go, you always eat good food. It's amazing. Some potato? Potato. I'm good with that. This is how you really should experience Southern India. Go to local spots like this. Don't eat at your hotel. Go out. Try some real good food. Super cheap. This idli, for being hard. I think the only thing we're missing is the sweet coconut chutney. Bitter chai. Fantastic. Milky. Oh, wow. Lots of tea in here. My third cup today. David, before going to Munnar, shall we look at this temple? Let's do it. What festival was it? Yeah, I mean, they had a festival yesterday. Yeah. They're blasting music the whole time. Whoa, so they have all this for offerings, huh? Yeah. All that? As you can see, it's a very, very small temple. It's actually called Ayyappan Temple, which is a god in Hinduism religion. Yesterday was the festival, so right now we can't really see that much. The only thing we can see is the guy over here with the offerings, the flowers. And above, we have loudspeakers playing incredible music. Really, really cool. I love Hinduism. Look at this. I don't know if I should dance here. This is not Bollywood, is it? David, these coconuts and these sugar canes are for the festival. Because it was Pongal festival yesterday, and this is all for the festival celebration. Cool. All right, I think that's it for this town. Thanks, guys. Let's go to Munnar. We're only 45 minutes away. It's getting really hot right now. The sun has come up. It's like 9.30 in the morning. Lots of trucks. Lots of people. What are we going to do in Munnar? I don't know. We're going to drink some tea. David, do you love cooking? No. No? Then you should eat. Just eat. Ten minutes outside of this town, the road becomes really, really rocky. I mean, lots of potholes. Very, very little smooth areas. That's why it takes so long, because it says here 42 minutes to go. But in reality, it's probably longer. Right? Maybe. This part of the road needs maintenance, but it's not done yet. Most probably, they will do it by next year. I hope so. Let's hope so. All right, guys. I'm stopping really quickly, because there's some people here working on the coffee beans. Hello. Coffee beans. Beautiful. Can I try one? Looks good, huh? Like that? Like this? Me? For me? You sure? Thank you. These people are way too nice. Look at this. Coffee beans. A gift to me. I love Kerala. I love India. Hey, buddy. I got a gift for you. Thank you. It's amazing. You love to eat one of them? Yeah. Like this, you can take it out. The beans can be very bitter, but this skin, the fleshy part, can be sweet. But for coffee, we need these beans. We dry them, we process them, and we drink coffee. But this is sweet. This part is sweet. Fleshy. We have another 30 minutes to go. And as you can see, the road has become super smooth, really straight, less windy. And over here to the right and the left, there's a lot of banana trees and cassava plantations or cassava farms. Cassava plants, yeah. Cassava plants. And as you can see, lots of trees, less mountain here. It's more flat mountain, right? We are now on the mountain. We'll have more mountains ahead. How much time we have left? Half an hour. In half an hour, we'll reach there. David, we are 10 minutes away from the hotel, and we have steep mountains and narrow roads. Plenty of winding roads. Yeah, the road is made for one vehicle, lots of potholes. You have scooters coming down. It's really, really steep. I mean, we're going at a 90-degree angle all the way up. My God, I mean, this is a tough, tough road. And this is to get to the hotel. Yeah. Not to Munnar town. No, no. We are not going to the town now. These are rubber plantations on the other side. This is cocoa, cocoa trees. So rubber, cacao, and right here, they basically cut like, they made like a hole in the earth through the mountain to get this road. Whoa, super steep, winding. If you have motion sickness, I do not recommend coming to Munnar. You want to see nutmegs? These are nutmegs. You can see nutmegs. Fruits are there. Yeah, eat it? Yeah, you can eat. That's sour. Oh my God, that's horrible. Is it sap? Don't make me eat that stuff. This is probably one of the hardest hotels to get to. They're up in the mountain, super winding, narrow road. Now, it's like a dirt road, but we are getting here. We're two minutes away, and right now, we can see tea plantations. And this hotel is called the Dream Catcher Hotel. It's a really, really nice hotel. And you've stayed here a few times? Three times. Beautiful experience with my family. We're almost there, guys. We're almost there. Whoa, look at that, all the tea. Man, super high. Hello, how are you? Good morning. David, pleasure. Nice to meet you. Good morning. Hey, David. Pleasure. Nice to meet you. We made it to the Dream Catcher. Tea plantation is up here. This is the main building in the Dream Catcher Hotel. They have regular rooms here, but we're staying in a? We're staying in a tree house. Tree house. And if you're coming with your family, you can even stay in a honeymoon cottage. Not with family. If you just went and come here, you can stay in a honeymoon cottage. Thank you, thank you. So, this is some herbal tea. Oh, it's nice. It's like, it's sweet, it's earthy. It's strong. I'll have the second one. Thank you, thank you. See this. It's a tart glass. It has a taste of coffee, a bit of tea, and plenty of herbs. Nice. We just checked in, and now we're walking over to my tree house. Mine is actually located inside the cardamom plantation. His, the honeymoon suite, is located in the tea plantation. And as we walk through here, lots of different plant life. Oh man, the air up here is incredible. It's like, so pure, so clean. Cardamom, cardamom. You'll see the cardamom. We're walking through the cardamom, and one thing they just told me is that it just passed harvest, so you can see there's no seeds. I mean, they basically took them all out already. Wow. This is, this is really incredible. We're up super high in the mountain, walking through all these plants. Jungle. And here's the tea plantation, so you can see beautiful plantations of tea. And you can see this one, these trees in between, they are oranges. So if we find something, we'll pluck them and we'll eat them. If possible with salt. Check this out, tea plantation, and that is my tree house. Right there. I'm going to take you on a tour of the tree house, follow me. Dude, I'm so excited. This is awesome. I've never stayed inside a tea plantation. I've stayed around it, but never inside. Tea, cardamom, my gate. Whoa, dude. This is awesome. Wow. Munnar. I've heard so many good things. This is exciting. This is my room, man. This is nuts. Tea plantation. What a view to wake up to. What a view. Got a small little terrace here. You can see the tree coming through. Tree. Little table here. Relax, have some tea, obviously. Tea and crumpets. And this is my room. Let's see. Wow. Love it. But it's a little too dark in here. This is way better. Look at that. Light coming in. Huge king size bed. Come here, let me show you the bathroom. Toilet, faucet, shower. Very comfortable, very easy. Look at this place, guys. I am so impressed with Munnar. I am so excited to be here. Look at this. Got the tea plantation right below me. This is just to die for. What a great destination. Honeymoon destination for sure. Today has been epic. We got out on the road at 7 in the morning. Drove 3 plus hours to Munnar from Degadi. I highly suggest doing that route. It's really beautiful. It's scenic. Lots of curvy winding roads. Really good food as well. We tried some tea on the way. We tried some idli. We tried some snacks. It's been such a great morning. We came here to Munnar up in the hills. Hill station. Walking around my beautiful tree house. This is just... I heard about this place and everybody was like, you have to go, you have to go, you have to go. I'm so happy I'm here. That's my first impression, guys. If you love this video, please give me a thumbs up. Leave me a comment below. Subscribe to my channel for more awesome travel content. I'll see you in the next travel food adventure in Munnar. Kerala, India. Peace.