The hotel we had booked in Munnar was just south of actual Munnar town so we asked him to drop us off a bit early. He claimed he understood the stuff we wrote down (names of hotel and town) but if it wasn’t for Tom noticing the sign we would have driven into Munnar. No big deal anyway, but we saved some time and money by getting off early. The entertainment continued when we got to our hotel. The manager claimed that something was wrong with our reservation and there was no room for us. We didn’t understand that because we had booked and already paid fully for the room via hotels.com. He claimed that we should have called in advance to re-confirm what had already been confirmed (?!?!?!). I argued I paid for this room and I am getting this room. He urged us to contact the middle man and figure out what’s wrong. I fought back and said that’s not my problem and I want my room. Eventually he realized I was not budging and called some random travel service (apparently the ‘middle man’) and got in an argument with them. Apparently, the advertised price on hotels.com was too low and he had emailed and called the ‘middle man’ on frequent occasion to change the prices. Therefore, we had acquired this room for much cheaper than he had wanted. I am not sure what words or promises were exchanged, but he got off the phone and led us to our room, pretending he hadn’t acted so rudly earlier. No apologies or anything, all he said was that he has no problems with us, just the ‘middle man’. Like I said, I wasn’t leaving there without the room promised to me. We paid $16 for the night with a breakfast buffet, and I can see why he wanted to charge more- for the view! We had one of the best rooms in the hotel, top floor, overlooking the tea plantations! Worth the fight!
The tea plantations are beautiful. Rolling lush green hills as far as the eye can see. You don’t feel like your in India because, for once, there is no clutter! You can actually walk 100m without seeing another person! Imagine, in the 2nd most populated nation in the world! Was a nice breath of fresh air I must say!
We took in the sunset and had a nice dinner. It was cool, calm and beautiful there. Off to Kochi in the morning! We unfortunately had more issues in the AM with our terrible hotel manager. He purposely brought up our breakfast at 8AM without us asking or giving him a breakfast time, and he didn’t mind just walking into our room without an invite. Our ‘breakfast buffet’ consisted of about 6 slices of soft, gross toast, a few slabs of butter, a bowl of marmalade, and tea. Ridiculous. Tom complained and he told us we could order something more from the menu, but I was just sick of him and the place so we decided to leave. We waited outside the hotel for the Munnar-Kochi bus that was said to come by every 15 minutes. We only waited about 5 minutes before a bus appeared, similar to the one that had brought us to Munnar the day before. All I have to say is that this bus ride was even more ‘fun’ than the day before. Indian bus roller coaster ride is what I would call it! We stood on the bus (packed) for the first 20 minutes as it weaved in and out of traffic, with sheer cliffs on each turn. I was utterly convinced we were ravening down one of the cliffs at some point. Eventually we got seats in the back, but even with seats you still have to hold on for dear life! Officially craziest driving adventure ever! Worse than East Africa or ANYTHING I have ever been through. Your life flashes by and you have plenty of near death experiences on the Indian bus roller coaster ride! Quite the experience! Not recommended to all! :P
