Ramakkalmedu

A long time ago, back when this trip was still an idea, we stumbled upon a small homestay in the middle of Kerala’s Western Ghat mountains. Spice buds! The simple name stuck out to us, and for the next year, we hyped ourselves up for our eventual visit to Spice Buds, the massive acreage of spice forests and mountains. A whole backyard to hike just to ourselves. That’s what it was in our minds.

Reality is rarely so kind. It still was a spice plantation, just not that big. The grounds could be walked in 20 minutes. And when we arrived, that is exactly what we did.

Our host, Jobins, was lovely. We were the only guests for the duration of our stay, and as a result we were catered too quite well. We got a tour of the grounds, which featured a fish pond, rabbits, flightless pigeons, and a treehouse with semi-obstructed views of the valley.

The first tour was the only time we actually wandered the grounds. We spent most of the afternoons on our porch, enjoying the pleasent temperatures in the morning and afternoon shade. Amal was tasked to be our butler, and he did a good job. He would deliver our meals every day.

We did do one major excursion while in the area though. In the later afternoon, we got a rickshaw to being us around Ramakkalmedu. There were many viewpoint of rolling hills in the region for us to enjoy. It pains us to admit this, but we never got our drivers name.

The majority of energy generation in the local region is through wind, so we checked out the windmills. Ramakkalmedu is a fairly rural and unpopulated area by India standards, which means villages of a couple hundred people every 10-15 minutes on the road, and houses on larger plots of land lining the main roads. Sort of like an estate district. So they don’t need a lot of power, and the windmills more than do the job.

We stopped for tea in one of the little villages. Our driver appeared to be friends with the shop owner. We were escorted past the convenience store style shopfront to the back of the shop to sit down at plastic tables and chairs in an undecorated concrete room. A bollywood soap opera was playing from a small 15in CRT television sat atop an unplugged fridge. A group of local men, presumably construction workers on break, were all sat at one table engrossed in the soap. Our driver joined them, and we followed suit. The chai was very very good. The soap opera, not so much.

We then got dropped off for a short hike. The trailhead is in the state of Kerala, but the hike itself was in the state of Tamil Nadu. It wasn’t that long, over a kilometer or so. But at the end of the hike was a rocky hilltop, with a 360 viewpoint of the hilly forests of Kerala and the flat valley farmland of Tamil Nadu.

It was interesting to see the stark difference between states, and you could tell how there could be such a cultural difference. Just from the geography. The mountains provide a general natural barriers and because of the difference in topography (flat vs hilly), different cultures and subcultures can emerge. For the most part, Kerala citizens are of Malayalam decent, and Tamil Nadu are Tamil. Different languages as well. We learned from a later homestay that it is very uncommon to marry outside of your language (Most Indians are at least bilingual to some degree, with Hindi or English being a second language. Many are trilingual as well).

Across the road from the viewpoint was another hilltop to check out. At the top was a statue of two people with their baby, and a tower with a sculpted hornbill on top. The view from the top was again, quite pretty. The sun rays through the clouds of the Western Ghats are lovely on late afternoon.

There were also a lot of monkeys. These white buggers can get really aggressive with food. So we have to be careful.

Our driver then brought us to his home for tea! His wife made us a masala chai, and then got us to try all sorts of their home made goodies. There was a love apple cider that was quite decent, roasted peanuts, papaya, banana, all from their garden. We got a tour of the garden as well. The jackfruits were coming in slowly. Neither our driver or his wife were very proficient in English, and our Malayalam doesn’t exist beyond hello and thank you, so we had a lovely broken conversation about Canada. We’ve learned quickly that every Indian has a cousin or relative that lives in Canada now.

Amal took us on our adventure for the second night. Just a short walk up the hill to a Hindu temple. Non-Hindu’s are not allowed inside Hindu temples, so we looked from the other side of the fence. The hill plateau was a great spot for the temple, as we could see the hills well beyond it.

Spice Buds wasn’t exactly the experience that we had envisioned in our heads. But it was lovely nonetheless. We were certainly the only foreign tourists in the area, but that made our experience even better. The hospitality here was wonderful.

We’re still not done with the mountains though! One more stop for us. See you there!