Hello, dear HIVE community,
I reached new friend's home at Vandiperiyar in Idukki district!
Today is the second day, waking up, and I am located in the beautiful mountain area of Idukki, Kerala in south India. Here, the world seams to be different from the Western world where I am coming from. The nature is so rich with fruits and plants that's difficult to describe. But that I can say — I felt very welcomed there.
Aji came today with the plan to show me the surrounding places together with his friends.
After taking some breakfast made by his mom and having some traditional Indian chai, we waited for the driver, Arjun, which is as well from the villages from this area.
Together we started, and on the way I realized that something was going on. The people were running on the streets with big drums and costumes. Then my tour guide Aji told me, that the celebration of Shiva, one of the most powerful gods in India, has their birthday. Interestingly, his birthday party is lasting for 10 days.
I must be very lucky, I thought to myself, as it felt great to be a part of this spiritual celebration for Lord Shiva.
The first stop was a small natural farm, where one of Aji´s friends made the cultivation of rare plants his life mission. I learned so much about the techniques to use natural fertilizers and about the power of healing through medical plants. The farmer said he will let the chickens soon to be free in his land, as they are already suffering from the lack of space.
The passionate farmer has as well bees. How you can see in my video, he tries to cultivate bees in different places — beehives, inside the trees and freely hanging down from the tree.
Soon I understood why so many bees were kept in his place, as I tasted the most delicious juices naturally produced by one plant.
As we travelled further, we reached to the mountain cliff, where I could see far in to the land of Tamil Nadu. The mountains are the natural border between the state of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
I will talk later more about some of the problems later in my travel stories. I realized that there were no trees and only plantations. It was such a big contrast of the farm that I just visited, and the farms in front of me.
The heat here can reach easily up to 46 degrees, and unfortunately the dames made by the British, when they invaded and looted India, are preventing the water to flow naturally.
This colonisation hat major impact on the land and nature all over India and sadly ended only in 1941. Now though, farms are polluting the soil in tons of pesticides and genetically manipulated plants, so that big corporations can still rob the poor people, and after, feed them with their own poison.
Further, we travel to a celebration in a temple with one of Aji´s uncles. It was a place where people brought their Krishna statues to get them blessed. I was happy to be a part of this tradition.
In the spirit of the approaching celebration, everyone got a free meal – with lots of vegetables, sauces, and rice.
After the meal, we travelled further through beautiful forest areas to visit our last location for the day. Arjun's family owns a piece of land, where they grow tea and cardamom. Arjun gladly showed me around and taught me new things about the culture and farming cardamom.
They still have an ancient Cardamom drying unit on their land. This way of drying the cardamom is used to keep the cardamom green, if they would dry it in the sun, it would turn gray. Same taste, but a green fruit always looks more promising.
In the end of the day we went home and I could not wait what the next days have in store for me.
Since making movies and capturing moments is a big passion of mine, sharing them with a wider population which appreciate them, means even more to me. If you would like to support me, join me on my journeys and subscribe to my YT channel.
Lots of Love,
Steffen