Mr. Joseph Iype
"We give what we can" he said as he unlocked our room. "You have everything you need: hot water 24 hours, clean towels, and two warm blankets, you'll not get cold at night". We hesitantly followed him in, wondering what kind of room would merit paying almost double the going rate. It was just barely in the range of our budget, and we were willing to spoil ourselves a little given that other parts of the trip had come out cheaper than expected. "We have lovely rooms" he told us as we stared in surprise at the bare walls, low ceilings, and basic bathroom. "Welcome to Munnar", he said "Kerala's most beautiful hill station".
We haggled over the price, but he wouldn't budge; he was staying sky high. We looked at each other helplessly, remembering the beautiful garden outside, the spectacular views around the entire house, and looked again at the cramped room.
"It has hot water?"
"24 hours ma'am" he assured me.
I shrugged, "Okay, I guess we'll take it."
And so began our acquaintance with the owner of Zinna Cottages.
A strange old man, Joseph, he called himself. He explained that the children and grandchildren (all successful bankers) were all grown up and far away and that he wanted to keep busy. Several times, insisting that he did not want to brag, he told us that he was in all the guide books, as well as in a book by Arundhati Roy.
"Do you know Arundhati Roy?" he asked us. We assured him we did. "Well, I am in her book." he told us proudly.
The guide books informed us that Mr. Joseph Iype, the "gregarious" owner of Zinna Cottages, was the source of excellent touristical advice. With us, he could not seem to remember what he had told us, which golden words had already spilled from his lips and which remained unspoken. Thus, his priceless advice was given several times, each time like the first.
"I promote tourism" he kept telling us, as he urged us to stay another night in our expensive room. "There's so much to see". Of course, once he had firmly established that we were departing the following day and couldn't be convinced otherwise, he started pressing us to get an early start in the morning. And, of course, we should leave our bags in the main house before we went out, rather than in the room, no need to worry about check-out time that way. And, just in case he hadn't told us before, the best time to leave would be early, maybe 7:30 in the morning or so, before the clouds came in. He'd have tea ready for us in the morning. We were going to leave the bags before going out, weren't we? His wife would be home, our bags would be safe, not to worry.
"Have more tea" he told us as we sat in the main house after arriving, "it was made just for you". The odd thing was that the "tea" was merely a thermos of hot water and tea bags on the side. Tetley tea, that is, which he informed us is Munnar tea, a tea that goes all over the world.
Mr. Iype also had an interesting habit of dropping by the room. His active care and interest in his guests extended to checking up on us to ask where we had gone for dinner and how it had been, and then he came back a little later to give me a registration form to fill in, and then again to check that we had hot water, and finally, just as Malavika was stripping to take a shower, he knocked on the door, just to remind me to give him the form in the morning.
I must say, the beds were comfortable, the water wonderfully hot, and the blankets warm and snuggly. The view when we opened our door in the morning was breathtaking. His two visits to the room (around 6:45am), the first to check if we'd had tea (we had, and had spoken to his wife while doing so), and the second to pick up my form and check once again that we were vacating the room and leaving our bags before going out to see the sights, were less welcoming. However, this all became perfectly understandable when, while picking up our bags in the afternoon, his wife informed us that two batches of new guests were expected any moment -- Zinna Cottages only has four rooms available. Seventy or not, Mr. Joseph Iype was simply being a good, if a bit eccentric and pushy, business man. He promotes tourism, just as he told us, and does his best to ensure that those tourists keep his four very pricey rooms filled at all times. After all, his children and grandchildren are all grown up and he not long ago celebrated he 50th anniversary with his wife, what else is a man to do?
We haggled over the price, but he wouldn't budge; he was staying sky high. We looked at each other helplessly, remembering the beautiful garden outside, the spectacular views around the entire house, and looked again at the cramped room.
"It has hot water?"
"24 hours ma'am" he assured me.
I shrugged, "Okay, I guess we'll take it."
And so began our acquaintance with the owner of Zinna Cottages.
A strange old man, Joseph, he called himself. He explained that the children and grandchildren (all successful bankers) were all grown up and far away and that he wanted to keep busy. Several times, insisting that he did not want to brag, he told us that he was in all the guide books, as well as in a book by Arundhati Roy.
"Do you know Arundhati Roy?" he asked us. We assured him we did. "Well, I am in her book." he told us proudly.
The guide books informed us that Mr. Joseph Iype, the "gregarious" owner of Zinna Cottages, was the source of excellent touristical advice. With us, he could not seem to remember what he had told us, which golden words had already spilled from his lips and which remained unspoken. Thus, his priceless advice was given several times, each time like the first.
"I promote tourism" he kept telling us, as he urged us to stay another night in our expensive room. "There's so much to see". Of course, once he had firmly established that we were departing the following day and couldn't be convinced otherwise, he started pressing us to get an early start in the morning. And, of course, we should leave our bags in the main house before we went out, rather than in the room, no need to worry about check-out time that way. And, just in case he hadn't told us before, the best time to leave would be early, maybe 7:30 in the morning or so, before the clouds came in. He'd have tea ready for us in the morning. We were going to leave the bags before going out, weren't we? His wife would be home, our bags would be safe, not to worry.
"Have more tea" he told us as we sat in the main house after arriving, "it was made just for you". The odd thing was that the "tea" was merely a thermos of hot water and tea bags on the side. Tetley tea, that is, which he informed us is Munnar tea, a tea that goes all over the world.
Mr. Iype also had an interesting habit of dropping by the room. His active care and interest in his guests extended to checking up on us to ask where we had gone for dinner and how it had been, and then he came back a little later to give me a registration form to fill in, and then again to check that we had hot water, and finally, just as Malavika was stripping to take a shower, he knocked on the door, just to remind me to give him the form in the morning.
I must say, the beds were comfortable, the water wonderfully hot, and the blankets warm and snuggly. The view when we opened our door in the morning was breathtaking. His two visits to the room (around 6:45am), the first to check if we'd had tea (we had, and had spoken to his wife while doing so), and the second to pick up my form and check once again that we were vacating the room and leaving our bags before going out to see the sights, were less welcoming. However, this all became perfectly understandable when, while picking up our bags in the afternoon, his wife informed us that two batches of new guests were expected any moment -- Zinna Cottages only has four rooms available. Seventy or not, Mr. Joseph Iype was simply being a good, if a bit eccentric and pushy, business man. He promotes tourism, just as he told us, and does his best to ensure that those tourists keep his four very pricey rooms filled at all times. After all, his children and grandchildren are all grown up and he not long ago celebrated he 50th anniversary with his wife, what else is a man to do?