Travelling tales 3- A Trip to heaven in the heaven:Munnar

Travelling tales 3-  A Trip to heaven  in the  heaven:Munnar

Days-4 or 5(max.)

Time-1:45 minutes(from Pune)

 Air ticket-4000/p return(booking well in advance)

Hotel Tariff-2-2.5k (off-season)

Taxi Indica-2000/day

Whenever life becomes boring harping on the same string of monotony, I feel like breaking the trap of repetition and running away to an aloof hill lock, and what better place one can think of than a tiny hilly tea nestled hamlet like Munnar,my first choice as it is always easier to reach there due to excellent  direct connectivity between Pune and Kochi,less than 2 hrs and if booked well in time ,ticket can be as cheap as going to Bangalore, thanks to the Spice jet .

In fact why I call it" a heaven in the heaven" as Kerala "Gods own country"itself is a heaven and Munnar( meaning: three rivers) is  probably one of the best illustrations to substantiate the aforesaid. Mere words are not enough to understand how this heaven feels and looks-like.One needs to actually visit the place to feel its charm.So allow me to take you on to another journey .

We planned our trip in the month of September, though Sep is off season in Munnar on account of heavy rains and thunder storms, nevertheless we went ahead with our 4 days plan and reached airport around 10 to catch Pune-Kochi flight.Flight took off on its scheduled departure time i.e11:15 and around 1pm landed in Koch airport. One can easily book taxi from the airport prepaid booth though we had already made arrangements of taxi from the airport to take us to Munnar(roughly 120 km,3.5 hrselevation1700m) through some local friend                                         

It was beautifully pouring at that time and like all big metro cities, it took us some 45 minutes to cross the city due to heavy traffic jam.And once city got crossed,the real Kerala beganwherever eye could see, that was just green,green and green.

After some 90 km on NH-49, arrived at a small town Adimali ,famous for "Eastern Spices"manufacturing plant situated here.(By the way, these spices are available in Phoenix market too),one can do a very basic shopping here.The place itself has beauty in abundance like Cheepara falls, Valara falls, Adimali waterfall and many more ....There are also few hotels: MGS Residency(seems good and affordable), hill fort, Palco etc (never stayed here though).We got down to enjoy gushing Chepparra falls.(surprisingly public utilities are available here).



Valara falls


As soon as we crossed Adimaly,we were amazed to see sudden changes in the landscape. Hilly forests got replaced by green carpet of tea gardens, temperature dipped and hills became elevated,road became more winding.And within an hour we reached our destination: Munnar. We chose to stay in Le Celestium,a hotel just 2 km within the town. I would recommend not to stay beyond 5 km in this town ,though there are many hotels situated in secluded hills. This is really a small hill station with very basic facilities. You might be really stuck at times for food or medical emergency if staying a little more farther in the town. Also you have plenty of choices to eat anywhere instead of sticking to limited options offered by any hotel. By the way, nothing comes even closer to Sarvanna Bhavan,when it comes to food(only vegetarian) and eateries like Shree Mahaveer Bhojanalya offers only Gujarati and marawari food-veg(never tried)

For non -veg ,Rapsy,Surya Soma and S.N restaurant can be tried.

Munnar has abundance of beauty no matter whichever direction you go i.e towards (Udmalpet or Topstation or Devikulam, and of course Kochi) you will surely be mesmerized. Each direction can be easily covered in one day.For example-Mattupatty lake and dam,Indo-Swiss live stock farm, Kundale dam,echo point and top station fall in one direction(east),Devikulam lake,Periyankanal water falls,Pech garden dam,Anayirankal dam,Kullukumlai tea estate

                                               

                                           Cheppara Water fall

                                             

 in the direction of Thekaddy . West direction covers Anamudi(highest peak of south) and Eravikulam National park.Though my favourite is--- Udmalpet-coimbatore(north direction), which offers panoramic view, sprawling tea estates and all the colors that nature can offer to man for soothing-eyes, covers Marayoor sandal forest, Chinnar wild life century,thoovnam water fall,Muniyara etc.......

 Second day-We began our morning after having mouth-watering Onion Uttapam for breakfast, with Mattupatty lake and dam, green,serene water with boating facility, a famous spot for film shootings,one can enjoy roasted cashews sold around and indulge in shopping of gifts from nature such as vanilla, chocolate powder, spices,essential oils and many more.....Next point was echo point (heard that a scene from Nishabd shot here!), again beautiful grassy landscape with almost zero litter(thanks to  the government of Kerala),and then suddenly I got mentally transported to a European hamlet once reached Indo-Swiss live stock farm  (see to believe) .

 Indo-Swiss live stock farm

Echo point

       Devikulam lake

 

kundale dam and river

  

Our next destination was Top station- geographically falls behind hills of Kodaikanal,and few decades back, route from this place(vattavada-last motorable point of Munnar) to Kodaikanal was opened,however due to some endangered and precious flora and fauna government closed down the road, nevertheless adventurous bikers and  daring tracking lovers can always seek permission from the forest dept.to go via hills to reach the other hill station.I have heard and read many stories of expedition on this route.

Coming back to top station, it is difficult to reach for old people beyond a certain point as there is an old stone-made staircase to climb and crossing steep rustic path is not less challenging.However, visiting this place  worth and deserves every bit of it for its splendid view .You will find many tribal ladies sitting around and selling honey in glass bottles. Also enjoyed marvelous kundale dam and Devikulam lake,equally mesmerizing and quiet.On a lucky day, one can spot a herd of elephants!!!!

 Top station

It was almost lunch time,and just outside this point(near Parking) there is one restaurant, which serves south-Indian meal and  like us, many other tourists who were starving and could not bear anymore, tried the food here. Frankly speaking, food was not tasty at all, but it was just food to fill belly, should only be tried if you can not wait to reach town i.e another one hour.Around 4 o clock ,we headed to our hotel after fulfilling our routine caffeine-addiction at Sarvana bhawan.

Third day-Next day was luckily,a sunny bright day and we planned to cover Ervakulam national park,rose garden along with Tata tea factory.We got down at ticket point, from where a mini-bus picked to go on ascending hills of National park,on the way crossed some beautiful waterfalls and finally got down at a point ,from there just1-2km walk was allowed to a point,beyond that only forest jeep can go.Well,,if you are lucky,you may spot some nilgiri tahr(a Got like animal),also it offers best view of Anamudi hill.In a nutshell-must visit place.Same day, visited tea factory and bought some.

Also saw Rose Garden,very tiny like a nursery, situated on a hilly terrain in the middle of the town.

 
 National park and view of Anamudi


Fourth day- Our driver asked to start early since we were planning to head towards Udmalpet-Coimbatore road(sh-17) 50 km Maryoor ,famous for sandal trees and Chinar Wild life sanctuary,very close to tamilnadu border,enrouting a pre-historic dolmens site belonging to iron age with very little pastoral population,called Muniyara.

Believe me...the route itself is so picturesque and beautiful that you forget about reaching the destination. A perfect place for a poet to sit and contemplate....with vivid colors of nature, amazing flora and fauna, vast spectacular tea-estates , fresh fragrance of trees plants,flowers mingled in the air,a true virgin nature,probably one of the most amazing and splendid landscapes 1 have ever seen in my life!!!By the time we reached Maryoor, it was lunchtime and we explored a clean eating joint situated in middle of the town .Since weather was turning its faces from bright sunny to cloudy dark,we dropped plan to visit Chinar Wildlife and skipped lankom water fall as well,and headed towards  Munnar in  the evening, bought some local gifts and home made chocolates

Fifth day-Time to go back,pack bag and baggage and say bye to this wonderful place with the promise to come back, and  with some beautiful memories,amazing souvenirs, precious pics and lingering fascination in the mind to wander in cloudy,misty and dewy tea gardens soon!!!!.

View from hotel