1st may brought a respite with a holiday on Friday. This gave us 3 days and a chance to execute our long pending plan of visiting Munnar. Let me brief you a little about Munnar.
Munnar is a town located in the Idduki district of Kerala, situated in the southern Western Ghats Munnar usually refers to the whole tourist area of the Idukki District of which the town forms only a small part.The name Munnar is believed to be derived from the Malayalam words Munu (three) and aaru (river), referring to the town's strategic location at the confluence of the Muthirappuzha, Nallathanni and Kundaly rivers. Essentially a pass ; the area around Munnar is surrounded by vast jungles and remains wet and cold during most of the year. Sprawling tea plantations, picture book towns, winding lanes, trekking and holiday facilities make Munnar a unique experience for the tourist and traveller. Munnar is essentially a tea town.
The region in and around Munnar varies in height from 1,600 meters to 1,800 meters above mean sea level. Munnar enjoys a salubrious climate. The temperature ranges between −5 °C and 10 °C in winter and 15 °C and 25 °C in summer. The tourist season in Munnar is from August to May. However, even the monsoons are lovely with many streams and rivulets in the area and post drizzle the dew drenched tea gardens looking majestic and heavenly enshrouded in light mist.
Reading about it may have created a beautiful picturesque scenery in your mind. Even we had all this in mind when we planned to start from office on Friday, April 30th. All had to go together but as always, not all plans go well. Me, Praphulla and Elizabeth Left together, Sonal came on her own, Mayank came with Subhra’s family and Saket sir came with his. We reached Majestic at around 2030 hrs. We couldn’t have missed the dinner at the Andhra style restaurant, where we had it while going to sharavati. I think it will become a hangout spot for us before to leave for any trip. We were only 4 there for the dinner as all else were running late. After dinner we were joined by saket and his wife and we went in search of our platform. Found our bus and waited for Mayank and Subhra. In the meantime we had one more task at hand. Selling off the 2 extra tickets we had. I didn’t want to mention about the people who had to miss this trip cause of some unavoidable reasons. Their emptiness had to be felt for the whole trip. The selling of those tickets showwed us another face of “The Great Indian System” and the laziness of Indians (ours). We directly talked to the conductor and he willingly accepted our offer. We were paid half the ammount, and sold the tickets at full rate to some other person. Finally everyone came and we set off to Ernakulam. It was a 11 hr journey. To make it more interesting, they started showing the worst flop of this year, some Bobby Deol and Nana Patekar starrer EK. I believe everyone else slept except for Saket and Mayank who enjoyed the whole movie thoroughly.
We reached Ernakulam bus stop by morning 9. A driver with a Tempo Traveller was waiting for us. The first thing we wanted to do was freshen up and have some breakfast. Everyone had waited till 9 for everything, some like me didn’t even had tea. Well we managed to cross Cochin and stopped at a roadside restaurant with facility to get freshed up. Had a wholesome of breakfast with a variety ranging from kerala parantha, omlette to idiyapam. After being content we left the place for Munnar. On the way we visited a fall. We all knew that coming before monsoon will surely kill the thrill of waterfalls. Made a 5 min stop there and left for our destination. Suddenly to our surprise, it started raining. We couldn’t have expected anything better. Suddenly it became very misty and the valley was at its best, exhibiting all its beauty. We stopped at a place called “View Point”. Like its name, the view from there was spectacular. One can see the whole mist covered valley. The mist would fade away in some time exposing the nature and when you would feel you havent had enough, the mist would again come and hide it from you. The wait for the mist to fade and view the natural beauty was worth. We spent sometime there untill it started raining again. We left from there prepared to stop at the hotel only. On the way we saw another waterfall which seemed a little big and had enough water. We couldn’t help, so stopped and went to relax there. There was a shop selling homemade choclates, old coins and tea. The numismatist in me started to jump in me for the coins. To my surprise and dissapointment, I had nearly all the coins he was selling. We tasted the choclates there and then went on to have a quite time near the water. All seated on the rocks with feet dipped in water. Somehow I had this intution that there is going to be splash. Strangely so it was right. In no time prahulla and Elizabeth started behaving like children and splashed water on each other. Seeing this some local boys got excited. Must be around 8 – 10 years old. They jumped in the water and splashed the water all around. Something else also happened there which I dnt want to mention. Don’t want to be a victim of wrath. We left for another surprise in waiting after the short stint of fun.
The hotel looked cool, to be very frank we never expected it to be like this. It was far better than the pictures on the internet. All the rooms faced the valley, with a view of a large tea estate. We were quite content with it, specially after all the speculations about the hotel type. We rested for sometime, took a bath and then gathered to leave for the town. The town was crowded, cause of the start of season and also it being a long weekend. We roamed around looking for places to eat and shop for choclates and tea. Our group was actually searching for some place where we can get sme beverages. To our shock, we didn’t find even one shop. On asking an auto driver, we got another shock. He said we wont get it here. It seemed as if all the enthusiasm was killed because of one shortcoming. With one final try we asked our cab driver, he explained us that every month on the 1st the shops will remain closed. It was a big respite. With all this and some coldrinks and chips we went back to our hotel. The night went by playing court–piece and watch IPL games.
We woke up at 7 in the morning and gathered out for a morning walk in the tea estate. The walk through the dew dipped tea estate was ecstatic. Moving all the way through the estate, we came back after about an hour to have our breakfast. After breakfast we left for sight seeing in and around munnar.
First we went to the Mattupatti dam, had to walk for some distance as the road was small and it was overcrowded. We all bought cowboy hats and stayed there for some time. Next to the dam was an echo point. Because of the crowd it wasn’t really an echo point. Only whistles were echoing. Well we thought that the afternoon was all wasted so we left for the town to have lunch.
After lunch we left for Eravikulam National park. We had to stop at a place and take tickets to visit the place. The queue for the tickets was neverending. There were around 3 busses which were used to commute to the hill top. We waited for around 2 hrs for the ticket. Finally all of us boarded one bus and travelled for around 25 min to reach the place. From here we had to walk to the final limit of the national park. Everyone was enthusiastic about seeing some wildlife. We walked for another half hour to reach the top. In the name of wildlife we saw only wild goats, but the scenic beauty was mind boggling. We could see a deep valley from there. All covered with mist. The mist would rise and then hit the mountain and stay there for a while before disappearing. This place made our day. The dissapointment caused by the echo point and the dam was covered up. Finally we left in the last bus after thoroughly enjoying the place. On the way we bought everything necessary to make the night more lively.
We had already arranged for a Campfire at the hotel rooftop. We all gathered there at around 8 in the night. It was bitter cold and the fire was a big respite. Had our drinks there and enjoyed for around 2 hrs before we departed to our rooms for another round of card playing and IPL.
Coming morning was the day to leave the place. We had our mornign walk, but this time the volunteers were less. Had our breakfast and gathered to visit a waterfall for some fun in water. We reached the one we had visited the other day. Everyone jumped in the water with excitement. After sometime we started climbing the rocks and tried reaching the top of the fall. It was quite risky as the rocks were slippery and steep. After a lot of effort four of us reached the top. To be frank I didn’t have the heart to go back through the same route, it was scary. So me and praphulla planned to take the root towards the jungle and then reach the road. Mayank and Elizabeth receded through the same path. Somehow we managed to reach some house in the forest. From there we headed using the road towards the waterfall. We had diverted a bit too far and now it seemed quite a distance. On top of it, Praphulla was in his shorts only. Everyone was seeing us as if we were aliens and blurting something in Malayalam which to us was alien. Finally we managed to reach and left from there to check out from the hotel.
We left munnar at around 12.30 for Cochin. On the way we had our lunch (it wasn’t worth mentioning even). We dropped Subhra at Cochin airport and we headed towards the cochin beach. We reached there just in time to see the sunset. Till now everyone was exhausted. After the beach we visited the chinese fish nets and then went to the marine drive. Everyone had icecream there amidst all the dirty talk. Everyone was in full flow. Finally we had our dinner at pizza hut and the left for Ernakulam bus stop for our bus to bangalore. The bus was late and it was unbearable to stay in that humid weather. It was a respite to be in the bus. We reached bangalore Monday mornign at around 9. Boarded our bus to home and came back to office by afternoon.
Three days went like a few minutes with all the fun except that we missed the company of few, without whom everything lacked the lustre.
Munnar is a town located in the Idduki district of Kerala, situated in the southern Western Ghats Munnar usually refers to the whole tourist area of the Idukki District of which the town forms only a small part.The name Munnar is believed to be derived from the Malayalam words Munu (three) and aaru (river), referring to the town's strategic location at the confluence of the Muthirappuzha, Nallathanni and Kundaly rivers. Essentially a pass ; the area around Munnar is surrounded by vast jungles and remains wet and cold during most of the year. Sprawling tea plantations, picture book towns, winding lanes, trekking and holiday facilities make Munnar a unique experience for the tourist and traveller. Munnar is essentially a tea town.
The region in and around Munnar varies in height from 1,600 meters to 1,800 meters above mean sea level. Munnar enjoys a salubrious climate. The temperature ranges between −5 °C and 10 °C in winter and 15 °C and 25 °C in summer. The tourist season in Munnar is from August to May. However, even the monsoons are lovely with many streams and rivulets in the area and post drizzle the dew drenched tea gardens looking majestic and heavenly enshrouded in light mist.
Reading about it may have created a beautiful picturesque scenery in your mind. Even we had all this in mind when we planned to start from office on Friday, April 30th. All had to go together but as always, not all plans go well. Me, Praphulla and Elizabeth Left together, Sonal came on her own, Mayank came with Subhra’s family and Saket sir came with his. We reached Majestic at around 2030 hrs. We couldn’t have missed the dinner at the Andhra style restaurant, where we had it while going to sharavati. I think it will become a hangout spot for us before to leave for any trip. We were only 4 there for the dinner as all else were running late. After dinner we were joined by saket and his wife and we went in search of our platform. Found our bus and waited for Mayank and Subhra. In the meantime we had one more task at hand. Selling off the 2 extra tickets we had. I didn’t want to mention about the people who had to miss this trip cause of some unavoidable reasons. Their emptiness had to be felt for the whole trip. The selling of those tickets showwed us another face of “The Great Indian System” and the laziness of Indians (ours). We directly talked to the conductor and he willingly accepted our offer. We were paid half the ammount, and sold the tickets at full rate to some other person. Finally everyone came and we set off to Ernakulam. It was a 11 hr journey. To make it more interesting, they started showing the worst flop of this year, some Bobby Deol and Nana Patekar starrer EK. I believe everyone else slept except for Saket and Mayank who enjoyed the whole movie thoroughly.
We reached Ernakulam bus stop by morning 9. A driver with a Tempo Traveller was waiting for us. The first thing we wanted to do was freshen up and have some breakfast. Everyone had waited till 9 for everything, some like me didn’t even had tea. Well we managed to cross Cochin and stopped at a roadside restaurant with facility to get freshed up. Had a wholesome of breakfast with a variety ranging from kerala parantha, omlette to idiyapam. After being content we left the place for Munnar. On the way we visited a fall. We all knew that coming before monsoon will surely kill the thrill of waterfalls. Made a 5 min stop there and left for our destination. Suddenly to our surprise, it started raining. We couldn’t have expected anything better. Suddenly it became very misty and the valley was at its best, exhibiting all its beauty. We stopped at a place called “View Point”. Like its name, the view from there was spectacular. One can see the whole mist covered valley. The mist would fade away in some time exposing the nature and when you would feel you havent had enough, the mist would again come and hide it from you. The wait for the mist to fade and view the natural beauty was worth. We spent sometime there untill it started raining again. We left from there prepared to stop at the hotel only. On the way we saw another waterfall which seemed a little big and had enough water. We couldn’t help, so stopped and went to relax there. There was a shop selling homemade choclates, old coins and tea. The numismatist in me started to jump in me for the coins. To my surprise and dissapointment, I had nearly all the coins he was selling. We tasted the choclates there and then went on to have a quite time near the water. All seated on the rocks with feet dipped in water. Somehow I had this intution that there is going to be splash. Strangely so it was right. In no time prahulla and Elizabeth started behaving like children and splashed water on each other. Seeing this some local boys got excited. Must be around 8 – 10 years old. They jumped in the water and splashed the water all around. Something else also happened there which I dnt want to mention. Don’t want to be a victim of wrath. We left for another surprise in waiting after the short stint of fun.
The hotel looked cool, to be very frank we never expected it to be like this. It was far better than the pictures on the internet. All the rooms faced the valley, with a view of a large tea estate. We were quite content with it, specially after all the speculations about the hotel type. We rested for sometime, took a bath and then gathered to leave for the town. The town was crowded, cause of the start of season and also it being a long weekend. We roamed around looking for places to eat and shop for choclates and tea. Our group was actually searching for some place where we can get sme beverages. To our shock, we didn’t find even one shop. On asking an auto driver, we got another shock. He said we wont get it here. It seemed as if all the enthusiasm was killed because of one shortcoming. With one final try we asked our cab driver, he explained us that every month on the 1st the shops will remain closed. It was a big respite. With all this and some coldrinks and chips we went back to our hotel. The night went by playing court–piece and watch IPL games.
We woke up at 7 in the morning and gathered out for a morning walk in the tea estate. The walk through the dew dipped tea estate was ecstatic. Moving all the way through the estate, we came back after about an hour to have our breakfast. After breakfast we left for sight seeing in and around munnar.
First we went to the Mattupatti dam, had to walk for some distance as the road was small and it was overcrowded. We all bought cowboy hats and stayed there for some time. Next to the dam was an echo point. Because of the crowd it wasn’t really an echo point. Only whistles were echoing. Well we thought that the afternoon was all wasted so we left for the town to have lunch.
After lunch we left for Eravikulam National park. We had to stop at a place and take tickets to visit the place. The queue for the tickets was neverending. There were around 3 busses which were used to commute to the hill top. We waited for around 2 hrs for the ticket. Finally all of us boarded one bus and travelled for around 25 min to reach the place. From here we had to walk to the final limit of the national park. Everyone was enthusiastic about seeing some wildlife. We walked for another half hour to reach the top. In the name of wildlife we saw only wild goats, but the scenic beauty was mind boggling. We could see a deep valley from there. All covered with mist. The mist would rise and then hit the mountain and stay there for a while before disappearing. This place made our day. The dissapointment caused by the echo point and the dam was covered up. Finally we left in the last bus after thoroughly enjoying the place. On the way we bought everything necessary to make the night more lively.
We had already arranged for a Campfire at the hotel rooftop. We all gathered there at around 8 in the night. It was bitter cold and the fire was a big respite. Had our drinks there and enjoyed for around 2 hrs before we departed to our rooms for another round of card playing and IPL.
Coming morning was the day to leave the place. We had our mornign walk, but this time the volunteers were less. Had our breakfast and gathered to visit a waterfall for some fun in water. We reached the one we had visited the other day. Everyone jumped in the water with excitement. After sometime we started climbing the rocks and tried reaching the top of the fall. It was quite risky as the rocks were slippery and steep. After a lot of effort four of us reached the top. To be frank I didn’t have the heart to go back through the same route, it was scary. So me and praphulla planned to take the root towards the jungle and then reach the road. Mayank and Elizabeth receded through the same path. Somehow we managed to reach some house in the forest. From there we headed using the road towards the waterfall. We had diverted a bit too far and now it seemed quite a distance. On top of it, Praphulla was in his shorts only. Everyone was seeing us as if we were aliens and blurting something in Malayalam which to us was alien. Finally we managed to reach and left from there to check out from the hotel.
We left munnar at around 12.30 for Cochin. On the way we had our lunch (it wasn’t worth mentioning even). We dropped Subhra at Cochin airport and we headed towards the cochin beach. We reached there just in time to see the sunset. Till now everyone was exhausted. After the beach we visited the chinese fish nets and then went to the marine drive. Everyone had icecream there amidst all the dirty talk. Everyone was in full flow. Finally we had our dinner at pizza hut and the left for Ernakulam bus stop for our bus to bangalore. The bus was late and it was unbearable to stay in that humid weather. It was a respite to be in the bus. We reached bangalore Monday mornign at around 9. Boarded our bus to home and came back to office by afternoon.
Three days went like a few minutes with all the fun except that we missed the company of few, without whom everything lacked the lustre.
No comments:
Post a Comment