The Jet flies to Munnar (25th - 28th Oct 2011)

Munnar.
We had always wanted to go to Munnar. I guess a lot of people want to go to Munnar. We were three of those lot of people.
And indeed a lot of people do go to Munnar.
In fact, there is an entire industry setup in Kerala to take you to Munnar and bring you back.

We also wanted to go to Munnar. No. We actually wanted to do Munnar.

Now how do you "Do" Munnar?

Do you take a flight to Cochin and climb up to Munnar?
Do you take a car to Munnar, directly zipping via forests and drylands to reach this hill station?
Do you sit on a train to cochin and a taxi from there, to see the scenery zipping by?
Do you stand in an old pre-independence british cathedral on the hill and look at the ceiling?
Do you just stare at the vast, green, tea estates extending into the horizon and wonder how magnificent a place can be?
Do you scale a mountain peak, holding onto stones and shrubs for your dear life, just to get a glimpse of the panorama that surrounds you on the top?
.
.
.

As you can see the list is endless. This is where lies the problem. It is not a city. It is not a state, it is not a country.... It is a paradise.
A big paradise. A big and green paradise.

Like I said before, an entire industry is sitting there. It is the package tours' industry. You just pay them the money, they will make a plan for you, and make you see Munnar. 5 days? 10 days? 15 days? Its all there on the menu.
Effortless, painless. Except on the wallet front.

And here was the second problem. The main problem.
We did not want to see Munnar.
We wanted to do it.

Just wanted to stand and stare.
Wanted to walk through the mysterious, engulfing, morning mist amidst the sounds of chirping birds.
Gaze at the lush green Tea estates and stroll aimlessly through them, admiring the greenery.
Stare at the postcard picture panorama as though time went still.
Watch the tea workers pluck leaf out of leaf and put it into their baskets.
Listen to the cows mooing in the farms.
Get wet wading in the streams and waterfalls that played hide and seek with the greenery
Climb and trek the lofty peaks of the western ghats, and just soak it all in.

The resort/package tour industry could not help us do all of it. Not even with the most expensive package.
It could just take us to see a mountain or two. Or a temple or two. Or stuff us in a bus or car and make us look at the world through a tinted glass. Sure, they could throw in a Jacuzzi or a massage centre to entice tourists. But then, we would be seeing Munnar and doing other things there, not "doing munnar".

The Munnar plan was there for quite some time. The plan needed a push. And a push came in the form of a rather useless chain of holidays during Diwali, which was never in our plans.

Why Diwali? well, no festival this year due to some relative passing away. So that meant no crackers. No puja. No sweets either. No, not even the low calorie ones with artificial sweeteners.
So what do we do? Sit at home for 3 days while the rest of the country bursts crackers and eats sweets?

No.
We wanted to do Munnar.
What, where and how.?
Train?
Car?
Flight?
Boat?
Walk?

We wanted to do all of that. But we couldn't.

An idea was born. A long time back. Years back. But it never happened. According to my parents, 500km was too far for a car, at least for our old car. I had abused the old car over some 20-25 earlier trips with friends, but anything above 300km was an objection with parents. Now some renewal in plans. Why?
You see we have a shiny car now. A black one. And it shines because it is new and is largely unused.
It is also powerful. Devastatingly powerful.
Then you have an enthusiast who loves to drive. He believes that driving a powerful car through winding tea estate roads is fun. He wants to get away from the hustle and bustle of a city. This time the hustle and bustle also involves crackers so he wants to avoid it all the more.

And so this trip was born.

As I gather my wits and start processing the 1000+ pics and a dozen videos, you can probably look at these teasers










They reflect a fraction of our trip. I don't even know whether they are good or bad. For us they are memories. Memories of a trip which was not what we planned, yet everything we planned, and everything we did not plan.

And don't forget the how part.
Only the destination, thanks to the family, was finalized - Munnar.
Rest? How to reach?

We could go to Salem, and take the route through Dindigul westwards
We could go to Coimbatore and take the route through Marayoor south-eastwards
We could go to Western Munnar or cochin, and take the route north-eastwards

Very simple.
But we decided not to make it simple.
We decided to use 2 routes. What is the fun in doing the same route both ways, eh?

Drive around eastern Kerala and then reach Munnar via NH49 while going.
Drive through Marayoor and come back home via Coimbatore.

So far so good.

Then there are the mundane details of Google maps, hotels and lastly, of places to visit

It took us 1 week. It was that simple.
hotels, phone calls for bookings, google searches for places to visit, reading blog reviews and applying for leaves

And then it was all done.
Ready to see Munnar.
Ready to drive through the western ghats of god's own country.

Ready to "do Munnar"!


If you want to 'do' Munnar, make sure you have maps, and know the names of exits and towns along your planned route.

And make sure you have a GPS device, if you want to go off the plan... which we very much did!

About the rest of the plan, it will unfold as the travelogue unfolds

Last but not the least, you will see a lot more landmarks with a package tour at a resort, but with that, you will not "do" Munnar, you will just see it. The choice is yours.


Finally we are ready to go. Or are we?
No.
Not quite.
There is a pile of clothes on the bed plus lots of other stuff. Snacks, clothes, cosmetics etc.. Putting them into suitcases is my mother's department.
We are going to follow the golden rule.
Collect everything you need, and then pack half of it. We are trying to pack half of it, and it does not fit.

Time for me to climb the old rusty, iron stool, and search the loft for our "other big suitcase". Thankfully the stool still takes my weight.
Never mind that.
We decided to carry one bag and one big suitcase. That typical huge foreign travel suitcase they show in the bollywood movies.

The tripod goes in first. I tend to forget it often. I am a forgetful guy when it comes to trips. I forget things. I forget names, I forget places. I even forget my own name sometimes. I once forgot my tripod for a trip. After a few phone calls, I was stuck with 2 tripods. No such risks this time.

Thanks to the tripod, which was big and heavy and had to go in the suitcase, we were out of space for the half stuff we decided to take.

So the eve before our early morning departure, we had lots of clothes on the bed, one big suitcase, and one bag. One "Reebok bag" of such good quality, that it was partially torn. Good that we saw it. I had a sneaky suspicion that it won't last. Why? Because my previous reebok shoes also did not last.

That reminds me. I need sports shoes too. Now sports shoes do not weigh much, but they do occupy space. So I decided, let me wear them instead of packing them.
But now, I also have a pair of woodland trekking shoes too. Which means I need extra space.

Hence I was on the stool. Again.
And I got the other big kitbag and suitcase down.

The zipper was partially broken. Hurray!
But it was too late. We will take this with the partially broken zipper. After some arm wrestling with the zip, we found a position where it will work.

So as my mother started packing it all in, it was time for me to pack the other stuff. I charge both batteries of my DSLR, empty out and reformat both the memory cards and stock in all my lenses and filters into the backpack. All done!

Meanwhile, in all this packing drama, I had forgotten about the car. A quick trip to the Shell station and she was filled to the brim with 91 octane petrol. Call it aviation fuel if you like. That's how costly the petrol prices have become now.
Over to the air pump. I check air pressure in all 5 tyres including the spare one. The extra 5 minutes to fill the spare causes a huge queue of vehicles. Some angry glares and shaking fists too. We Indians are impatient creatures you see.

The Jet got a good bath in the garage. Time to hit the sack. Or is it?
At around 11am, I remember my travel companion suddenly, in the middle of the night. The trip cannot go on without it. Why am I so forgetful? That MapMyIndia GPS navigator. How many days has it been since I used it?
I find it in my table drawyer and switch it on. It obviously doesn't switch on. Tapping it a few times doesn't help either. Battery drained out. Completely.

And so, at 12 am, I decide that an overnight charging is what it needs. That is if you can call it 'overnight' for 3.5 hours from 12 to 3.30am. Something is better than nothing. I plug it in and get back to bed. But wait, what about that GPS car charging unit?! I can't drive for 550km without the car GPS charger. Where was that cursed box which came with the GPS device? Time to again climb the stool and hunt the attic. Ah! there it is, covered in a one inch layer of dust. Never mind. All is well that ends well.


Day 1 - The journey begins to reach heaven on earth

I hear some sound ring. Rubbing my eyes, I am wondering what happened. I am on the bed and my mobile frantically plays the alarm tone. 3 am now. Time to freshen up and move out. The real dream was just about to start. The luggage loading into the boot took about 15 minutes and once the boot had swallowed all the bags and suitcases, it was time to lock all the doors and shut the windows at home. The last thing I fancied was a stray diwali rocket coming into the house through an open window and setting some curtains on fire. I have a wild imagination, you see.

We departed Bangalore by 4.30am finally. The plan was to stop for breakfast at Salem (210km), lunch at Udumalpet (390km) and reach Munnar by 4pm. After passing through the Electronic city expressway, the Hosur and Krishnagiri toll gates, our first break was near Dharmapuri around 170km from Bangalore. The rain gods decided not to make the journey so pleasant for us. A deluge of early morning rainfall on the route to Salem created a small traffic jam by the trucks in the curvy roads of the Golden Quadrilateral expressway. Of course, the just-washed black car became brown after the rain, but that is a different issue. After this stretch, the next 40km passed quickly and we stopped for breakfast at Annapoorna hotel near the Salem bypass road by 8am. Post breakfast, the Jet gunned down the remaining distance to Udumalpet in 2 more hours. 100kmph was literally crawling pace for the jet, but I could not bring myself to push it harder than 120 kmph since the car is still new. We were at Udumalpet by around 11.30am, 1.5 hours ahead of planned time. I refuelled to full tank capacity and we had an early lunch at a place called Balaji mess which served some TN style south indian meals. Apparently this was the only veg. hotel in Udumalpet - Munnar highway. The food was bad, and I managed to push some morsels down my throat, at least to keep hunger at bay.

Stopping for a break near Salem

NH7 looks beautiful in the morning sun

MapMyIndia S650 GPS navigator - my travel companion

Post lunch was where the challenge began. Udumalpet's road network is so ridiculous that the entry to the Munnar highway is a one-way! First time ever, that I have seen a highway entry being a one-way! MMI GPS navigator didn't know about this one way, so we ended up going around in circles and asking a few locals to help us get back on track without breaking any rules. It didn't take us long to figure out that the place is supposed to be pronounced as "Moon-aar" here and not "Munn-ar" as was assumed. So remember, we were now going to Mooonaaar, not to Munnar.

The Jet takes a breather before beginning the final ascent to Munnar

The first 30km were cakewalk stretches with freshly laid out tarmac, gobbled up with ease. We came to the first forest reserve checkpost. A forest official with a veerappan style moustache looked at me from top to bottom and asked where I am from and what I have in the car. After confirming that I wasn't carrying elephant tusks, crocodile teeth and leopard skins (he probably thought I was), he let me go after making an entry about the passing vehicle. We came across 3 more checkposts before entering Periyar forest reserve, and each time I had to alight, sign in the register and open the boot for checking. Once past these, I was into the jungles.

The road from Udumalpet to Munnar via Periyar forest reserve and Chinnar wildlife sanctuary

Soon the road quality deteriorated in the forest reserve. There was just 1 lane of tarred road. If another vehicle came from the opposite direction, one had to get down into the gravel to make way. With the TN buses, obviously I was the guy who had to make way every time a bigger vehicle came by. And so the next 20 km passed with some bit of see sawing between tarmac and gravel. Remember the golden rule, if you are driving on TN's highways and you don't make way for TN buses, you will appear in the next day's newspaper in the obituary section.

Daddy checking out the forests alongside the highway

Thankfully the jet was taking the bad roads very well without scraping the underbelly anywhere. We stopped once for a break and some pictures. After this, ironically I saw plenty of boards asking us not to stop the vehicle and/or get down since this was an elephant crossing zone and they could attack if provoked. So, unfortunately, unintentionally, we had stopped inside the no-stopping zone inside the sanctuary. Soon we came to the forest exit checkpost by 2 pm. The no-stop zone was over and the steep part of the Ghat section was about to begin.

Stopping in a no-stopping zone. Ironically this was a dangerous elephant crossing zone

Slowly and pleasantly, the scenery started to change from thick jungles to slightly hilly terrain. I was alternating between 2nd and 3rd gears through the ghats. In the Jet, the 3rd gear is fantastically tuned to pull from 30kmph all the way to 120kmph in 6-7 seconds flat, with the acceleration of a mad bull on steroids. I rarely had to downshift even at hairpins. I thoroughly enjoyed 'flying' the car all the way up. Halfway up the hills in sector 1, clouds started to appear from nowhere and in a minute, it started raining heavily. And so, with the fog lamps and headlamps on, and some foot-tapping Beatles' music playing in the background, we completed the first section of the ghats, after which it stopped raining and cleared up in a while.

Another picture of my Linea T-Jet

After a couple of breaks to take some snaps of the awe-inspiring landscape, we departed to the halfway point through the ghats, called Marayoor. This place has a one-of-its-kind-in-the-world Sandalwood forest zone. The highway passes through this sandalwood forest and needless to say, it is a no-stopping zone as well. The entire stretch of the sandalwood forest is secured on both sides with electric fences and wired up with CCTVs to prevent miscreants from trying anything untoward. Just passing through this place sent shivers down my spine. It was really eerie and spooky. There was an unusual silence which was quite staggering. There were no birds and no animals in sight. The whole forest was dark, just full of sandalwood trees and nothing else. Nice place to shoot daytime horror movies, if you ask me.

Marayoor's mystical sandalwood forests

After passing through the mysterious sandalwood forests, we were now into the second and final stage of the ghat section ascent to Munnar, incidentally the steeper section with much worse roads than what we covered till then. Plenty of small waterfalls with crystal clear, ice cold water trickled down in between the rocks and greenery, truly presenting a visual delight. We stopped for another break at one such waterfall and proceeded.

Small waterfalls dot the ghat section roads leading to Munnar

We took a lot of breaks at these small waterfalls

There were 20 kms more left for Munnar, and we were running a bit behind schedule with the watch reading 3.30 pm. The landscape soon started changing into lush green tea estates and valleys and the turns became steeper. The roads were quite bad with plenty of nasty potholes and I had to weave in and out of them since the T-Jet is quite a low car. I wasn't complaining about the loss in pace, because the scenery was so heavenly. We saw at least 15-20 more pretty waterfalls along the greenery dotted roads. The second section was definitely more picturesque than the first one. We wanted to reach Munnar quickly so we stopped at just one more place, a valley of some kind but with a stream and a lake in the clearing, manifesting as a very pretty sight.

Tea estates start to appear as we approach Munnar

Fantastic landscapes all the way up to Munnar

A brilliant lake-stream setting looks fabulous with the green tea estates in the backdrop

We reached Munnar by 4.15 pm and stopped at Royal Retreat hotel in the main town for a tea/coffee break. There was very limited connectivity for Airtel in Munnar. Very good. Vacations are anyway meant for getting out of reach. The estate resort owner had messaged me the directions to the place beforehand, so there was no "hello", "we are here", "where are you?" nonsense calls. We had to travel beyond Munnar town along the same highway for 5 km and enter Pallivasal tea estate (owned by Tata tea) on our left. Thanks to my omnipresent MapMyIndia navigator, we detected it on the maps from far away and followed his sms directions to reach the resort by around 5 pm. Even after the 500km ordeal, nobody was tired even one bit, driver (me) included. The leather sofa seats in the jet are extremely plush and comfortable. My earlier Hyundai Accent used to give me cramps after 300-350km.

Reaching Munnar town in the evening

The estate roads leading to Aranyaka resort inside Pallivasal tea (Tata tea) estate

That's our Kerala-architecture-styled cottage at Aranyaka resort

The front porch at the cottage

Mr. Akbar, the guy incharge of taking care of the guests at Aranyaka resort, led us from the parking area to our cottage. After having a hot cup of fresh tea and munching on some lip smacking pakoras, my parents settled down in the front porch to take in the views of the surrounding scenery, while I walked around the place to explore the surroundings in whatever little daylight was left. There were 4 cottages in this place, named after 4 rivers. Ours was called Yamuna. Not that it mattered. All 4 cottages, and the resort itself is situated on the slope of a hill, almost on the top. The place is so high that clouds pass by this place, and when that happens, the place is intermittently fogged up during the cloud phase. It felt weird at first but we would soon get used to it in the next few days. The entire hill is covered with tea plantations with a road which runs all the way to the bottom of the hill in 3 km. At the bottom was a viewing point for a popular waterfalls called Athukkad falls. I made a mental note to trek down to the bottom sometime in the next few days.

The view from the cottage balcony at Aranyaka

Now, the resort has a very small network of staff. There is one Mr. Akbar who handles housekeeping, room service, does a waiter's job and also doubles up as a trekking guide if need be. There was a chef resident at the place who, as expected, takes care of the cooking. There are a couple of guys who work as bell boys and as housekeeping staff, and there is a manager who handles reception of guests, payments, bookings of cabs, etc. All in all, a fantastic resort within a tea estate with superb customer service and all the staff going about the duties with smiles on their faces.

Enough said about the resort. Day 1 was coming to a close. We were initially the only occupants in the resort, but by 8pm there were 2 more Innova cabs coming in and soon, the other 3 cottages were occupied too. There was a noisy Gujrati family of 2 couples with some kids and there was an American couple with kids at another cottage.

After a piping hot dinner at 8 pm, we spent some time at the balcony and took a short walk within the resort, watching the night turn foggy. Temperatures dipped to around 14-15 degrees by 10pm, after which we retired to our cottage and hit the sack.


Day 2 - More of Munnar - Devikulam valley, more viewpoints, Lockheart gap


I woke up early at around 6am, went for a short walk all by myself and returned to the resort after a few pictures. Seeing the black car covered in muck and slush was irritating. I saw a couple of cab drivers in the parking lot washing their cars and couldn't think of anything better to do. Finally, after a hot cup of tea I went to the resort staff room, borrowed a hose pipe and an old cloth and spent half an hour washing the car to get it gleaming again. Job done. Time to return to the room.

Jeep trails within Pallivasal estate

Tea leaves in the morning dew

The road leading from Aranyaka resort to Athukkad waterfalls down in the valley

Layers of green tea leaves on all sides

By 8 am, all 3 of us were ready. Breakfast was being served in the restaurant section. We had a Kerala cuisine specialty called 'Puttu Kadala', an idli-like rice-based dish with coconut gratings, to be eaten with a spicy channa gravy. Post the delicious breakfast, we headed out to Devikulam valley by 9 am, one of the 2 routes to be explored alongside Munnar. Bad roads greeted us as soon as we broke off from the town and entered the Devikulam valley route. Covering 10km took us almost an hour. In stretches, half the road had fallen away and one side of the traffic had to wait while the other side passed by on the narrow stretch. We stopped at a couple of places to explore the surrounding tea estates and take in the views. There was this one fantastic place where I literally dropped anchor for the next half an hour near Devikulam. A panorama of tea plantation hills surrounded us on almost all sides, looking like a carpet of green. Devikulam valley was definitely one of the most beautiful places I have visited till date.

Stopping for pictures on the way to Devikulam

Daddy decides to check out the tea plantation

The Jet on the route to Devikulam

Devikulam viewpoint - one of the most scenic sights I have ever witnessed

Carpets of green

The plethora of potholes on the road accompanied us all the way till Lockheart gap, one of the highest points in South India, where we stopped for a short break and some pictures. After a hot cup of tea and some Bhel puri in the fog, we retraced our path to Devikulam, where I took some more pictures and proceeded. Just after Devikulam, we spotted a decent looking resort out of nowhere, bang in the middle of the jungle. It was called Las Palmas resort if I remember correctly. We had some decent lunch there, and came back to the estate route.

The Jet conquers the highest point in South India

Lockheart gap viewpoint

Family picture at Lockheart gap viewpoint

Stopping for some more pictures at Devikulam viewpoint

Amma and I at the Devikulam viewpoint

A HDR image of the Jet atop the tea estates

Yours truly, at the view point

We stopped at the town at a shop for homemade chocolates, spices, handicrafts and flavoured tea powder, etc. We then visited one more place called Chithirapuram, another green carpet area along the return route. This place was just 2 km from our resort entrance road so it didn't take long to snap a few pictures and get back. We were back to the safe confines of our resort by 4 pm. The pakoras I had on the previous day were so great that I couldn't resist ordering a couple of plates again. Meanwhile the evening skies had opened up to reveal a deep blue colour, contrasting brilliantly with the greenery around. The sunlight lit up the entire place producing fantastic hues all around the place. The camera was at work again.

The tea plantations near Chithirapuram

More greenery at Chithirapuram's tea plantations

The clear skies when we return to Aranyaka

The view from our cottage balcony with clear skies

We watched TV and had Sizzlers (of all things) for dinner, right in the middle of a tea plantation. I thought anything non-Indian would be messed up in this restaurant but it was actually smashing good. The Aranyaka resort's chef surely did have a good hand at cooking. With that heavy dinner, Day 2 came to a close.


Day 3 - Completing Munnar - the stereotypical tourist-haunted spots - Matupetty dam, Echo point, Kundale lake, Top Station

I woke up early by around 5.30am. Mom and Dad were still asleep. I wore my shoes, took along the camera bag and went out for a 3 km hike down to Athukkad waterfalls alone. It was just about to become dawn. I managed to capture the early morning in all its glory here inside pallivasal.

A weird looking bird chirping away to glory

This sight greeted me at the first hairpin bend from Aranyaka at dawn

The road runs along in hairpins while descending to the falls. For walkers, there are stone steps bypassing the hairpins and directly climbing down through the tea plantation . The steps were quite steep and were infested with leeches so I was a bit wary of standing too long at any single place while amidst the plants. After a half hour walk, I was at the bottom of the valley overlooking Athukkad waterfalls. This was the white falls that was visible from our cottage balcony all along. It was quite a powerful waterfall with water coming through in massive force, raising plumes of mist into the surrounding air. The water then flowed down the valley, amidst boulders and into a stream. Nonetheless it was a beautiful sight to behold. I was all alone down there, not a single soul in sight. Just the waterfall's gushing sound, the misty air, and the fragrance of being amidst greenery. The sound of chirping birds here and there filled the morning air. Ah, the simpler pleasures of life.

Making my way down the estate roads to the valley

Picturesque setting when I reach the bridge at the bottom

Left stream of Athukkad waterfalls. This is what was visible from our cottage balcony

Right stream of Athukkad waterfalls in full glory

The water flows down from the falls into this small rivulet

While I was on the bridge, the cloud invasion happened again. This time it was even more mind-boggling. In minutes, even before I saw it coming, it had engulfed the place completely. I could hardly see anything even 5 metres away. Being engulfed in clouds and getting blinded, that is an experience I will always cherish from this trip. After 10 minutes of the fog and mist, the cloud started to move away and the foggy landscape slowly cleared up to reveal the sky. I couldn't resist capturing the magnificent sights of the departing mist down at the valley.

The bridge from where visitors can view Athukkad waterfalls

Clouds close in on me from all sides. I am soon engulfed in the cloud mist

The cloud mist slowly starts to recede

The landscape at Athukkad falls with the departing cloud mist at dawn

Soon it was time to go back up the hill, I had to climb 3 km uphill which seemed a daunting task on those steep steps. To make things worse, I hadn't brought a water bottle along either. Along the way, I spotted 2 fabulous waterfalls playing hide and seek with the greenery, and couldn't resist getting down into them to take a couple of snaps. Any deviation from the tarred road was enough to send people scurrying back due to the astounding amount of leeches amongst the plants. The greenery was infested with these pests and the moment I entered the soil near the waterfall, they were ready to begin the attack. Thankfully, I was armed with salt powder to combat it. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Time to appreciate the pretty little waterfalls.

Making my way back up the estate roads

A small waterfall amidst the tea plants

Beautiful sights to behold inside the tea estate, especially in the morning

View of the tea plantation from the bottom

Stone steps for workers to move within the plantation area

Another pretty waterfall at a clearing in an uncultivated area

After the 3+3 km hike, huffing and puffing up the steep incline, I managed to reach the resort and freshened up. We then headed down to the restaurant for breakfast. It was another Kerala speciality - Oothappam with chutney and sagu. We thoroughly enjoyed breakfast and proceeded to embark on the day's programme. Now the third day was different. I wasn't going to like all of it. There were 4-5 places which were tourist hot spots. Nothing much to see. Just places hyped up and crowded by all tourists. The typical 'see-pollute-make noise-commercialize it' kind of places. The resort manager warned us not to take our car because parking was very haphazard in these crowded places and private cars were a hassle. I decided to play it safe and opted for a cab to take us to this route and bring us back in the evening. It proved to be a good decision, because we had to stop later for shopping in the local town market, and the cab driver could park elsewhere and wait in the meanwhile.

The cab arrived by 9 am. The driver introduced himself as Mr. Arun. He was a friendly young chap, pretty knowledgeable about the town and the tourist spots. After a little chat with him in Tamil, he completely opened up and started chattering about the places in Munnar. We reached Matupetty dam by 10.30am. It was an overcrowded place just like any other dam in south India. There was nothing much to see here, so we headed to the next place.

Symmetric tree arrangements within a plantation

Picturesque road along eucalyptus tree forests leading up to Matupetty dam

Matupetty dam - a panoramic view

Next stop was at Echo Point, a kind of lake with a thick forest visible on the other side. There is a natural echo phenomenon here and needless to say, loads of tourists were trying to scream out things and listen to the echoes coming back at them. We didn't spend too much time here, except for a couple of screams and some pictures to take back as memories.

Echo point - this is where sounds naturally echo back

A picture at Echo point

We proceeded next to Kundale lake. Here it started pouring cats and dogs and we couldn't spend much time, apart from stopping for a hot cup of masala tea. The age old machinery which was used to control the dam's water gates, are still visible, although it isn't being used anymore.

Kundale lake

The rain drenched roads leading up to Kundale lake

The old dam gate machinery at Kundale lake dam

The last stop on this road was Top Station, the place which produces the world's finest tea. It was a high altitude place and was supposed to give a good view, but unfortunately the rain showed no signs of stopping. It was raining so heavily, that we couldn't even get out of the car at Top Station.

Making our way to top station

A cow grazes lazily in the rain at an idyllic village near Top station

Chunduvurrai estate at top station - produces the world's finest tea

After the visits on the Top Station route, we got back to Munnar town by 1 pm. The roads were silky smooth along the top station route, in stark contrast to the other roads around Munnar. Obviously, the road maintenance authorities only cater to that section of tourism which visits those stereotyped places in hordes, and they ignore the rest of the (more scenic) routes. Sigh!

Lunch at Munnar was completed at one 'Hotel Srininvas veg.' the only decent looking one at the town shopping centre. After lunch, Arun took us to Tata's tea museum a kilometre from the town. It was crowded with tourists. We had to purchase tickets, after which we were directed to a room where they were showing some informative documentary about Munnar's legacy in the tea-making industry and life of the workers in Munnar's tea plantations. After this, one person, a guide there took us to the factory's machinery and showed us how tea leaves are cut up, processed, powdered and dried to make tea powder. He also explained how tea is categorized into different grades and price points such as Silvertips (the most expensive grade made from leaf buds), CTC (the most common grade used in branded tea powder) and Dust tea, etc. After some 10-15 minutes of this informative 'gyaan', we purchased a small quantity of the fancy 'Silvertips' and lots of green tea at the museum's adjoining outlet to take back home and try.

Entering Tata Tea museum

The factory's assembly line at Tata tea factory

Finished tea powder being loaded into sacks for transportation and exports

After the museum visit, we went to visit a 70 year old church set up by the British babus here in the pre-independence era. It is located on a small hillock near the town. The church is now a historical sightseeing spot. We took a few pictures there and proceeded to our last sightseeing spot - Pothamedu view point. This road was a slight deviation from our return route and it climbed the adjacent mountain of the one on which our resort was located. It was hardly 2 km away. The view was again, breathtakingly beautiful. We spent half an hour at Pothamedu viewpoint, before deciding to wind up the visits for the day. It was half past 4. We bade goodbye to Arun and thanked him for showing us so many places, some that were not even in our initial plan.

The 70 year old British-established CSI church at Munnar

Bird's eye view of Munnar from atop the Church complex

Moving across to Pothamedu viewpoint on the adjacent mountain

Amma and Daddy at Pothamedu view point

A panoramic view of the mountains at Pothamedu view point

Making our way back to the resort through the 'cloud-infested' mountains

The hill resort was going through a cloud phase again when we returned. Everything was foggy that whole evening. I had nothing better to do so I walked out in the fog again, to try and find out what it is like to get lost in the mist. Here are a few pictures that I took in the eerie mist that evening.

The resort is fully foggy when we return

Taking a walk through the eerie looking mist

That night, the resort staff had organized a small fireworks show for the guests since it was Diwali. It was fun watching and lighing crackers 500km away from civilization, in the middle of this place. We had a light dinner that night and went to bed by 10 pm, since we had to drive back home the next day. The Munnar trip was over, well.. almost.


Day 4 - Making our way back from Heaven to earth


We were sorry that the trip was coming to an end. The fourth and final day was here. With a heavy heart, we packed up everything and I loaded it into the boot with some help from the bellboy at the resort. We requested for an early breakfast at 8am and walked in to the restaurant. There was some uber-delicious Appam with veg stew, another lip smacking Kerala delicacy. This place was a treat for foodies like us. We couldn't resist asking for extra helpings of the appam-stew. The American family at the resort was at another table and it was funny to see them arm wrestling with the dosa-shaped appams and asking how we Indians deftly eat with our hands. They finally gave up and opted for bread toasts. Laughter galore followed at the restaurant.

After settling the bill, filling up feedback forms and bidding goodbyes, we departed from Aranyaka by around 8.45 am on Friday. On the way out of the plantation, we stopped at the estate tea factory outlet and picked up some more tea packets to give to friends and relatives.

The return journey was otherwise uneventful, but for a couple of stops at scenic viewpoints and waterfalls along the way. Of course, the eerie sandalwood forests of Marayoor were mystical as usual, and warranted for a picture stop again. The ghat sections were completely clear of traffic at that time, since no one travels through from TN to Munnar during breakfast time (owing to the lack of eateries on that stretch). After 2 hours of driving, we were back on the plains. After those relentless forest checkpost stops, we were back at Udumalpet by 12 noon. I tanked up the car's fuel to suffice for the return journey, which was around 370km from Udumalpet to Bangalore.

Departing Munnar with some parting shots to take back in the camera

Stopping alongside one of the many waterfalls on that scenic route

Making our way through Marayoor's mystical sandalwood forests

Udumalpet to Tiruppur was an uneventful drive again, with fantastic roads even on state highways. TN highway authorities definitely deserve a kudos for the the upkeep of all the highway roads in the state. The roads are flawless, not only the expressways and national highways but even the interior state highways. After a suggestion from MMI navigator on places to eat along the route, we zeroed in on A2B (Adyar Anand Bhavan) in Tiruppur and had our lunch there. It was a really hot afternoon. By the time we departed Tiruppur, it was around 2 pm. From Tiruppur, we took a bypass through the city to hit NH47, the Salem-Coimbatore Golden Quadrilateral expressway stretch, at exactly the same point where we had broken off on tuesday when going to Munnar.

Lunch stop at A2B on a busy road in Tiruppur

Once we reached the expressway, the drive was boring on the flat out, straight expressway roads, in fact I would term it 'sleep inducing'. I maintained a constant speed of 100-110kmph throughout till Salem. Around evening time, we could see grey clouds closing in on us from the west. After Salem, the rain gods unleashed their fury. There was really heavy rain and I reduced speeds to safer confines of 60-70kmph. We stopped at another A2B after Salem, by around 6 pm. After this evening snack cum supper cum dinner, we resumed our journey in the rains. From my observation, the Golden Quadrilateral expressway is not well designed for rain water drainage. A lot of stagnant water tends to accumulate towards the right and left extremes of the expressway roads. Hitting that water at speeds is irritating because there is a sudden loss of grip and a sudden deceleration in the car. I kept my eyes glued to watch for water logged stretches and maintained position on the centre of the road as much as possible.

Krishnagiri bypass was through by 7 pm, after which the rains stopped and I could resume my initial pace. By 7.30 pm, Hosur was through and soon we were at the Karnataka border toll gate. We took the electronic city expressway again and reached Silk board by 8 pm. From Silk board signal, our house was a mere 3 km away. By 8.15 pm, we made our way through the cumbersome city traffic and got back to home sweet home.

Total distance covered = 1009 km

Fuel efficiency = 13.2 kmpl

Average speed over the trip = 41 kmph including potholes, tollgates, hairpins, expressways and traffic signals

Total travel time spent in the car over 4 days = 24 hours, 16 minutes

Truly, heaven lies 500km away from Bangalore. A fantastic vacation had come to an end. We finally managed to 'do' Munnar the way we planned to. With that, it is now time to get back to the mundane city life once again, until the next opportunity to travel comes along, maybe as soon as sometime in the next few weeks. Until then, ciao.

KK



Over The Bridge - Makob Wegmann
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