The Trip that was...

Munnar - A photographers delight

It was a dull Saturday afternoon when my room-mates and I were having lunch and watching a movie, that had been watched numerous times, and saying to ourselves that, 'All weekends are just so boring. You can eat and sleep and then eat and then sleep again.' Wow, now that was some weekend we were having.

Suddenly the idea of the long weekend, of the 26th of Jan, struck all of us and we decided that come what may we are going to Munnar, as this was a long awaited destination for all of us. Hence, all planning started and the engines began to chuck-chuck in a rythem, all beating the drum to go to one of the most beautiful places in India, esp. the southern peninsula.

We had to go from Bangalore to Munnar (a long distance travel) on a path that many travel agents would love to mint money on.

Well we did our homework for somedays by talking to various travels, 'rent-a-car' guys, friends, colleagues and yes ofcourse - the very faithful and friendly Internet.

The Route...

To reach the southern wonderland there are two possible routes. One which takes you through the scenic beauty of "God's own Country", Kerala; and the other is the one which will get you there asap, this one being through Tamil Nadu.

I shall talk about the routes in detail in the post later...

Our Journey...

We, 6 in all, set out from Bangalore at 6:30a.m. under a clear sky on Friday, the 26th of Jan'07. After picking up the last of all the fellow traveller, we hit the road to Mysore. [Ahem... forgot to tell, we are on the route through Kerala]

The B'lore - Mysore road, a 4-lane highway with the serene beauty of the Karnatic countryside offers travellers a speedy and comfortable abode and the distance of 135 odd kilometers can be covered in 2 to 2 and a half hours flat.

We guys, as all bachelors, stopped over for a cup of coffee at Cafe Coffee Day, midway to Mysore and then reached Mysore to have breakfast, after which the real good travel began.

We travelled towards Bandipur National Park and then took a right from Gunduloor to go to Wayanad National Park, which is the Kerala part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve.

You will have to pay the state entry tax, Rs. 260.00, when going on a taxi, like what we did [Cheverolet Tavera - that was our taxi] at the Wayanad RTO check post.

Once you cross the forest, the town of Sultan Bathery awaits you. The smell is just amazing, for most folks, as it is all of coconut in the air and the fish frying in the same too. The best thing is that the surroundings are very clean and the town has a feel of a little hill-station. Nearby sight-seeing places are the Chembra Peak (one of the highest in the Nilgiris) & Phookot Lake (not the best of the lakes, but yes one will like the lotus that are in abundance in it). These are in the vicinity of 30 odd kilometers.

We burnt an mp3 cd in here as the cab had the abominable Reshammia's cd, for which any sane lad would say, 'Kill me than making me listen to this!'. We took lunch in Kalpetta and headed towards Kozhikode. Yes! Kozhikode. There is no other short way to get to Munnar from here!!!

Travel for another 150 km and we reach Kozhikode. This place smells and breathes coconut! You can get choked if you have trouble with the coconut oil smells. The place is nice and there can be parades along the road wherein some leader would be giving his view on the politics. We did head into one such though!! The scenary all along to this place is very nice. You can see the typical Kerala houses, coconut trees, beautiful mountains, and yes some of the best roads too. I mean the state is a clean one!!!

From Kozhikode, the cabbie didn't know where to go (Ahem ahem... I didnt tell you folks that this driver of ours actually never knew how to go to Munnar). So we got down the cab, looked for some travels ppl and finally got a kerala tourist map and a guy who would speak broken-english to understand that the next place would be Thrissur and then Munnar. Leaving some of the folks at the beach, not the very best along the Arabian Sea, we chocked the route to Munnar with the driver alongside and the calculator to measure the kms that would be required.

Moving along the road to Gurvayur we reached Thrissur, 125km, in the night at 11:00pm, listening to music, pulling each others leg, taking some cool snaps of the breath-taking scenary and yes drinking tea which is made in a very peculiar style (seeing is believing...). Had dinner in Moti Mahal restaurant, the last of all the North Indian cuisine restaurants in the city - almost about to shut down for the day, and then booked rooms to spend the night in the same hotel too. Cheap one for a good nights rest!!

It's a pleasant Saturday morning and we all vacate our nightly-abode at 6:00am and move on, with the map in our hands, towards Munnar, after stopping at a tea stall (but obvious we are Indians and tea...).

The road ahead was one of the best that the State-Highways can offer and of-course the scenes all around were just stunning to say the least. We all were just mesmerized by the way the journey was heading and more so by what we were watching by our eyes. After crossing Kothamangalam, we started the climb on the Nilgiris once again, only this time the climb was a very smooth one with banana & coconut trees playing their hide and seek games along with some rubber plantations the route was the most enjoyable one, esp. since the day was just unfolding itself.

We stopped by an opening offered by the trees and in the ghats and it seemed to be a very interesting view what lay beneath and also show-cased the might of the Nilgiris (to some extent).

We came across a beautiful waterfall (noname waterfall) which had some beautifully placed rocks and the water gushing through it just made the sight that much more exciting. Some of my friends did a cameo of climbing to the apex of it while the others stayed down to feel the chills of the water. This was a nice place to enjoy and unwind. I would say, though not a very big one, but this one is better than the Abey Falls that we had seen earlier in Karnataka. Ok too much fun!!! So next stop - Munnar Valley...

The road took its usual serpentine turns (Ankush saying that the motorists here wouldn't need alcohol to feel drowsy, the roads are enough!) and brought us to the wonderland down south.

Munnar...

This town starts its amazement right from the moment you enter into the tea-laden estates. The sky is amazing with fog and the air gives you the chills. The sweaters come out with the blink of an eyelid and you are taken aback by the mystical beauty of the place. The fun doesn't stop here. This is just the begining.

You'll keep driving on the serpentine road (which is narrow for comfort) for the rest of the 8-12kms that you have to do before you hit the actual town, and the scenary will just blow u away. All around you have the tea plantations, fog accompanying you (if there is no sun...) and the mountains playing the backdrop of a fable and you are taken into a world that's just not the India that we know. Thanks to the Brits who explored such heights...

The Town - This place is a small town located in the valley. Surrounded with hills which have tea on one side, trees on the other and some houses (which add to the beauty simply because of their style and built) the sight becomes even more beautiful when you see a temple, church and a mosque on three different sides of the town...

We searched a few hotels to stay in and finally found a cheap stay (Rs. 1100.00) for the six of us. The place has a plethora of hotels which can range from a mere Rs. 500.00 to as high as Rs. 5000.00, in the town, and can even go as high as Rs. 15000.00, in resorts.

Ours was a nice place to put up and also the view was nice as we had the Tea County resort right in front of us, though on the hill top, which offered a nice view to the landscaped hillock.

The town has an old church in the center, which is mostly decorated, flanked by the main road of the town. All around once can find the roads going up, up and away... with people having to climb to stay.

Places to visit - There are quite a few places to visit around the place.

We were all ready and set to go out on the excavation of the place. The first place that we started was for 'View Point'. This place has some good views of the valley. The best being the tea plantations that spread like a carpet just at an arms length.

Next we touched upon the big lake/dam/man-made-lake to be apropriate, called 'Mattupettey Dam'. This lake is BIG (no jokes) and has some of the best views that a hill station can offer. We went on a speed-boat ride with the driver doing the tricks of taking the boat side-ways, spinning it around 360 degrees!! - that was too good with all the friends grasping for help! One can avail speed-boats here for upto 5 ppl and a family boat, if you are a clan who likes to stick together! Prices are from Rs. 250.00 (speed-boat) to a Rs. 1000.00 depending on the no of ppl.

From here we went to a 'Shooting Point' - famous for film shoots (not the best of the plcaes to see as you have the whole valley to grasp) then followed it up with 'Echo Point'. This is a good enough place where you can get some souveniors, bhajji's, tea, ice-creams, etc. we couldn't get the echo going but all-in-all a nice place. Too many tourists here!!!

Further up was another lake (sorry don't have its name). This too a man made one with a dam on one side and the mountains forming the backdrop.

Then the suroundings took a heavenly turn and we had fog all around and on the road, this one going to 'Top Station', was as narrow as you can expect. The cab was going the slowest ever and I found time to shoot some videos of the scenic beauty using my cell, that was covered by a blanket of fog and would, at times, open up to show the picturesque mountains behind. It took us around an hour or so to cover a small distance of 12kms and reach the sacred place called 'Top Station'.

I called it sacred because of the untamed/untouched beauty that it has. We were lucky to catch the beauty of the mountains and the various flora that it has just before the clouds could cover them up. The scene is just thrilling to the eye. Seeing the clouds slowly come from the heavens and take over the mighty mountains!!! Too much! This place has a point from where one can see Tamil Nadu and Kerala at the same time. we were unfortunate to have missed that as the fog was thick, but not the amazing masala tea that was being served at a shop (there is only 1 shop that makes tea with milk rest are all black tea walas). We had some nice fun there and finally made a move back to the town by evening (thankfully by the time we moved the fog had cleared out and the drive was an easy and fast one).

Back in town, things were again changed. The town was like a small light house and the houses on the hills provided the much needed tinkle for the town. We got hold of a nice Marwadi restaurant (one that served north indian, jaini, punjabi, south indian, etc. cusines) and there are quite a few in the town that serve all india dishes. So actually speaking, don't worry about the coconuts bothering your appetite!!!

The nights are chilled to the core and you need to have some good woolen stuff with you to beat it. Do not forget to carry caps (one that cover your ears too) along when you go there. Also water is no problem in the town, as opposed to Ooty. You'll get all hotels with hot-water facility.
Next morning was early (chills remember...) and Amit, Ankush, Rajnish and I thought of catching up the early morning scenes of the town as the rest slept. We saw the Tata Tea regional office, now renamed to Kanan Devan Hills Plantations Company Private Limited office. Actually the complete tea estates, which were once of Tata Tea seemed to be distributed between the two, i.e. TTL & KDHPCL, not sure though... We had a chance to sip in an early-morning tea which brought a slight drizzle and made the atmosphere chilly (as if it wasn't chilly before and to add to it we all were in our shorts, wearing pullovers and a cap :-)). Then we did a small trek around town and I started to figure out the old times and also the roads around (Oh! I never told you that I actually had lived in Munnar as a kid when my Dad was an employee of Tata Tea Ltd. this was during 1989-1991). We tried to go upto the High Range Club (the Tata Tea's official club) but wandered in some wrong direction and ended up in front of the Police Station :-) but then headed back...

We got ready, visited the Lord Murugan Temple, had lunch and then started the trip back to Bangalore. This time we had done some real homework for the route back by asking the local cabbies for the same. It turned out that the distance can be covered in a mere 468kms through Tamil Nadu. So having done that and understanding the complete route we set out to achieve it and also in the way capture the unfinished beauty of Munnar on the way.

We took the route through the Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary and then Udumalpettai (no Coimbatore, but through Mettur). On the way back we got to the place where we can see the Nilgiri Thar, this also coinsides with the Anaimudi peak. Nature escaped this view from us as the fog was again too heavy for comfort and we were advised not to go in deep.
So we continued the climb up hill and viewing the tea estates that keep pace with us and the serpentine road that wouldn't just finish. We also shot two big videos with our cybershot and some small clippings with the cell phones to remind us of the scenes. In between we would had to force the driver to stop (as he was not willing to, We all thought that the hills had got on to him a bit too much...) so as to check-out the beauty.

We also stopped at the Nullatanni Tea Factory and took some amazing snaps as the factory was near a stream and some ecstatic landscapes. Actually our video captured some real swell moments!!!

To say the least this route was more wonderful than the one from which we had entered. The road was flanked by small waterfalls, streams, amazing tea plantations, uphill-downhill, we could also see the tea plants being watered using giant sprinklers...

At one moment there was an opening in the clouds, which was right above the valley down below the mountain on which we were riding, and the sun shone brightly on the houses down below and we were soaked in fog and cold! That was just amazing!!!

All said and done this was one of the most amazing place to have been visited and also the most enjoyable one, right from the word GO!!!