Munnar: the place less traveled by

I’m so glad my trip to Munnar, one of the most underrated places in God’s own country, has finally materialized. Munnar has been in my radar for two things: the breathtaking tea and spices plantations and the fact that it is much less commercialized.

A very decent amount of information can be garnered from this site: http://www.munnar.com. But I’ll also squeeze in as much as tips and other hard-to-find information as possible.

We took the Coimbatore-Pollachi-Udumalpet-Chinnar-Marayoor-Munnar route (5 hours in car) for onward journey and Munnar-Thekkady-Theni-Sempatti-Oddanchatram-Coimbatore (8 hours in car) route for return since we figured we could cover a good amount of places this way, and it turned out to be right.

Chinnar-Marayoor

Chinnar, on the Kerala-TN border, is a restricted sanctuary for wild animals. Despite all the hype about wild animals crossing the road et al, we couldn’t spot anything while traveling through Chinnar. I have no idea why everyone’s expected to pay Rs. 10 while crossing all the (innumerable) check posts, but we paid them all knowing well that we could get into needless trouble by resisting.

Marayoor (pic below) is a small place where you pass through Sandalwood forests. Shattered as I was for not spotting any animal throughout Chinnar, I was taken by utter surprise here when a deer decided to try its luck crossing our car. I braked on impulse and before any of us could even think about photography, it made a leap across the fence on the road and sprinted into the dense bushes. I wonder what I would’ve gotten myself into had I hit the forest deer. Guess lady luck was on my side.


Munnar

The scene slowly changes as one approaches Munnar. With about 30 kms to Munnar, one could start seeing miles and miles of breathtakingly beautiful picture-perfect tea plantations all over. The following pic was taken 15 kms before Munnar. I wonder if it is really the Neelakurinji flower (English: Blue Kurunji) that blooms once in 12 years. It’s scheduled to bloom in July 2006, but I’m not sure if I was lucky to see this early. [Can anyone confirm?]


Munnar itself is very small, sleepy and un-commercialized. While it is technically in Kerala, 90% of the people are Tamils and just 10% are Malayalis. Everything in the town happens two hours early. High sun comes at 7 o’clock, lunch gets over at 1.30 pm in the restaurants, and dinner gets over by 7.30 pm. You typically don’t get anything more than the South Indian Parotta, dosa and idli in the restaurants, despite all the long list of items in the menu. Additionally, you could get various flavors of tea, and spices like cardomom, cashew etc at much cheaper rates - at less than half the price you pay in cities.

Mettupatty dam: Everything about this reservoir (pic below) is normal, but for the fast jets. It was my first high-speed boating experience. ‘Stunt’ is the word to describe what those guys do. The fast bends when one side of the boat is 10 cm from water level while the other is 75 cm high are the high points. Tip: Take a boat of 3 to enjoy the James-Bond type stunts in water.


And unlike what’s mentioned in the websites, you can’t just get into any of those Swiss cattle projects without permission.

The next stop, Kundala dam (pic below), was ordinary except for the view and the wind-chill, but you might just take a breather en route to Top Station.







Top Station: This is one place for good trekking. There are three points in the trekking route. The first point where 80% of the crowd turns back, and the second point (the tent in the following pic) which is 500m further below in the hills where literally all the tourists turn back. What’s beyond is the best part for someone who’s serious into trekking. There were a couple of broken paths which vanish into thick woods, and that’s where the fun begins. We went 250m meters downhill through bushes and woods, but we had to return since the slope became maddening and it was impossible to continue without any trekking gear.


Echo Point: Nothing much here, except that you could get awesome snaps if the water is still. If you want to see all the reflections in the water (pic below), go at a time when there’s absolutely no wind – just after a rain or early mornings or late evenings.

Eravikulam National Park: This is supposedly the only place where you’ll get to see extinct animals like the Nilgiri Tahr and some birds. After all the climb and walk for 2 hours, all you get to see is only the Tahr (pic below), which is a goat version that’s adapted itself to mountains. Frankly, I wouldn’t go here next time unless I have excess of free time.

Devikulam: This is one place where you get good panoramic views of properly contoured tea ranges all over. (pic below)

Thekkady: About 2-3 hours from Munnar on the TN-Kerala border, this is THE wildlife sanctuary in South India. It’s set near the Periyar reservoir which in itself is at the center of a 90 square km forest full of animals. Following is the pic of different esoteric tourist packages on offer – one of them is the tiger trail wherein you get to camp 36 hours in the forest to spot real forest tigers.


For the lack of time, we just could the 2 hour boat ride in the reservoir. Despite the ride being in afternoon, we managed to spot several birds, a herd of wild pigs and bison, a deer, a turtle and a couple of elephants by the water side. Tip: Take the evening ride since that’s when most animals come to quench their thirst.

In all, it was a long awaited, beautiful break from the routine. I have no idea why Munnar is so less popular when compared to the likes of Ooty et al, but I love it this way. And I guess it’s good for Munnar too.