Ruma and I were sitting in Suvi’s room for our regular evening chit chat. I said that I don’t have any class for next seven days, so Suvi suggested that we can go for a short trip. We had around two-three days for the trip considering the time and budget constrain. As always I got super excited and took the research and planning job for the trip. After much discussion we decided for Munnar, a hill station in Kerala, it is famous for its tea plantation and green hills.
Place: Munnar, Kerala, India
Date: 3rd Jan to 6th Jan 2012
With: Ruma and Suvi
We started from College at 5 PM on 3rd Jan’12 for CMBT (Chennai Interstate Bus Terminus). Our college is around 70 KM away from the bus terminus and thus it took us more than 3 hours to reach CMBT during pick traffic hours. We had booked direct bus tickets for Munnar via KPN travels (750 bucks for Deluxe AC Bus). Our bus started at 9 PM and before that we quickly managed to have finger licking delicious dinner from KFC.
It is a 15 hours journey from Chennai to Munnar, the route is Chennai – Choimbatore – Udumalpet – Chinnar – Munnar. We reached Udumalpet at 8 AM, had little breakfast and moved to a mini bus for rest of the journey. This part of journey was breath taking, as we travelled through Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary and then started moving up the hills which is a part of the Western Ghats. These hills are fully covered with tea plantation and thus look like a huge green carpet on the hills. We reached Munnar at around noon. After half an hour of search we checked in Hotel Minarvaa (budget hotel, two double bed room for twelve hundred bucks only). The hotel reception helped us in booking a cab for sightseeing; it charged 1700 for two days.
The major tourist attractions in Munnar are located on the way to either Madupatty or Coimbatore. We started towards Madupatty at 2 PM after a heavy lunch. Our first stop was a place called Photo Point, not sure why they named the place like that because entire Munnar is very much picturesque. Anyway we started clicking pics and realized that our driver cheta (elder brother in Malayalam) is also very much fond of clicking photos. Next was Madupatty Dam, a small dam on Kundale Lake. There is a market along the lake for the tourist. Homemade Chocolates are very famous in Munnar, we also got some for friends. The other places that we visited that day were Echo Point and Top Station View Point. We returned to hotel, had dinner and went for a walk. People in hill stations generally sleeps early and roads get deserted by 8:30 PM or so. But still it was pleasant walking up and down the hills. It was cold but we were enjoying the weather, especially after coming from hot Chennai.
Next day morning, I got up little late and by then Ruma and Suvi have already gone for breakfast. They got freshly cooked and soft idly for me from the nearby restaurant. Our driver cheta came around 9:30 AM and we started for places on the way to Coimbatore. We stopped at Tea Museum but it was too much crowded so we gave it a pass and went for Nyamakad Water Falls. Local people also arrange for short (one/two hours) trek around this place.
Our final destination in Munnar was boating which we missed on the first day. We hired a speed boat for half an hour for 350 bucks. I have always been scared of water but enjoyed the boating thoroughly. Got some wonderful pics clicked posing in life jackets. It was surprising to notice that most of the drivers and tourist guides in Munnar click good pics and know where and how to pose.
Then we were dropped at the bus stop where we caught the mini bus to reach Udumalpet. I slept throughout the journey back but Ruma who was awake said it was very exciting to travel via Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary in night. We reached Udumalpet and got to know that KPN has upgraded our travel back to Chennai to AC sleeper bus. We started at 9 AM and reached Chennai CMBT around 7 AM. Thank God, next day we didn’t have any class thus it was time for some rest after a beautiful trip to Munnar.
