Heading of this post is a comment branded by a switcherland tourist about Munnar.I had my first vacation with my family, My mother, Wife, Daughter Vishvashri & Sisters family. This trip was an unforgettable event in my family, we had a train journey from Arakkonam to Ernakulam Town,I had pre-booked a package for this trip through a friend contact, it was very useful in getting the right Home stay cottagewith skilled driver and customised Toyota Qualis from Executive cabs, Kochin.

Our train reached as scheduled at 3.20 AM. My cab driver was very clever,  he called us at 2.40 AM to ensure that we don’t miss the destination, on reaching the destination,
We immediately started our 130
Km hill and forest drive, I was bit worried as we were approching the 70 km hill stretch were no single traffic was noticed on the road. Except me all of my family were sleeping & enjoying the early morning breeze, but I never take a chance to sleep on car drive, of course to ensure that driver dont fall sleep. I often sing or whistle on such sleepy drive hours.

We were about 20 km short to munnar, we spotted a scene of Sun Rising and Color reflection on the trees,with the clouds below our hill (sense that scene here).

 

At 7.30 We approched the hotel, a home by 3 bed room, converted into Home stay cottage, we had 3 double bedrooms, a dining hall(with hanging light+dinning table) and a hall with tea table and chairs(can seat 20) worth the money.

Our first day started with a visit to Eravinkulam park, promoted by kerala tourism with entry fee of 35 and promotional video in shuttle van explaining the wild animals, which are spotted once in a moon day, it is a 3 km peak drive, though many visitor little unhappy of not spotting any wild animals, most visiters commented not worth the entry fee.
What we can spot was just a mist which covers our background( you can see your background here. 🙂

Our second visit was to a sandal wood forest which was completely rounded with mesh.. So no entry and no sandal wood pieces.
On return we spotted a tea estate to trial a tea leaf collections  with traditional dressing/uniform.
See a leaf collector who sincerely works….,

leaf collection is only womens job. Is it a domination or slavery or may be, they are the one who could do that job better or they are cheaper to hire? I am not sure.:(
As we returned to home and finished the lunch by 3.30, climate became cloudy and it was raining a bit.
Driver suggested us to rest and at 5, he scheduled 2 more spots, 1st was a view point from where we could spot many smaller peaks and long stretch of sky, Sky was cloud and densed, about to rain, we had few snap shots there and drove to another visit was to a water falls. Though it was not great, the road has many sharp curves, getting down the hill, mother normally avoids & worries about taking risk and adventure drive, so we did not stay long there and took u turn.

As it was getting dark, we were suggested to go for shopping.
Our shopping list was not big, but we wanted to buy good tea granuels.
Driver suggested and stopped at kannan devan retail shop which is of course a Tata tea unit selling fresh tea.
We bought a special tea powder called green tea which is triple the cost than normal tea, and many more smaller N.T.C (category) packets for neighbours and relatives, I guess that is the only proof, we visited a hill station with tea estates.

We were back to cottage, the best restaurent we found and suggested was Hotel SRINIVAS which is in the end of the bazaar street, in fact the service and quality was excellent imagine our lunch or dinner expenses for 7 people never crossed 300 bucks. I suggest anybody visiting Munnar to try Hotel Srinivas, Munnar
A veg restaurent, for dinner you would get only tiffen.
The night temparature was very pleasent not too cold and it was good atmosphere for romance, dont expect any snapshot for this!.

As planned we started the 2nd day at 9.AM Our plan for the day was to visit a top station a second highest peak in asia.
The drive was 35 km but the end stretch of 5 km road was not good, as usual mother stopping us to go proceed further, kids never wanted to miss the chance, on reaching the spot we need to walk 100 meter to see the rest of smaller hills and tamilmadu towns, there was another glitch here, this place is private property because there is a gang of people who had layed step stones to walk to end of the peak and collect 25 as entry fee, the gang looks like a veerepen friends, single couples please take care if you are visiting this spot. They gave us binocular to view the tribal houses which you could see on the return way too, but you can enjoy the view’s, mist cover in seconds.

 

The best time to visit there is before noon, then after mist covers the whole sourrounding, here is the scene….
On return driver spotted 6 Elephents, out of which 2 were kid elephent’s, they were grass feeding at other end of the lake. My camera could zoom to that long there. Here is the snap shot.
Then we reached a lake were we have spotted a cinema shooting of “SARVAM” a tamil movie by actor Arya.
The scene was on the traffic road, two cars hitting directly and Arya chasing the car.
It was challenging scene for the whole unit.
As the take was for 4 th time we lost our patience and
We had moved to boating, my sister kids were eager to go boating.
It was costing 100 for 3 people and half an hour.
My 3 year old daughter standing next on the Queue wearing life jackets. Here is the snap, she enjoyed the boating. We were heading back to town, once again driver spotted 3 elephents,just 20 feet away from the road but on the gross fields.
As vehicles were making noise they were getting fear and we too, remembering recent elephent attacks in kerala. We have moved from there,
the gross field was a big campus, which was Livestock development project funded by switcherland govt.
We returned to Munnar, a small town still a village panchayat but the roads for 35 KM sorrrounding is damn good, clean & neet with no patches & very good night reflecters on curves.

One cannot compare the Quality of roads even with Other tourism spots, OOTY, Kodaikanal etc Ooty is the best example for worst maintained tourism destination.

We had approched for lunch & visited a flower park, It started raining heavily for 30 minutes, rain stopped after 30 minutes, we then moved to home. The2nd day  came to end, the evening was very enjoyble, as my daughter  became a teacher for all of us & teached A,B,C,D for all with Left & Right march, I have noticed she had different happiness than we normally find at home, she was very cheerful, she enjoyed. I remembered Management law Hawthorn effect( Atmoshphere & production output).

We reached Veegland @ 11.15 AM. An entry fee of 460 was worth the money, We had so wonderful day, all enjoyed to full worth of the money.

To name few marvelous ride’s Twin flip, Space Gun, Cine magic were few thrilling rides, In face i had never thought taking those risky drive’s but after seeing my sister initiative, I took those ride’s One should try those rides, each drive is worth 460 rupees.

Vishvashri, Wife & Sister enjoyed Wave fool swimming & no one had any cold effect or any other issues, It is good place to visit with kids & youngsters.

Our return train was at 9.15 Tiruvandrum special. Monday as usual all back to work & school, Feel to have such family trips which looks to be a best thing to do. Of course you should be enough to burn the money too.

Long live Munnar!