It was 1st of December and it was one of the most beautiful Sunday Mornings I woke up to. This was the day when I did not have to worry about what to prepare in breakfast or lunch, instead I spent some time in the balcony of the resort looking at the green surrounding and the crystal clear water of the swimming pool while enjoying the sumptuous breakfast. But the primary reason of my happiness was that we had to start for my dream destination Munnar on the same day. There is no doubt that Kerala has a wide range of places enriched with natural beauty, whether it is the sea beaches, hill stations, backwaters or the historical monuments. But personally I always had an inclination towards Munnar (may be because it looked like a fairyland in all the pictures I ever saw) and that was the reason why we chose Kerala among the list of places we had shortlisted.
The journey started approximately at 10am and Mr Subbin (as I told before he was our cab driver for the whole trip) told us that we would visit 2 waterfalls that come on the way from Kochi to Munnar. It took us around 1 and half hours of drive to reach our 1st destination which was Cheeyappara Waterfalls. Even though Cheeyappara is not as big as Arthripally or Vazachal waterfalls, but the sight of water cascading down the steps of a giant rock with thick green forest on its top is a real treat to the eyes. The place was a little crowded, but we could still manage to reach the bottom of the waterfall to have a few beautiful snaps.
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| Cheeyappara Waterfall |
So in the land of waterfalls, our next destination was a waterfall too named as Valara waterfall (I am telling you it really takes some guts to remember the names of these waterfalls ;)) which is very close to the Cheeyappara waterfall. This waterfall is surrounded by lush green forest and is visible from the Highway. There was no way to reach near the waterfall, so after taking a few snaps we resumed our journey towards Munnar.
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| Valara Waterfall |
The drive from Kochi to Munnar was around 4 to 5 hours (including the halt at the waterfalls and lunch) and the road trip alone was worth all the money spent. The road is very scenic with beautiful mountains and greenery all around and the cloudy weather of the day made the journey even more enthralling. I kept taking pics from the moving car so that I could sit back sometime in future and reprise this beautiful journey looking at the pics. I had read in someone’s blog that when you visit Munnar, you feel like stopping at every point and take pics as the road itself is very beautiful and I realized the truth behind this only when I myself visited Munnar. I got tired of taking pics, but the beauty of the road did not end there. It is true that no words or pictures are adequate to define the exquisite beauty of Munnar, you need to go there to see it with your own eyes.
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| The Beautiful Road |
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| A small stream on the way |
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| Tea Gardens at both sides of the road |
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| The weather added to the beauty of the place |
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| A view point |
The road through the forest area is snaky as you approach closer to Munnar, but it is in good condition except a few places where the journey was a little rough. When we visited Munnar there was construction work going on in some places to make the road wider and better, so the road was narrower in those places. But I was amazed to see the sense of responsibility among the people driving regularly via this road as almost no one blew a horn until and unless it was very much required and the understanding between them was really commendable as people used to wait to let the other vehicle go which I do not usually see in the cities.
We reached Munnar around 4 pm and went to visit Kannan Devan Tea Museum located in the centre of the Kannan Devan tea estate. There was a video played for the visitors on the history of Kannan Devan tea Estate and the tea preparation technique. There were old machineries in the museum used previously to prepare tea and some other antique office equipments as well as some haunted animal heads. The museum also has an erstwhile tea manufacturing unit to demonstrate the process of tea making and a small outlet to sell tea. This outlet sells a wide variety of tea flavors like elaichi tea, ginger tea, orange tea etc. We picked up a few tea packets for our family and headed out of the museum after having the free elaichi tea distributed to the visitors.
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| Kannan Devan Tea Estate |
The entry fee for the museum is 75 Rupees and I personally did not like the place much as I am a type of person who is more interested in drinking tea than knowing the process of making it. Jokes apart, if you are a person who does not take interest in knowing the history of things, then this place is definitely not going to attract you. But if you want to visit this place, then remember that the Museum is closed on Mondays.
After the tea museum, we moved to one of the leading Ayurvedic massage centers of Munnar to have an Ayurvedic massage done as we had heard that it is very famous in Kerala. But I was quite disappointed as I felt that it was not worth 1500 Rupees and it was not much effective too as it just involved oil massage all over the body and did not involve any specific technique. Later on, I found that there were many other people too who were not happy with the service they got in return of their money and were lured by the advertisements like us. So I would suggest not to go by the lucrative advertisements and avoid spending money on this.
The day ended well and as night drew closer, Munnar became colder glowing with lights beneath the night sky. With content hearts, we sat in our hotel room enjoying a cup of hot tea looking out of the window and wondering what else Munnar had in store to reveal with the rising sun of the next morning.