It was the 4th day of our trip and this was the day when we had to say good bye to Munnar and leave for Thekkady. We embarked on our journey to Thekkady around 9:30 am and I was quite disheartened to leave such a magnificent place so early. But hardly did I know at that time that Munnar still had a few pleasant surprises for us in store as a farewell gift. The day was quite sunny with a clear blue sky having white patches of cloud in between and the gentle breeze together with the morning sun created a soothing effect on the body and mind. I was feeling very lucky to have seen Munnar in two different forms, one on a cloudy day with little bit of drizzling and lot of mist and the other on a bright day when Munnar was gleaming in the sunlight.
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| Munnar on a clear Sunny Day |
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| View from the road |
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| The beautiful road all through |
When I was lost in the ravishing beauty of Munnar, Mr Subbin parked the vehicle along the roadside near another viewpoint. The place is named Chinnakanal and the view of the green hills from here was stupendous. We took a few pics, had a cup of tea and some boiled peanuts and resumed our journey towards Thekkady.
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| Panoramic view from Chinnakanal |
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| Beautiful grassy hills at Chinnakanal |
The journey through the windy road was spellbinding with lovely views of the tea plantations and the mountains at both sides. At one point, we could even see the Anayirangal dam at a great distance surrounded by lush green hills. The tea plantations at many places had symmetrically lined silver oak trees in between and the leaves of the oak trees were signing in the sunlight truly justifying the name. Mr Subbin told us that these trees not only look beautiful but they do something equally nice too. They absorb water in their roots in the rainy season hence preventing soil erosion and then in summer they release this water to help the tea plants grow.
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| Anayirangal Dam |
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| Beautiful tea gardens by the roadside with silver oak trees |
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| A beautiful view from the road |
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| The scenic road with lush green hills and tea gardens all around |
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| A Beautiful Church on the way to Thekkady |
As we moved far from Munnar, the tea fields gradually vanished from the view and the sweet aroma of the spice plantations became more and more prominent. We could see the various kinds of plantations spread abundantly at both sides of the road. Most of the plantation owners in Thekkady provide plantation tours along with a guide for which they charge some amount. We too visited one of the plantations with a charge of 100 Rupees per head and the guide took us through the plantation identifying each and every plant and describing their use in various industries such as medicine, cosmetics and spices. We saw cardamom, coffee, pepper, cinnamon, cloves, ginger etc grown profusely and it was quite interesting to know how various parts of a plant such as the fruit, the seed, the flower, the root and the leaves are used for different purposes. There was a store in the periphery of the plantation area selling wide range of medicinal and beauty care products as well as spices. We picked up a few items from the shop and then started for our hotel.
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| Cardamom |
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| Pepper |
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| Ganapati Lemon |
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| Coffee |
The drive from Munnar to Thekkady was around 5 hours including the halt at various viewpoints and the plantation. It was almost 2:30 pm by the time we reached hotel and we had booked the Periyar Lake Boat Cruise for 3:30pm since our travel agent had suggested that we had more chances to spot wildlife on the last cruise of the day. I had already read in many of the blogs that it gets really difficult to get the tickets in the peak season, so we had booked the tickets through our travel agent which cost us around 800 Rs per head including the entry tickets. We just had to buy the ticket for the digital camera which was 25 Rs. But if you want to book tickets on your own then you need to be at the ticket counter at least before 2 hours or you might have to miss the boat ride for that day. The tickets start selling 90 mins prior to the boat ride which means for the 3:30 pm cruise, tickets become available from 2 pm onwards and upper deck seats are quickly sold out. Also, there are maximum two tickets issued to one person, so depending on the number of people in your group, as many people need to stand in the queue. You can also book the tickets online which is quite expensive and booking is also available from Kerala tourism office.
The ticket counter is around 10 to 15 mins walk from the parking area with the route completely shadowed by tall trees at both sides. But the ticket booking area is quite disorganized as there is absolutely no information displayed to guide people and so we got confused and stood in the queue to get the camera tickets whereas the queue was for moving towards the boat jetty. After standing in the queue for some time, we asked one of the staff ladies about the camera ticket booking counter and she was quite helpful in guiding us there. We got the camera tickets and came back to the end of the queue again to move towards the starting point of the boat cruise.
Finally we boarded the boat and thankfully we had the upper deck seats booked which provided a better view of the lake and its surroundings. It is mandatory for everyone to wear the life jacket and once everyone boards the boat and wears the life jackets, the cruise starts. The boat moves slowly on the scenic lake with beautiful surroundings for 90 minutes in which you may spot some wildlife. We were able to see an elephant, a herd of deer, snake birds, cormorants, a kingfisher, some bisons and Nilgiri Langur. Even though moving on the boat was not allowed, many people used to stand up at the very sound of animal sighting which blocked the view for others. So I would suggest carrying binoculars which would make it a lot easier to see the animals without craning your neck all the time. But overall, it was a nice cruise on the calm and serene lake with dense forest and mountains all around which should not be missed.
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| Boat cruise on Periyar Lake |
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| Thick green forest at both sides of the lake |
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| Green Mountains surrounding the lake |
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| A herd of Deer |
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| A Snake bird |
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| Another view of the lake |
Thekkady is a wild life lover’s paradise which provides many adventurous activities such as bamboo rafting on the Periyar Lake, Nature Trail, Jungle Patrol, Elephant Rides etc. So if you are an adventurer, you might like to stay in one of the resorts available in the forest area inside the Periyar Tiger Reserve and go for these activities. But let me tell you that exit from the reserve are restricted after 6pm which limits the option of exploring the nearby market area. But on the other hand, staying inside the forest area with nature all around has its own charm too :). You can get more information on the Periyar Reserve, various activities and the tariffs in the following website:
Since the spices and Ayurvedic products of Thekkady are quite famous, we stopped by a supermarket on the way back to hotel to buy some spices as well as handmade soaps. The handmade natural soaps were really cheap (Around 25 Rs a piece even though the MRP read 75 or so) and were available in a variety of fragrances. But let me tell you there are many shops which take advantage of tourist’s ignorance of the prices and charge unreasonably for the products. So be aware of them. We too got cheated by one of the shops which charged us Rs 75 per soap (that is the printed price), but I got a little dubious about the prices as the spices were having a printing price of more than the market price in our place. As we told this to Mr Subbin, he took us to one of the super markets where we got everything in a reasonable price.
Mr Subbin had suggested us to go for Kathakali and Martial Art performance which are famous in Kerala and the shows are held at some specific timing. But we could not go for it due to lack of time.
Thekkady was unique for its beautiful hills, forests rich with wildlife and unending spice plantations and the beauty of Munnar-Thekkady road along with the Periyar Lake boat cruise made us proud of our decision of including Thekkady in our trip.