Tea time @ Munnar

In my earlier post about Munnar, I had mentioned about the route to get to Munnar. This post is a continuation of the first one.

The name Munnar is believed to be derived from the Malayalam words Muunu (three) and aaru (river), referring to the town’s strategic location at the confluence of the mountain streams of Muthirappuzha, Chanduvarai and Kundala

The winding roads to the top (Munnar) is a scenic one. A short drive out of Udumalai gets you to the foothills. There are couple of checkposts that one has to pass en-route. The first one shows up at the foothills which is the ‘Indra Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park”.

The second one is at the TamilNadu-Kerala border, which is the beginning of Chinnar wildlife sanctuary. At the checkposts, needless to say, one needs to pay the fee for proceeding ahead. Since this is a wildlife area, there are signsboards cautioning visitors to avoid the road after dark.

If you are interested to take a tour of the national park, then there are ticket counters where you can get tickets for a ride inside the national park.As you keep driving along the road, you can see the watch-tower at a distance. If you take the tour inside the sanctuary, you will be able to get a closer look and also climb to the top.

As you drive away from the sanctuary area, the first clear view of the hills greet you. One can see the different shades of grey woven together. On the other hand there are rows and rows of tea plantation that provide the green effect. From a distance , one can see criss-cross lines cutting through the tea plantations. On a closer look , these lines are the roads with tea plantation on both sides.

Apart from the mountains and the rows of green tea estates, you would also come across lots of water-falls. One water-fall where you can get under the water is Lakkom water falls.

You could also sit on the rocks if you don’t want to get drenched. There is an entry fee for this place since this is under the Kerela eco-tourism’s umbrella.

As you climb higher towards munnar, you come across the Eravikulam national park. As with all parks, there are Safari’s that take you inside the park. The Nilgiri Tahr is supposed to be the main attraction at this place.

Munnar town , is a typical of a hill-station town.

Almost everything is accommodated in 2 main streets. Munnar town has many options for staying, but these are more of the hotel/lodging types with a fairly moderate budget.

The resorts in Munnar mostly are away from the city . Sterling, Club Mahindra, Ayur county are some resorts that are situated in Chinnakanal , 17-18 kms away from Munnar town. If you are looking for a relaxing time, then the resorts are the best option.

If you are stepping out of the resort for sight-seeing, then it would be a good idea to cover all the places you want to cover before heading back to the resort.

There are a couple of tourist attractions in Munnar depending upon individual interest. Most resorts in Munnar do have a list of to-do items . Some of the places that we visited

Mattupetty Dam –  This is a must visit place

Mattupetty offers many fascinating sights to relish. Besides the lush green tea plantations, and the rolling grasslands, the Shola forests in and around Mattupetty are ideal for trekking and are habitat to a variety of birds. Rivulets and cascades crisscross the terrain here, which again adds more attraction to the place.

One of the main attractions in Mattupetty is the beautiful lake, and the Mattupetty Dam, which are ideal picnic spots.

The District Tourism Promotion Council (DTPC), Idukki provides boating facilities in the Mattupetty Dam. Speed launch, slow speedboat and motorboats are available on hire. Other nearby places of interest includes the picturesque Kundala tea plantations and the Kundala Lake.

Of all the main attractions at Mattupetty is the dairy farm, run by the Indo-Swiss Livestock Project. The dairy farm is a unique one of its kind with several varieties of high-yielding cattle being reared. This is now closed to visitors, but one can always get a glimpse of the cattle grazing as one drives along.

I personally loved this place. Very scenic place with lots of greenery and tall trees along the road. Lots of opportunity to pose before the lens :-)

For all the flower-lovers, there is a nursery which houses variety of crotons, flowers and other varities.You can consider taking home some souvenir from here.

One thing that you would like to try out is the “Passion Fruit”. This fruit is available mainly in Kerala since the climate here is best suited for this to grow. Not sure if this is seen anywhere else in the country. It is said to have medicinal qualities. It sure has a sweet taste and thats what mattered to me most :-).

Also try out the pineapple pieces smeared with masala powder….yummyyy.

As a souvenir, you can also consider tea or cardomom which are grown in abundance here.

I can go on writing about this place, but i will stop here. 

Will be back soon with another story :-)