Munnar Trip 2015
In November 2015, we went on a trip to Munnar and Alleppey. The plan was to spend 2 nights in Munnar and then go to Alleppey. Our trip started with an early morning flight to Cochin. We hired a taxi and it took us about 3.5 hours to reach our place of stay, Misty Mountain Resort, in Munnar. We had a comfortable stay there and the valley view room that we stayed in provided nice view of the hills. Munnar is famous for tea and I got hooked to the cardamom tea that I used to have in this hotel.
In the evening, we walked to Punarjani Traditional Village which is situated 300 meters (5 min walk) from Misty Mountain Resort. We easily got tickets to the Kathakali and Kalarippayattu (martial art of Kerala) shows. The Kathakali show began at 5:00 PM and the Kalarippayattu show began at 6:00 PM.
We were seated at the venue much before the actual show started, so we could watch one of the Kathakali artists painting his face for the upcoming show. At the onset of the show, an artist performed navarasams (nine facial expressions) which was followed by dance drama series.
We thoroughly enjoyed the Kalarippayattu show. One should not miss watching Kalarippayattu on visiting Munnar. Here are some of the pictures that we shot during the show.
On day 2, we set out to explore Munnar. We visited Floriculture centre and tea plantations on the way to Madupetty Dam. We stopped by to take pictures of ourselves dressed up as tea plantation workers and with tea plantations in the background at a place locally called photo point. We also stopped by to look at a tree full of honeycombs locally called as honey bee tree. All the routes we took in Munnar were very scenic with lush green tree plantations.
We spent some time at the reservior near Madupetty Dam. There were small shops selling traditional crafts and food items. We chose to just sit and enjoy the scenary of the place. One can go speed boating organized by DTPC (District Tourist Promotion Council) nearby.
We headed to Echo Point and on the way we visited a place locally called elephant arrival point. We saw wild elephants grazing at a reserve forest.
True to its name, if you scream at Echo Point, you can hear your echo. The place is very calm with still water, beautiful hills and some echos that you create. 😊 One can go boating too at this place.
After spending 2 days at Munnar, I came to realize that Munnar has many more things to offer in terms of nature which we could not experience due to our short duration of stay. We could not visit the Top Station in Munnar which gives great views of Western Ghats. I learnt that it is famous for the Neelakurinji flowers (Strobilanthus), which bloom once in 12 years. The flowers are violet in colour and the last time they decorated the hills was in 2006. That makes 2018 a good year to visit Munnar if one wants to see these flowers blooming.
Munnar has beautiful places to visit in four directions, namely Mattupetty, Coimbatore, Cochin and Thekkady directions, of which we visited only Mattupetty area and some of the waterfalls in Cochin direction.
It is said that Munnar should be experienced by riding bicycle through scenic paths as the clouds descend upon you. I am looking forward to exploring these paths by walk on our next visit to Munnar. We went there in November. We saw the clouds descending on the hills every evening after about 3:00 PM. They rose again and hovered above the hills next day in the morning.
On day 3, we headed towards Alleppey. On the way we visited Munnar Spices and Ayurvedic Garden. It is a small plantation of medicinal and spice plants, and a shop selling spices. One may skip this place without losing much.
On the way to Alleppey, we halted for a while to see the Valara Waterfalls. A little later, we made another stop to visit Cheeyappara Waterfalls, a seven tiered waterfall.
After visiting these waterfalls, we continued our trip through hills and valleys to the backwaters of Alleppey.
