Munnar and Thekkady

When thatha and nanamma were leaving for Hyderabad on 9th April, I wanted to go with them to Hyderabad. So, from the time I came back from Rameswaram trip I started packing my bag and getting ready for my travel to Hyderabad. Looking at my actions, dad and mummy were worried how would I behave on the day when thatha and nanamma leave to hyderabad. So, daddy told me he wants to go to Munnar after thatha and nanamma leave to hyderabad and I will miss that trip, if I go along with them. Hmm.. tough choice for me... I said, I will stay back in Trivandrum and will go to Hyderabad later. Though Daddy told it just to bring me out of that... he was looking for an opportunity to travel to Munnar. Luckily, he realized that May1st falling on a Tuesday is a holiday. So he took April 30th off and planned for a 4 day trip to Munnar. This is in continution with our May 1st travel almost every year. 2009 May 1st, we were in Ooty, 2011 May 1st in Wayanad... now in Munnar. [2010 we went to Ghati Subramanya on a day trip].


The plan is to cover Munnar and Thekkady. So, Dad booked a hotel in Munnar for Day1 and in Thekkady for Day 3. Didnt book for Day 2.


28 Apr 2012: The plan was to start by 6AM from home, stop at Kottayam (around 150Kms) by 9:30 for breakfast and then reach Munnar by 2:30PM.



We started 30minutes late. Reached Kottayam at 9:30. We started looking for a hotel for breakfast. We stopped at a good looking hotel. There was no one inside the hotel. We had a doubt if they have breakfast. But, the waiter there said they do server breakfast. When we asked for menu he gave us the lunch menu [only items available were Paratha, Roti and Appam]. Since we already wasted 10-15min. we thought of having heavy breakfast and ordered for it. We finished breakfast by 10:15.

There was not much traffic on the MC road [Trivandrum - Kottayam]. But after Kottayam we felt it was heavy traffic. It took 1 and half hour for next 15Kms [Ettumanoor]including 15min. break at a petrol pump. It was around 12 by the time we reached KothaMangalam where we should take a diversion from MC Road to Kochi-Munnar-Madhurai highway. The plan was to be there by 11.

From this point the route was very scenic and curly roads. On the way we stopped at "Cheeyappara Waterfalls" on the way. We spent around 20min. there before moving. Within 5 min. drive there was another falls. We stopped again for few pics.

It was already 1:30PM. We stopped for lunch at a hotel on the way. We realized how bad the decission was after an hour. Looking at the price 150/- for a egg fried rice, we thought the quantity would be sufficient for atleast one and half people and ordered only 2 dishes (one egg fried rice and a curd rice - 90/-). we waited for 45 min. to get our order, though there were only 10 customers in the hotel. The quantity was not even sufficient for breakfast. So we ordered another friend rice and waited for another 20min. It never came. Finally we cancelled the order and left the place at 3:00PM. Munnar is around 25Kms from there and our hotel (Munnar Rock resort is 8Kms before Munnar town). We stopped at a view point on the way for some photos.

We reached the hotel at 4PM. The room was decent enough for 1000/-. After half an hour we left for Munnar city. We wanted to visit blossom park, pothamedu view point and athukkal falls before dinner time. We couldnt find the route to falls though we could see it from main road, so we went to Pothamedu view point. The road was very narrow. Only one vehicle can go at a time and there were vehicles in both directions. When we reached the view point, it was fully covered with fog. All we could see was fog and nothing else. So, we didnt waste much time there. Headed towards city to see the park. The park was just next to the road which we took to go to the view point. But, the park entrance in under renovation and didnt look interesting place to spend time in the evening. So skipped it and headed to city. There was a bridge on the way on which only one vehicle can go at a time. We had to wait for 10min. for our turn before the traffic coming from other side went through. Looking at all this, we felt to take a hotel inside city for next day. We didnt have reservation for day 2. Dad didnt want to drive for sight-seeing as he would not be able to enjoy the locations around. So, we went to DTCP office (Govt. of Kerala tourism) to enquire about their packages. They have three packages each in a different direction. Luckily they had seats available in Mettupatty routeonly, which we wanted to go. We reserved our seats for next day paying 600/- (for 2 persons). Now we wanted to book a hotel near the DTCP office so that we dont have to go back far after coming back from trip. We called babai and srinath mama for booking a hotel inside city for next day. Finally Srinath mama booked one hotel "Munnar Inn" through MakeMytrip. From there we went to Saravan Bhavan for dinner at 7PM. There was a big queue for seats. But, the service was very fast, so we could finish fast. It was around 8 by the time we finished our dinner and started back. We didnt know there was a surprise waiting for us at that time....

We crossed Munnar city in 10min. From city outskirts our hotel is around 5Kms. I went into sleep as soon as I got into car. Dad was saying there was heavy fog on the return to hotel and couldnt see anything in the front beyond 10mts. I got up when we reached hotel. After our hotel experience in Kanyakumari, We carried our mosquito net for this trip. So, I slept in the net though there were not many mosquitos.

29 Apr 2012:

We got up at 6AM. Got ready and vacated the hotel by 8AM. We wanted to visit Attukkal falls and have breakfast before going for the packaged tour.

Attukkal Falls is 2.5 KMs from main road. We went up to a KM crossing the Tata tea packaging unit and the falls was clearly visible from there.

We spent sometime and decided not to go further as we may end up skipping our breakfast and dont know if the tour guy stops for lunch. So went to Saravan Bhavan again for breakfast. This time it was too much crowded that we couldnt even get inside the hotel. people were waiting outside too. We didnt want to waste time there and went to Sri nivas hotel, as daddy read good review about that too. The situation was more or less same as Saravana bhava there too. Though we managed to get seats, the order was too late. We asked for masala dosa and poori. After half an hour we got plain dosa and poori. From there we went to the DTCP office where we took the cab for sight-seeing. It started at 10AM. Went through Photo POint [ we got some instant prints from there. They charged 30/- for photo], Honey bee tree [bought one bottle of honey - hope its pure], Mattupatty Dam, [The boating place was crowded so we told the driver not to stop there - but it was in the itienary], Echo point [driver said its echo point but didnt look like. I think it was film shooting point. Dad told me to shout to check as I am famous for it. But, as usual, i didnt shout when required :-)], kundala dam, a tea estate [ this was in the list, but driver could see the top station covered with fog. so he stopped at a tea plantation for a while to wait for the fog to clear off] and finally top station. Though the fog was cleared mostly, it stilled blocked our view from top station. At around 2PM, we headed back to city for lunch. We reached city at 3PM. We were supposed to go to Raja malai after lunch. Driver told us the entry to Raja malai will be closed by 4:30. So, he adviced us to have a quick lunch and be back in half an hour so that we can reach there by 4 and buy tickets before it is closed.

We were running through all the hotels around. All of them were crowded and people were waiting outside too. We were looking for some hotel which is not crowded. Luckily we found one Purohit Restaurent. It was almost empty. The service was fast and food was tasty too. We finished in 20min. and went back to the cab. There were three families including us in the cab. Two of us were back in 30min. We waited for the other couple for another 30min. So, the driver gave us an option. Either we go to Rajamalai as per plan [there is high possibility that its closed] and return or go to Attukkal falls. Actually we felt we have no choice and told him to go to Attukkal falls though we visited in the morning. The driver stopped that cab exactly at the same place where we stopped in the morning for some photos and good view of falls. Then he took to bottom of the falls. It was not as interesting as it was from top.

While we were having lunch, daddy received a message from makemytrip that the hotel he booked for that night is not confirmed. He called them up and they said they will try to confirm the same hotel by 6PM.


We reached back at DTCP office at 5:30PM. Just before we reached there, we got a call from MMT that they provided an alternate accomodation at a better hotel for same price with complimentary breakfast. So, we headed towards Emerald Inn. We reached the hotel by 6:15PM and checked in. We thought of getting fresh and go to city for some shopping and dinner. But all of us were tired and decided to stay in the room itself and have dinner in the same hotel. Around 7PM it started raining. We were happy that we didnt go out. Had dinnet 8 and went to bed.


30 Apr 2012:
We got up little late around 8 and got ready by 9. Had breakfast and checked out of the hotel. The complimentary breakfast was not good. It was a buffet breakfast with only Idli and poori. Everyone wanted poori and to get a single poori one had to wait for long time.

At 10:30AM we reached Tata Tea Museum. But, it was closed. We didnt know that its closed on Mondays. :-(. From there we headed to Thekkady located at 108KMs from Munnar. We planned to visit the places on the way and reach Thekkady by 2PM.

On the way we stopped to but some fresh carrots, at Loghart Gap, view point and Powerhouse falls. We reached Thekkady at 3PM. We had reservation at KTDC hotel Periyar house inside the wildlife sanctuary. The hotel is inside forest and entry is not allowed after 5:30PM. Even the guests are not allowed to go out of hotel premises after 6PM. The hotel arranges for wildlife boating for its guests. But, the tickets for that day were fully sold out.So, we reserved for next morning's first ride at 7:30AM.

In the evening, we roamed around the sanctuary for sometime and hotel. We could only see Monkeys and Pigs. We went to bed at 10pm after dinner.

1 May 2012:

Got up early and got ready by 7Am. Went for boating. The boating was a 1 and half hour boring ride as we didnt see any interesting animal. We could only see some bison, wild hoggs, pigs, deer and samba deer.

After the boating, we checked-out of the hotel. Had breakfast at Kumily 5Kms from Thekkady. We started from Kumily at 10:30 with a plan to reach Trivandrum by 4PM with a lunch break on the way. On the way to Trivandrum we stopped at a waterfalls for 10minutes. Though we wanted to stop for lunch initially, we didnt stop as I wanted to reach home fast and reached home at 4:15Pm.

Ok. let me go and check where to go next.......