Munnar

DAY 4...a

The scenic TEA estate "MUNNAR"

It was understood without saying that we must leave our hotel in the morning as early as possible without compromising on our precious sleep (we were quite exhausted after so much of travelling… and once you are through with your graduation even a little bit of exercise tires you immensely…such is the effect after four years of college).

In deep contemplation-"Why don't I live here"

Coming back to our trip, we had kept aside two days for Munnar since we had heard that there are many tourist spots in and around this tea estate. After having our breakfast in the same place we had our dinner the day before (a south Indian one…this time, not because it was the best option available but it had become a tradition to have this kind of food in the mornings, and we were enjoying the dosas and utthapams relentlessly). While at our breakfast we enquired with our waiter (who spoke in Hindi…a priceless moment) about how to go about touring Munnar and he gave us some reliable information.

The Perfect Day

After some more enquiring we became sure that there weren’t any local tours and travels buses which operated on a daily basis for visiting Munnar, and the only available options were hiring a cab or an auto-rickshaw (available in plenty). Not only were there many cabs and rickshaws waiting in a huge parking lot (a place hard to miss) ready to commence their daily ritual, it was all being done in a pretty organized manner. Near the parking lot which is quite close to the town centre there was a booth (may be set up by the govt. as it looked official…but who knows) with a person sitting inside to inform the tourists about various options available for touring Munnar. He had a printed brochure, bulleting tourist spots in and near Munnar on the basis of direction. Didn’t get it in the first go, don’t worry even we had a tough time figuring out what he meant for the first five minutes after which the haze started to fade.

Photo-Point... as in literally

 So here it is...One can imagine Munnar to be at the hub of various visiting locations which are spread radially around it with the maximum displacement in any one direction being at most 25 -30 kms. The person gave us four package options (all in separate directions roughly-N.E.W.S., explaining us the time involved in each pack) and thus we were left to make a choice now. After doing many mathematical operations like permutation and optimization in our heads, we convinced the person to give us a custom package (there is always a scope for that…everything is flexible) with spots from mainly two directions, and he agreed to do so at an increased price but saving us some valuable time (as we wanted to see as much as we possibly could in as less time as possible…giving rise to an amazing optimization problem…if you think closely). He also gave us the option of choosing a vehicle and we went for an auto as never before had we travelled on hills in a rickshaw…and the experience was definitely worth a try.

Squeezing in the auto we began exploration of the tea-estate Munnar in the direction of Mattupetty Dam (it was the most popular package), and boy! It was amazing. The Mid-summer Sun shone brightly giving us warmth and an impeccable view of the rich green landscaped hills amidst the cool pollution-free breeze which you can only experience on the mountains. All in all it was a weather which many long for to have an experience of.  

Ishan- Amidst the flowers

Strolling in the Flower Garden

"Budding Entrepreneur"

  

                                                                         

While enjoying all this I had simply lost track of everything else, but I got back to the real world as we reached our first destination- a ‘flower garden’ (most of us may think this is only for the feminine gender, but frankly speaking it was an incredible place for anyone to visit). It was a very well maintained garden with a variety ranging from roses and tulips to orchids in the flower category and ferns to cactus in plants amidst a variety of bonsais. Carrying forward with the journey we reached a place known as ‘Photo-point’ which the name explains lucidly of. Having clicked some pictures and consuming a bhutta(readily available) we moved on. After a while we reached the ‘Mattupetty Dam’ and the ‘lake’ (an inevitable part of any dam…nonetheless the tour organizers segregate the two in order to add one more destination and think of the tourists as fools…but who cares, as long as it is a place worth visiting).

The Mattupetty Dam

All padded up...

Speed-boating is the primary activity which goes on in this place apart from elephant and horse riding. We went for the first option as some speed could definitely help the adrenaline flow, even though one journey was only for 15 minutes. There was a long queue which we had to wait in, but an unusual part was, there were foreign nationals as well and in plenty at this place…all waiting for their turn (unusual, since we hadn’t seen any en-route). Finally we got our turn and we were asked to wear the fluorescent orange colored safety jackets (stereotypical colour for life-buoys). Maybe we were expecting too much and hence when the boat started it didn’t feel like the adrenaline could ever rush and so we asked our boat driver to add some thrill to the ride by accelerating, rolling and yawing (basically spinning) the boat. He took his time in adding these features to the ride but when he did the adrenaline did rush and it was rocking as hell. It was nothing less than a mind-blowing and exhilarating experience, in short… paisa wasool.

Having a jolly good time...

Note: Day 4 was a pretty long day both in experience (with more than 400 clicks...thanks to digital storage) and in ink (technically bits...bhavnayon ko samjho) hence I have split it in two posts. 

TO BE CONTINUED...