Munnar

I love travelling and though I haven’t really been able to travel as much as I would’ve liked due to time constraints, I do try my best to fit in a little vacation in my schedule whenever possible. Recently, I squeezed in a vacation to Kerala in the south of India with my husband. We decided to go there towards the end of July, even though we were warned by numerous people that its better to stay away from Kerala at that time since it was monsoon and the rains are pretty heavy there. We ignored them all and headed off to Munnar. We reached Munnar after a grueling 30 hour journey by train and then an additional 3 hour ride in a car(don’t ask me why I didn’t have the sense to travel by air). By then we were so exhausted all we wanted to do was go to our hotel. Even though it was not a tourist season we had done our bookings in advance just to be on a safe side.

We had got ourselves booked at a small resort called “igloo resort” which was a little away from the town, and if you have your own transportation it’s a good place to stay. The rooms are comfortable, not luxurious, but the best feature of the room is the balcony lined with benches and a few plants. The view from the balcony was magical. It looked down on the large beautifully manicured garden of the resort and beyond that on to the mountains with tea plantations, covered in mist and clouds giving it a dreamlike surreal quality. The houses tucked away on the mountains here and there look like little toy houses.

Later in the day we headed towards the town. The town is small and charming and since it was a slack season there were hardly any tourists around. Tiny shops lined both sides of the road where you can find everything from gold jewellery, fresh tea, coffee, homemade chocolates and every spice imaginable. There is a beautiful church in the centre of the town that is 300 years old but it’s only open for visitors on Sundays.

If you want to shop in Munnar tea is the best thing to buy. In most shops in the town you can buy fresh tea and a large number of flavored teas are available. Fresh roasted and ground coffee is also worth buying. Food is delicious in Kerala and Munnar is no exception. You wouldn’t find fancy restaurants here, but the best thing to do is eat what the locals eat. We went to a tiny restaurant in Munnar, and ordered what the owner suggested; a “Kerala meal” which turned out to be rice served with delicious fish curry and fried baby prawn fritters. All meals here are served with “sambhar” which is a delicious thick soup with vegetables and a few side dishes.

On the second day of our stay we set off to check a few of the spots around Munnar. These tourist spots turned out to be a few dams and an echo point, which predictably were swarming with tourists from neighboring cities and school kids out for a picnic. It wasn’t all disappointing though. We enjoyed the ride thoroughly, I would suggest you to hire a car and explore the narrow winding roads around Munnar. Every place we went was exquisitely beautiful, mountains covered with tea looking like plush green carpets, eucalyptus trees everywhere and the air was so clean and fresh. The beauty of the place calms you down instantly and the people of Munnar make it even better, friendly and always ready to help.

Linus Orakles
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