Trip to Munnar, Kerala - 01/26/2006

Here I am back with another of my trips. This time the location is somewhere in India and not US :-) Its a long mail (mostly all my mails are long), but I hope you too enjoy this trip :-)

Not going to home in long weekends brings the problem of deciding what to do, how to spend time. This long weekend we faced this problem. Issue was where to go. Place discussion started with Wayanad, switched to Munnar, Pondicherry, Lakshadweep etc before we decided to go to Munnar. It was all runtime with no bookings, not even for bus / train. From Mangalore it was me, Shashank, Sandeep, Shailesh and Ravindra Tandel. Sandeep's friends, Arvind and Puneet, were coming from Bangalore and they reached Mangalore Thursday morning.

Thursday we took bus tickets for Cochin and at night started the journey. In morning after reaching Cochin at 7.30 we decided to continue our journey before taking a break so we took KSRTC bus (that is Kerala state transport :P) and continued for four more hours towards our destination of Munnar. Journey was quite good in the sense that the surrounding was tooooooooooooo good... It was shades of green splashed everywhere by God. On high peaks to the leveled ground, it was green.

In the long journey to Munnar, the conductor became our friend and gave us lot of important information. Also before reaching Munnar he made arrangements for us to stay in a lodge. So first hurdle cleared before reaching. After reaching lodge, we rested for some time and then also started to get ready for the trip. We were all very hungry also. We reached town which was very near and had our lunch.

The plan i.e. what all places to see and where to go was still in rough stage :-) So we took help from restaurant's owner who guided us and told the places which we could visit in the half day. The route which we decided to visit was Rajmalai, Eravikulum National Park Attukkadu water falls. We hired a jeep, yes Mahindra jeep and started for our first destination which was Rajmalai and Eravikulum National Park. It is one of the highest peak and also home to Nilgiri Tahar (ie the mountain goat). The route and view was again full of greenery and also from that high point the view of far away peaks hidden in clouds was amazing. After this it was turn to go to watch the blue blue water in Attukkadu water falls. The road was quite difficult to navigate, by jeep, but driver was quite experienced. In some time we reached the waterfall's base. After some time we bid adieu to the falls and started journey back to hotel. Everyone was quite tired and needed sleep so as to recharge for next day's trip.

After reaching hotel I just fell asleep in sometime. We have called the same driver next day morning to take us to the most amazing and beautiful route on which I have ever been.

Next day we got up somehow as it was cold and no one wanted to wake up :-). Some how everyone got ready and also driver cam on time. After small delay we started for the Mattupatty Dam - Echo Point - Kundalay Lake - Top Station (6300 fts above sea level) route. I fell almost in love with Munnar as soon as we reached Mattupatty Dam. The lake was surrounded by mountains covered in green. There we did boating as it gave an amazing view of surrounding. After spending time here we started for next stop which was Echo point. On the journey we were not sitting inside jeep but standing on footrest, this single thing (though risky) made the journey pleasurable. Echo point is not at hilltop as I had earlier thought, but at the level of lake only. After screaming and hearing our voices back we started for Kundalay lake where we did not spend much time. We just had tea and started for Top station which is one of the highest point and he route is through tea plantations.

This part of the route is the best. When we reached at some level, it was only clouds and fog which can be seen. We could not see any tea plantations. On reaching top station, we had some makeup with tomato (as that person said). It is the red juice from the fruit that is on my face and Puneet's face and not blood :P On top station nothing can be seen (as everything is covered in fog) but it is still beautiful. There we tracked down till a cliff, from where you cant see anything below, but you know that there is nothing, it is steep fall. After staying there for some time we came back and boarded our jeep. Plan was to get back to Cochin and go to Alleppey for house boat ride.

From Top-station to Munnar city and then to Cochin it was hectic ride, one because we were all tired, had not had proper lunch and also because we were leaving such a beautiful place behind. We reached Cochin back at night. From this point onwards it is another set of adventure :-).

After reaching Cochin we first went to look for tickets back for Bangalore and Mangalore. To Puneet's and Arvind's shock (which we were also to get later), there were no seats available for Saturday (we reached back Cochin on Saturday) or Sunday. After some searching (which made us very accustomed to MG Road :P), we found a bus which was leaving for Bangalore in 10 mins and which had seats. So Arvind and Puneet without any hesitation or any thought of missing adventure in Alleppey boarded the bus back for Bangalore. But by this time we also had decided to start our journey back for Mangalore and keep Alleppey trip for next time. We found out that there were no seats available for Mangalore for next two days (no idea how come so many people were coming here). After some searching, some thinking we decided to come back by train which seemed better option. We reached station. tool general comp ticket for train at 11.30 and had dinner :) Proper food after a day.

Decision to go by train and that too general compartment was taken after doing some analysis. The assumption was that it was Saturday night, people might not be traveling that much and also as it would be reaching all major stations in middle of night people will prefer another train which is at 1.30 night. But when train came, general comp was full and so all our assumptions and calculations and analysis went for a toss. We boarded sleeper class as we were in no mood to stay in Cochin now. We decided to get seats in sleeper and come sleeping arraam se. We captured a berth and waited patiently for TC to come. After some time I decided to take out the ticket from my pocket so that when TC comes it takes less time to do dealings, but the trip back home seemed noty to be easy. To my utter astonishment I could not find the tickets in any of my pockets or purse. After this great loss everyone suddenly have seemed to lose their sleep :P. After some discussions we decided to approach TC and explain him things instead of him coming and then we explaining. So myself and Sandeep (who has made his face look serious, though I was trying to control my laugh) went and talked to TC. Here is the transcript of the same as I still find it interesting.

Me:"Sir we have a problem. Actually a very big problem?"
Me:"We took general ticket, but after finding the compartment full, we boarded sleeper class. We boarded from ...." (now here i forgot the station - Cochin - name, but Sandeep filled the gap and told we boarded the train from Cochin.
TC:"hmm.. so the amount which you will have to pay will be (250 + 90 ) * 2 plus extra for berth"
Me:"Sir we are five people"
TC:"You lost all five tickets!!! :O" (amused expressions)
Me:"Yes sir. All tickets were together"
After some thinking he told it will be better if we get down at next station and take tickets and board next train as it would be cheaper. I would say and on which all of agreed that this TC was a really nice person. He helped us a lot later also.

So me and Sandeep came back and told others what has just happened. At next station we got down, but again no one was in mood to wait till next train and after confirming form TC we boarded the train again. When later TC came to us he had a brilliant idea with him, he told that one person get down at next to next station and take tickets and then he will just take extra amount for reservation and seat. He also told us which comp will come in front of counter, so me and sandeep went for the "ticket sprint" - to get tickets within 2 minutes. When train stopped we ran (as that comp did not came in front of counter) got the tickets somehow and came back to train (later Shashank and others told that TC had also come out and ran behind us so that we find the counter). This quick sprint lasted a minute (and I assume can be a world record :D). We boarded the train, got three seats, initially TC asked us 1000 bucks which we gave without any bargaining as he had already helped us a lot, but he was quite generous and returned us 200 bucks :).

We reached Mangalore Sunday morning thinking Arvind and Puneet missed some excitement. But on Monday it was news from there side.

Now I take you to the trip which Arvind and Puneet started from Cochin to Bangalore. Time is 3.00 AM and location: unknown (somewhere between Cochin and Bangalore). The bus stops and these two also get down to have tea. But when they are back they find that the bus has left without them with their luggage. So we have two people stranded somewhere in middle of night with nothing :-). Luckily there another bus for Bangalore was there which they boarded after giving money and then started "peecha karo". Well they caught up their "actual" bus at 5.30 AM in morning and so they also had their part of adventure.

So this is the adventurous trip which we had in "God's own country", the beauty of which can not be told but shown or experienced.