The world is divided into people of two sorts – Sea person and Hills person, majorly. I belong to the possibly third sort that loves the sea and longs for the hills as well. However, before this ride I had never been to the hills. So excited and apprehensive, as we drove towards the hills of Munnar I had only one vision in mind - beautiful mountains with little clouds sparingly visible. My vision became a reality when we made our way through the serpentine lanes of Munnar. Lovely weather and smart architecture of hotels nested in different levels of the hills made the entire sight beautiful to watch. As we were searching for the hotel booked by our travel agent, we crossed the epicenter of the town which reminded me of Esplanade in Kolkata. Definitely not judging by the expanse of the area but by the busy environment of this locality, I was certain this was the place where people turn up for everything. So, we reached the hotel, settled down, and got ready to go out for lunch. If you are an avid Biriyani lover, then you must never try Biriyani in Munnar. We were quite surprised, rather shocked to see that what was offered as Biriyani there was merely a platter of rice and chicken curry. Not satisfied with lunch, we looked forward to what the rest of the day would hold for us. Since, we lost most of the day in travelling to Munnar all our sightseeing plans were scheduled for the next day. This was the day when we planned to go for some shopping and getting to know the town of Munnar on foot. We bought some delicious homemade chocolates and tea, of course and headed back to the hotel. Here, I must mention the taste of tea and coffee in this region is beyond excellence. I have never felt so satisfied from having tea or coffee the way I felt in Kerala. Next day, it was predicted that we might encounter rain on our way. Despite that we ensured that we make the most of it. Munnar trip is never complete if you have not been to the tea gardens. You need prior permission to view the tea estates, but the effort is worth giving. We were also lucky to see a herd of elephants crossing the gardens on our way to other locations. We went to interesting places, such as Mattupetty Dam, Kundala Dam Lake, Attukal Waterfalls, and Pothamedu Viewpoint. All these places were so serene that I and my husband both were having a great time. But this time it started raining heavily and we had to cancel our plans to visit Top Station, which would be shrouded in mist as it is closer to Tamil Nadu, where the depression had hit hard. Since, there was no chance to see anything in Top Station, we decided to let it go. Disappointed, we planned to come back to our hotel as we could not proceed further. On seeing me upset, our sweet driver offered us another option to visit in Munnar. It was a flower show which was happening somewhere in the town and it was partially covered to keep the rain at bay.
Finally, something to look forward to; we were ecstatic. We reached the venue quickly and lost ourselves in the beauty and scent of so many varieties of flower. By this time, my husband who was irritated and upset with the weather was finally smiling as he was close to his favorite flowers. Off went our camera clicking, and in no time we had a small collection of floral pictures in our camera and mobile. After the sweet ending to our journey today, we decided to come back, rest a while, have dinner, and call it an early day. Next day, it was Alleppey backwaters that we were heading to. Another long ride, another chance to make new memories, and another destination to explore; all these made me excited as a kid. |
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