Kerala Trip Part 6 - Munnar

Day 5 (contd)

Links to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part5

The travel from Thekkady to Munnar was a great scenic route in the hilly region. The mountains look as though a beautiful green carpet has been laid meticulously on it :) However, it was the worst part of the tour for me as I was car/travel sick (in spite of the slow driving among the hair pin bends by the expert driver). It was a wonder that I had managed for so many days and it had to happen some time! But the good thing about was that the travel was slow with various small stops and hence we got some more time to enjoy the view as well. Here are some shots along the way

On the way to Munnar...

We stopped to have a look at the breathtaking scenery of Anayirangal Dam, surrounded by lush green carpet of tea, coffee plantations

Once we reached Munnar, we stopped for lunch. The driver was most helpful (he had made enquiries before hand for a good vegetarian hotel at every stop) and once again, the food was good. Jillu got her dose of yummy fresh curd as well :)

And, then we went to the Tea Museum. The package starts with a small movie showing the back ground/history of how tea plantations originated in Munnar and their evolution over the period till date. The movie was then followed by a quick explanation of how tea is made from start to finish and then a demo of the same. We were allowed to watch the whole process as well in the factory below :)

Car park outside the museum

View from the car park :

And then, the next stop was an interesting and thrilling stop:) 

The Elephant ride : We had a nice half hour trip into the jungle, though it took some time to adjust to the awkward jostling movement every step. Jillu was alternately scared and thrilled during the entire trip. Once we were into the ride we (the adults) were engulfed with a feeling of guilt for burdening the animal. But we could not do anything else at that point. On a casual talk with the assistant, we got to know that these elephants were capable of and in fact were being used to carry much more weight on a daily basis for several other purposes as well ! We felt even more sorry for the elephant and this extra info, in no way eradicated our guilt.

Jillu loved feeding (corns and pine apples) the Appu :)

Our next stop was the famous Maatupatty dam. This again was a fantastic spot with lovely scenery. Aren't these lovely ?

The dam :

And look. What have we got here for Jillu ? How izz it ??? A nice pose ? :)

 And then it was time to retire for the night with this beautiful sight overlooking from our balcony at the hotel

Day 6 :

And woke up to this view from the same balcony in the early morning

After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and proceeded on our way to Rajamalai, the last stop in Munnar before starting the return trip to Chennai 

Rajamalai and return trip to be covered in the next part...