Munnar is a small pristine beautiful place in Idukki district of Kerala. And for the unawares Kerala, also known as Gods' own country, is one of the states in India. Of late, kerala has become a tourist's paradise with all the promotional camapaigns undertaken by the kerala tourism department. To add to this is the fact that it was listed as one of the top 10 destinations in the Paradise found category in National Geographic Traveler.
Munnar is an ideal destination for nature/wildlife admirers, avid trekkers, history lovers or even if you would like to just chill out. Primarily, it is perceived as a hill station and not much seems to be publicized regarding the historical connections. And so, if you want explore the historical aspects of this place, you might have to do some extensive research and be prepared to explain the guides/local people what you want to see. I am trying to aggregate the information I gathered during my visit in this travelogue.
Accessibility & MunnarMunnar is well connected by road. You can fly till Cochin and take taxi from there to Munnar.
However we drove from Bangalore to Munnar and the drive was pretty good. The route we took was Bangalore - Krishnagiri - Dharmapuri - Salem - Perundari - Dharapuram -Udumalapet - Chinnar - Marayoor - Munnar. Bangalore to Krishnagiri is the well maintained NH7 and from there the roads are little bad till Dharmapuri. From Dharmapuri to Udumalapet the roads are good. In all it turns out to be that Bangalore to Munnar is 480kms by road. And you will have to drive through the forest from then on. That's an absolutely stunning stretch. We went to Munnar during the August and that happens to be the monsoon season in kerala.
The monsoon does lots of magic to the already existing lush greenery. It was green all over with multicolored flowers all along the path. Adding to this, is the fact that there were waterfalls and streams everywhere you turn around. As we were climbing up the hill, we felt as though we were touching the clouds. A slight drizzle and we had to be absolutely cautious about the winding roads, as the visibility would go drastically down. The mountains with their misty magic, the dense forest and the tree plantations all around and a drive through them. Nothing could have been termed as better begining of our trip to Munnar. This was just the begining and we were already praising the aptness of promoting Kerala as
"Gods Own Country".Wildlife @ MunnarMunnar will be a feast to a nature lover's eyes with the Chinnar Wild Life Sanctuary and also the Eravikulam National Park within a convenient reach.
Eravikulam National Park is a sanctuary that preserves the Nilgiri Tahr - an endangered species. In addition black langur, wild-buffalo, elephant, sambhar, tigers & leopard are part of the sanctuary. If you are lucky, you might get to see all of them and in any case you will atleast sight the Niligiri Tahr. This park in fact has the larget population of the Nilgiri Tahr. If you spare some resonable time you will certainly spot this
Another exclusive thing about this National Park is the "NeelaKurinji" flower. This flower blooms once in 12 years around september time frame and when it blooms fully, it covers the entire mountain blue. It is said that the local tribals used to count their age with every bloom of the flower. If you see the flower bloom, it means you are older by another 12 years. Such simplicity of life!!!And we have so many things in our civilized world which remind of our age every other month...starting from insurance dues to taxes....:) We happend to go to this national park around august 2006 and this flower just started blooming. We could only see patches of the flowers. The entire mountain is yet to be covered with blue flowers but there are patches of it. So visit in september if you want to see the mountain decked with blue flowers!!!!Or else it is another 12 years wait............!!! Also, one can get a breathtaking view of
Anamudi (2690m, the highest peak in the southern India) from this park.
Snapshot of the Neelakurinji on August 2006.
Also, Eravikulam National Park has the distinction of being the most well maintained National Parks in India and it clearly shows. So much so that we noticed the officials watching the people going little too near the neelkurinji shrub to make sure there is no plucking business or damage to the shrub. And why not - afterall our earth needs to be preserved!!!!!!
Chinaar Wildlife sanctuary is actually located around 55 kms from Munnar and shelters elephants, tigers, wild-buffalos, nilgiri-tahr, spotted deer, lemur and the grizzled squirrel. If you are driving across make sure you are little watchful otherwise you might bump into animals. And if at all you bump into a solitary elephant, don't disturb it by honking......let it go...or you push off unnoticably. The elephant might react if it gets the feeling of being threatened!! Don't dismiss the chance of you meeting a single elephant as remote....We did bump into one such and have heard many more such stories :)
And if you want to observe the animals, then wait near the water bodies....there are streams & waterfalls almost in every corner. You will surely come across few species atleast. Also, the sanctuary itself has provision for watch towers. Take a ticket for those watch towers and happy onlooking for the animals.
The kerala tourism department also offers organized trekking across the chinnar sanctuary. If you are more adventurous enough, you can stay in the forest overnight on a machan. And all this is official, you will be provided a guide who will help you through this. Just plan properly and you will have an experience of a life time - in moon lit night, on top of a machan and oppurtunity to co-exist with the animals of the kind which you would have only seen pictures of!
Regarding the chinnar forest itself, it is pretty dense and is dry deciduous with a wide variety of trees. Rocky patches here and there add to the beauty of the forest.
History @ Munnar
Around 40kms from Munnar is a place called Marayoor. A first look at this place or talk to the people in Munnar, they won't be able to tell you the right things about Marayoor. In fact, they will recommend you the place called Matupetty where you can go boat/sail. You will have to really struggle to explain to them that you are interested in Marayoor and that too for a valid reason.
To make your task easier, let me tell you what we figured out regarding Marayoor. Marayoor has much of association with history than any of us can even think of. It has rock painting with murals that date to the new stone age!!!! If you are really excited about this, you can take the organized tour of the KTDC(Kerala Tourism Development Corporation) which will show you the caves in deep jungle which house around 90 motifs of the stone age. Please note that this comes with the risk of you having to trek through dense jungle encountering elephants & such. So, the earlier the day, the lesser the risk. And no treks are encouraged post 6:00 in the evening given the risks.
If you want to really see the painting which some one did around 10000BC and not risk your life in that process, you can take a shorter trek, which lets you see 2-3 murals. Again a KTDC organzied one! Watch out for the Kerala eco-tourism promotion booths on the way from Munnar to Chinnar. This is where you would book the organized tours.
It also boasts of dolmens. The only dolmens perhaps in Asia other than Korea and one of the few in the entire world.
We went for one such conducted trekking. The KTDC in fact seems to be doing a very good job of maintaining the place as well as providing employment for the people around. The eco-tourism booths are manned by the local tribals who have been trained to organize treks. We were accompanied by one such person who showed us the Rock paintings as well as dolmens. They made us sign a form which said that we undertake this trek by fully understanding the risks involved i.e spotting of any wild animals or any loss of property. The guide for the trek, was absolutely careful and watchful. He was telling us that the area of the rock paintings which we were trekking to see is one of the favorite places of the elephants and asked us not to be surprised if we see elephant herds around :) Driving through a road, where u can spot an elephant is good but the thought walking amidst elephants(read wild elephants) certainly sent shivers. But we were pretty eager to see the rock paintings so went ahead with the trek and on seeing the rock paintings, we were sure, this was worth the risk. Imagine looking at a painting which was done in Stone Age!!!!And it was as crystal clear as it was painted yesterday!!!!!!Am not sure what was the material used for that paint and the guide seemed to not have the answer too. However the painting was intelligently painted such that it was protected by rain most of the times. Here is a picture of one such rock painting.
Enroute we also saw a bunch of dolmens. But I believe these were just few of them and you could spot better dolmens as you go deeper into the jungle.
At the end of this trek, we felt as though we travelled backward through time :) That was perhaps me exaggerating things but somehow the thought of looking at something made during 10000 BC which is still existing was literally mindblowing for us!!! And we started thinking as to how thoughtful & concerned man was all these years towards wildlife and nature and in the name of civilization how much of our wildlife are we preserving and how are we destroying of late????
Mythology @ Munnar
According to the Hindu epic Mahabharata, the pandavas lived in exile for some duration. The locals here seem to believe that pandavas were staying in Munnar during part of the exile. There are caves which are referred to as Pandava Caves near Munnar, which are supposed to open up at Marayoor through a tunnel. Well, I have a fascination the moment I hear of anything related to epics, so I had to see this. But the cave seemed to be full of bats & all kind of dark life. So couldnot explore the interior of the caves much but if there is an adventurous one out there reading this...do let me know if this really opens up at Marayoor!!
Plantations @ Munnar
Given that Munnar is a hilly region with good rains, much of cultivation is around spices - starting from cardamom, pepper, coffee, vanilla, etc., Tea is one of the major plantations here.
Hilly regions with tea plantations create a kind of pleasant weather in itself. So if you just want to lazily chill out, have a cup of coffee/tea and look out at the misty mountains - plan a trip to Munnar. You will cherish it for long.
Accomodation @ Munnar
Munnar can boast of some really nice resorts. Check out Sterling Resort & Club Mahindra holidays. They have resorts which are well maitanined and provided for. If you are adventurous enough you can check out some tree houses too. Look at makemytrip.com for the hotels at Munnar and their pictures so you can decide accordingly.
That's it for now. Ping me if you need any specific information.
More pics here!
