Lovers For Tea And Tea For Lovers

Munnar, etymologically the place of confluence of three (munu) rivers (aaru) is a hilly town in the Idukki district of Kerala. With its sprawling tea estates, beautiful rivers videre licet Muthirappuzha, Nallathanni and Kundaly, beautiful spice gardens, dams, water-falls, and national reserves, Munnar boasts of an entire spectrum of nature.

View Enroute Thekkady Road From Munnar

Taking the train from KK, we reached Ernakulam by noon. After waiting on our pick-up for almost an hour, and after atleast half a dozen vociferous phone conversations, we managed to find Shaji - who would be our driver-und-guide for the next three days. Shaji was a Kerali Christian, who couldn't speak anything much beyond Malayalam. His English was passable and his Hindi better than his English...Imagine that. We would often communicate in Hinglish and cause each other exasperation. Over the three days there were quite some funny moments, trying to overcome the linguistic hurdles.

After a good lunch at seemingly upscale restaurant called Dwarka (or something similar), we headed towards Munnar. En route, we stopped at Kothamangalam for some coffee, and began our drive into the Nilgiri night. After a good 6 hours of driving from Cochin, we finally reached Munnar's Hotel Silver Cloud. The hotel was more of a set of honeymoon suites (or at-least that's the general feeling I got) located right across from Fort Munnar some 15 odd miles beyond the town of Munnar en route towards Thekkady. The drive at night was scary with the ghat roads being very narrow at times allowing only for a single vehicle to pass. With the windows rolled down however, one could smell the exotic spices, and tea aromas while driving thru' the beautiful country.

The hotel was ill-staffed and although the host there was very humble and cordial, things were slow as far as service was concerned. After waiting on our dinner for almost 2 hours, we finally slept off at midnight. The next morning after a breakfast of Idlis and Appam, we started our sight-seeing expedition. On our way to the town of Munnar, we made arrangements for the famed Kerala Ayurvedic massage to get rid of our travel-fatigue.

The beautiful sunny morning came out with a clear message - Munnar is a place for "Lovers". Honeymooners, newly married folks, married folks trying to re-ignite the sparks, families who love each other, nature lovers, lovers of tea, everyone can come here and have a great time.

Periakanal Water Falls

A touristy stop by the Periakanal Water Falls (aka Power House Water Falls??) on the way to the town; we were treated to honeymooners posing in a myriad different romantic ways each wanting their share of shutter-time under these falls. A few clicks down, we hurried our way into the heart of the town leaving behind the Sita Devi lake and Attukal waterfalls as To-Do items for the next day.

A quick swing by the KTDC office and we had all the maps and materials needed to prioritize our visit. We started off by a trip to the Tea Museum. Here, visitors are treated to a good 45 minute long presentation video about the history of tea plantations in Munnar. The video talks about how the tea plantations and the development around them has helped Munnar flourish as a tourist and a commercial town, yet maintaining the sanctity of the nature in this area.

Tea slopes near the Lockhart Gap

The Kannan Devan Hills Plantation is the single largest tea company in the area previously owned by the British traders and then handed over as a privately owned company largely owned by the workers in the plantations.

Water Lily at the Tea Museum

The legacy was then handed over to the Tatas who rejuvenated the industry until finally handing the reigns over to the workers who make this all happen. So today as it stands, the KDHP is a flourishing privately owned tea business (majorly owned by its workers).


Spending almost a couple of hours at the tea museum, understanding the tea-making process , and a live demonstration later, we headed for some much needed lunch. The meal of the day was a Gujarati thali (yes yes yes Gujarati thali in Munnar) with a variety of offerings including theplas, khichadi, kadhi and other traditional gujju fanfare. It was a welcome change for our now southie stomachs. The afternoon was spent visiting Kundala and Mattupetty dams.

Kundala Dam

These are very picturesque locations a true shutter-bugs' delights; each offering a plenty of romance.

Wide-Angle View Of Kundala Dam

Although we didn't do the boat-rides (thought that was the honeymooners-only activity), we had plenty of glimpses of the water nearby...

Cloud covered silver mountains, clear blue waters, beautiful green trees and perfect temperatures to go with; the afternoon excursion was totally worth it.

Mattupetty Dam

The evening was spent lazing around in the beautiful flower gardens of Munnar. For the life of me, I can't recollect the name of this garden. I kept correlating the flora in this garden to the famous Duke Gardens in Durham all the time I was there. The flowers were beautiful, vivid and fresh. God has indeed blessed this place with weather and nature that very few other places exhibit.

Flora at Flower Garden

After enjoying the flora for about an hour, we started our way back towards our hotel. Snacks were enjoyed at Saravana Bhavan (in Munnar) in the classic south-indian style. Sated by the delicacies, yet tired from the day's sight-seeing, we were looking forward to our evening massage appointment. We reached the place at dusk amid some i-dunno-where-it-came-from rain. It was a decent down-pour which had forced the power to be shut-off. The ambient light emanating from oil-lamps and healthy scents of the various massage oils set the scene for a relaxing massage. The full-body ayurvedic massage was a heavenly experience; needless to say its amongst the few must-dos in Kerala.

We retired for the night after a homely dinner of tomato-rice, curd-rice, and rassam. The spicy details await us the next day...