Dec 26 2008, was the fateful day when I left Mumbai formunnar. We were five; me, my sis, my di and mummy-papa. As usual beforeplanning for it I had done enough research work. What I could get was thatmunnar is a hill station where tea plantation is one of the largest sources ofeconomy.
After visiting place like Darjeeling you tend to perceive that place asa chilly, cloudy place. Even the weather updates on the websites indicated 0-10 C, but it was nothing like that. During day time it is very very sunny, but theair is bit cold, so a woolen-kinda full sleeve top would suffice. however, withthe nightfall, the temperature falls, and a good blanket is needed, dependingon the room temperature. In our case the room was so warm that at one point oftime we were sweating, and throwing our blankets.
Second most important thing is to ensure the location of thehotel/resort/homestay. It is better to have one inside city. Like ours was ahomestay— Spice garden located at the second mile, about 8kms from munnar.
Our stay at munnar was for 4 days. Since, the localtransport system in the city is very poor, it is adviced to go for your ownbooked cab. We paid Rs 1700 on per day basis.
Places worth visiting are in the north and east of munnar, where you have the chirnar, ervikulumsanctuary. Well! Ervikulum is nothing but a 3-4 hour walk over the hill andin between you will be welcomed by flocks of white goats. Warning! No other animalwill be seen.
Since munnar is hilly terrain, you will have small roadsalong the side of the mountain. So traveling after sunset is a real thrill, zero street light on the road, you are completely dependent on the headlight ofthe car, one side of the window you see the rising mountain, the other side uhave the cliff.
We resided in homestay, reason, by that time all resorts andhotels were booked. Hotel is a goodoption, but homestays are not bad. The only disadvantage in homestay isthat the scenic view remains the same throughout, outside your window, any newspot u go to visit in the city. At time you tend to get bored of it, like we did.
I will not talk about the tourist spots because they arementioned din almost all reviews, I will just talk about what to do and whatnot to do. You have kerela tourism website where you can plan for everything.
Periyar WildfileSanctuary is about 4 hrs(95 kms) from munnar. We even planned to staythere for a day, i.e. leave munnar early at 4-5 and then come back by 10-11pm. Trustme, we were on the cloud no.8 before leaving the place, we reached at cloudno.9, on the way, as we went on clicking pictures of sunrise behind themountains tops, amidst the fog, and then finally after reaching there, we wereno more on cloud, we had come down to earth.
Suggestion forPeriyar: do not go there for one day; try to look for accommodation nearby, so that you can opt for the day-long jeepsafari that starts at 5 am in the morning. If you want experience theforest then, jeep safari is the onlyoption. It costs Rs 2500 per head. Otherwise if you reach there at 9-10 am likeus you will have elephant safari, boating only. And these are just 1-2 hrs business. You do not enter theforest but keep hanging around outside the forest on elephant or on the boringboat that just sails down for an hour, on the river. If you are really luckythen you may get the opportunity to spot the thirsty animal that has come tothe shores to drink water. Well! You are not taken deep in the forest eventhrough the waterways; therefore the probability of spotting an animal is evenlesser.
My learning=plan for utmost two days stay in munnar. Then go to allepy to enjoy back waters, house boat, Ayurveda massage. Keep atleast 3-4 days for lakshwadeep.Navigate down the Arabian Sea to the unionterritory and enjoy our stay there.
Well after all my complaints, I still recommend you munnar.