Saturday, January 10, 2026:
Sightseeing in Munnar:
Awaking in our B and B, after a good night’s sleep, we showered, got dressed and set out for a very early morning start to a whole day’s sightseeing.
Off to Eravikulam National Park:
As we were headed to Eravikulam National Park which tends to get very crowded at this peak tourist season of the year, we needed to make a start at the crack of dawn. I had tried to get tickets to his place online for several days before leaving home—with little success. And so, it was necessary for us to get to the venue early before the crowds heaved. After an early start (we met Shiju at 8 am), we set out for the Park. I was surprised to find that it was less than a fifteen minute ride to the spot from the center of town.
As soon as we arrived at the spot, we parked our car and joined a short line to get tickets to a bus (run by the park) that takes visitors up to the spot from where they would have views of Annamundi Peak (the highest peak in the South of India). This is also one of the few spots in South India from where one can see the rare Nilgiri Mountain Tahr (Goat) whose natural habitat these Kannan Devan Mountains happen to be. If we were really lucky, we would see them. Our fingers were crossed.
We grabbed a chocolate muffin from the small snack stall attached to the big restaurant and equipped with those (as I did not want to enter the park on an empty stomach), we were ready to go. About ten minutes later, we were in a small bus with about twenty other people. About ten minutes later, past really beautiful mountain terrain, on narrow roads that were lined with fully established trees, many of which were lush with wild flowers, we arrived at the bus stop where we were required to alight. From there, we had to hike up a mountain for about an hour, going higher and higher, with the idea of seeing the Tahr.
Although it was a hike, I have to say that it was a very gentle gradient and we slowly, but surely, gathered height. As we climbed higher, we had the most glorious views of the valleys below us bathed in full golden sunshine. There were tea estates all around us, very thick vegetation in the form of tall trees, birds (and a bunch of bird watchers who had bazooka cameras and field glasses with them), hazy hills in tiers in the far distance but right behind us the peak—Annamundi—which in Tamil means ‘Elephant’s Head’. And, indeed, if you looked at it, from the right angles, it did resemble an elephant’s head.
We stayed in this spot for a while as someone told us that the Tahr were expected at 10.00 am. Of course, I was skeptical about this. Could the Tahr read the time? And where exactly would they be at 10.00 am? I put it down to hogwash and decided to simply enjoy the beauty and stillness of the spot. A park ranger soon pointed out black spots far away on the tallest mountain and assured us they were Tahr. And indeed, if you looked at them closely, they were moving objects. But soon, realizing that we would probably not get better views, we decided to make our way down as we had a number of places to see before the day ended.
And that’s when we had a most amazing sighting. As we walked down the mountain to return to the bus stop that would take us back to the car park, a whole flock of Tahr walked very casually right by us. Yes, we were stunned. They offered fine photo ops (which also encouraged a bunch of visitors to do really dumb things like walking within inches of them) and we took a few. Mission Accomplished! Our early morning excursion had not been in vain. With renewed vigor, we hastened our stride and got back into the bus, rode down the mountains to the car park, where we met Shiju and continued onward. It was time for breakfast as our hike (on an almost empty stomach) had depleted us of all energy and we earnestly needed fuel to go ahead.
Breakfast in Munnar Town at Sharavana Bhavan:
Sharavana Bhavan is a chain of well-known South Indian eateries—that, I believe, might be considered the equivalent of the US McDonald’s chain! They serve standard South Indian specialities and are extremely popular at breakfast-time. Shiju took us there and after entering, we found that we were pretty much the only patrons., I guess the early breakfast crowd had left and it was too early for lunch. It was, by then, about 11.00 am. Very soon, small groups of white tourists made their way inside as the place is well-touted in tourist guides such as Lonely Planet.
Llew and I each ordered a Paper Dosa (which is a gigantic, crisp Indian crepe) usually served with a spicy curry called Sambhar and coconut chutneys. We also ordered “Pineapple Lassi” which was warmly recommended by the waiter—but which we did not care for too much—it was a yogurt shake with pineapple juice. The crepe, however, was superb. It was crisp and filling and entirely hit the spot. When we were done with paying the bill, we left, content in the knowledge that we had many breakfasts ahead of us—at each of which we would try new items.
Off to Conquer Madupetty Dam:
Breakfast done, we resolved to see Madupetty Dam—which is one of the highlights of the town. As we made our way to the venue, we passed by mile after mile of superbly-manicured tea estates. Indeed, Munnar is nothing but tea gardens, now in government ownership mostly, but once owned by Scottish planters who had also planted these massive miles and covered them with tea seedlings. In fact, it would be fair to say that Munnar Town lies in a basin surrounded by the heights of the Kannan Devan Mountains that are completely covered with tea estates.
The road to Madupety Dan was well and truly jammed and it took us a very long time, moving at snail’s pace, to finally get there. Once there, all we did was take a look at the artificial Lake that was created when the river was dammed and to see boats (both row boats and peddle boats) on the water. The two of us alighted from the car and took a short hike alongside the lake’s banks, passing by beautiful clusters of wild flowers everywhere—tangles of morning glory in varied shades of mauve, and other wild flowers. We decided not to go boating as we knew that we had many boat rides ahead of us on our itinerary. It was good to stretch our legs and having done this, we returning to our car, after taking a few photos in a tea garden nearby.
Exploring Munnar Botanical Garden:
Madupetty Dam seen and after braving traffic on the way back too, we told Shiju to take us to the Botanical Garden which we had passed en route to the Dam. This was one of the treats of this day—the Gardens are beautifully landscaped in tiers along the side of a mountain. They are truly a gardener and flower lover’s dream and there is every imaginable flower grown, nurtured and cultivated here. This is a working nursery as well as a scholar’s lab and as we clicked pictures, there were some items that definitely caught our eyes: vivid roses the size of quarter plates, Pelican flower (that I had never seen before—it looked like a large spotted handkerchief), dahlias in the most amazing shapes and colors, huge Peace Lilies and also a flower that looked exactly like the English elderflower (but completely lacked any smell). I was excited to find elderflowers in India but on smelling them and finding them devoid of perfume, I began to believe that they might be from the same family but are not entirely the same. After spending about one hour in the Botanical Garden, we decided to move towards our next port of call.
Munnar’s Famous Tea Museum:
Yes, as I said earlier, Munnar is all about Tea—in fact, tea and Christianity. There are churches galore in this town, representing every Christian denomination. In fact, since Kerala is predominantly a Christian state, there is a church literally around every corner. But there also is tea. Loads of it. You can buy it by the kilo in the market in Munnar Town, in different varieties. And this is why the Tea Museum is so popular.
I had visited this place, a few years ago, and remember being entirely taken by it. It turns out that tea was first planted in Munnar by Scottish planters in the 1880s. They took up residence in the town and tried to replicate the feeling of living in the Scottish Highlands by building themselves little English cottages that were decidedly like English country estates. Inside, they filled them with fireplaces and mantelpieces (needed against the year-round cold) and with wonderful teak furniture that was made locally to English designs. Hence, in the museum, you find a lot of memorabilia from bygone days—things like clocks, time-stamping machines (for the employees to clock in and out daily), desks, chairs, lamps, loads of animal antlers on the walls (tokens of their skihari days when hunting and fishing were popular past-times in the mountains). There was also dozens of black and white photographs on the wall that recall their pleasures—golf, cricket, football, all played in the bracing air of this beautiful hill-station.
As part of our visit, we were led into an auditorium where we watched a lovely little documentary film on the history of Munnar, its tea-planting development as well as its flora and fauna and natural beauty. I learned a whole lot about tea planting, growing, harvesting and distribution and about the various companies (such as Tatas) that took over the business from departing Englishmen after Indian Independence. Yes, there was much to see and marvel at and I was really pleased with our visit.
As part of the Tea Museum, visitors can also see the making of tea—from leaf to packet. You are invited to enter a vast hall where massive tea-drying, grinding and filtering equipment is still used to process and packet tea. Indeed, tea is the world’s largest consumed beverage with China being the main consumer and India being second. Much of the world’s tea production comes from India which is a major export and important cash crop. I found all of us quite fascinating and was very glad we made the visit. At the very end, one enters the gift shop, of course, where you can buy tea in all sorts of avatars and also treat oneself to a drink of tea in the adjoining tea shop. It is all very well organized and the crowds move in quite an orderly manner. I wish I could have found an English-style tea room or cafe, but alas, there was only a counter-style place where you could stand and sip a cuppa. A bit of a disappointment at the end of a very good tour.
Off to the Attukad Water Falls:
The last item on our sightseeing agenda for Munnar were the Attukad Water Falls. The day had passed rapidly by and light was fast fading as we decided to go to the Falls. I remember having gone there, a few years ago, with my friend Michelle, and the grand impression that the site had left on me. And so, despite the fact that we had to drive a bit out of town and brave curving bends down a steep mountain to get to the bottom and despite the fact that twilight was setting in, I was determined to see the Falls. Once again, we were indebted to Shiju who did a great job taking us down the mountain to the spot where the Falls reach the valley bottom. We did see the actual Falls themselves when approaching this spot. But the main site is the river bed where there are gigantic boulders over which the river flows creating little cascades. The river was not in full spate which meant that the flow was very gentle. There is another little cafe at this spot, but having stopped here briefly to take pictures, we returned to the car and made our way back to town. Yes, there was a bit of traffic on the mountain roads at this time of day as people returned home after a work day, and night had fully fallen by this point; but we were not too far off and we reached Munnar Town in time for dinner.
Dinner at Guru Bhavan Restaurant:
As we’d only eaten Brunch today, we were starving by the time dinner time rolled around. Using Google, I found a warmly-recommended place called Guru Bhavan and it was here that we ordered Kerala’s famous Prawn Biryani with raita and Lassi to sip. It was very good indeed if a tad too spicy for us We began to realize that all Keralite food is heavy on the spice element as these mountains are covered with spice plantations: cinnamon, cardamom, any amount of pepper—in fact, black pepper grows almost wild in Kerala—plus cumin, coriander, nutmeg and mace, vanilla, anise, etc. You can buy packs of spices, well-wrapped to form gifts in the stores in the market and any amount of tea. Other items that are really popular are coffee and chocolate—for cacao also grows plentiful in Kerala and there are plenty of stores that tout “Home made chocolate”. I need not point out that Kerala is so green because so much of it is given to agriculture and coconut plantations are everywhere, This explains why tender coconut water is a very appealing and popular drink in Kerala and is sold all over the place.
With our dinner done, all that was left was for us to make our way back to our B&B—which was exactly where Shiju took us. We climbed the steep hill up to our place and reached our location, happy to find that the din of the church next door had finished for the day and we could bed down to a quiet night in weather that was cool and very conducive to a good night’s sleep.
Until tomorrow, see ya
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