The very sight of green Kerala from the flight above amazed me. The car we hired for the entire trip was waiting for us at the airport. We were greeted by our driver. We had a delicious lunch near Kochi and headed towards Munnar.
Soon we reached the ghats. It was green all around. We could see cute colorful bunglows in between. We had tea at a cute little restaurant by the hill. We spotted some waterfalls on our way. We stopped at a Spice Plantation. The guided tour of the Spice Plantation was a good experience. I learnt about so many new plants and goodness of those plants and herbs, how they can cure blood pressure, diabetes etc. We bought few things from their plantation shop and chocolates and then we started again and reached Munnar in late evening. It was raining. We settled down in our hotel, had a good dinner and called it a day.
Pics from spice plantation
Next day woke up to beautiful sunny morning.
Pic of Munnar Town:
After breakfast we headed towards sightseeing of Munnar. We started at around 9 am. Soon we started enjoying the bends of the hilly road. The tea plantations all around against the blue sky was beautiful. My hometown, which is in North Bengal, is also surrounded by teagarden and I kinda grew up in tea estates, so I never thought the beauty of the tea gardens of hills around Munnar will amaze me so much. I was already in love with this place by now. First we went to the Photo Point. Then we reached a beautiful dam. After that we headed towards Echo Point. The lake at Echo Point seemed amazing to me. Even some people there were shouting out loud there to check their echo and yes it was echoing back. We did paddle boating there, spent sometime there.
Pic of the dam near Munnar:
Pics from Echo Point:
We started moving towards Top Station.The roads in between the tea garden was so beautiful. Every place was a wall paper moment.
Wallpaper moments on our way towards Top Station:
Soon we moved to the other side of the hill and we could see nothing, yes, we were in clouds. We stopped and walked to the end of Top Station after paying an entry fee. It was a long downhill walk to reach the point. We could just get a glance of the hills of Tamil Nadu from that view point since it was mostly cloudy. We walked back uphill, had a quick lunch and was wondering where to go now.
Views from Top Station:
Our driver was suggesting many places which did not attract me much. And I already read at tripadvisor that Kolukkumalai Tea Estate is one of the best places around Munnar. And I knew that we need to hire a jeep at the base, because of the bad roads, to reach the top. And finally I decided to give it a try. We started heading towards the tea estate. We crossed beautiful lakes. Soon we were greeted by a herd of elephants who were enjoying the meadows.
Some pics on our way towards Kolukkumalai:
After some clicks we started moving again between the beautiful landscapes before finally reaching the base of Kolukkumalai tea estate. There were some jeeps parked there. We agreed to a price of 1400/- rs for the round trip of around 4 hours. We along with our driver got in the jeep and started our safari.
The breeze striking my face in the airy jeep already made me happy. We crossed a small village with some shops and then soon we entered the beautiful tea estate. The spectacular view of the plantation amazed me. The sun was playing with the clouds and our jeep was playing and romancing the bends of the road uphill. The road was very rough and patchy with stones. We crossed some beautiful streams and waterfall. The jeep driver was a great photographer and took our amazing pics with my dslr. He even instructed us to give poses and was happy to share his innovative ideas while clicking pics. He asked us to enjoy small treks at some places. We walked in between the gardens. Workers were plucking tea leaves there. We learnt the art of plucking tea leaves and plucked leaves along with them. It was foggy by then.
Pics from Kolukkumalai tea estate:
We reached to the top of Kolukkumalai in our jeep and trekked a little up to the tea factory. There was an echo point in between. The tea factory was an old one built in 1930s and is the highest in the world at about 7900 feet above sea level. We paid 100 rs each there for a guided tour of the factory. First we went upstairs where tea leaves were kept and then we came downstairs where we made tea from the raw material through different machines. It was an experience one of a kind. We also had tea there.
Old tea factory:
Looking through the broken glass of the old factory:
Tea making machines in the factory:
It was around 6 by then and it was getting dark and cold. We got into our jeep and started moving back to the base. The sight of the tea factory far way surrounded by the tea garden looked like a castle to me from the distant road.
Far away is the tea factory in evening:
It was dark and too much foggy. I could see nothing. I was wondering how the driver was riding the jeep downhill through the dangerous terrain. It also started raining after sometime. After a bone breaking safari which was totally worth, we reached to the base, got in our car and started our journey back to Munnar town. After a delicious dinner in cold rainy weather settled in our cozy bed with memories of a beautiful day.
Soon we reached the ghats. It was green all around. We could see cute colorful bunglows in between. We had tea at a cute little restaurant by the hill. We spotted some waterfalls on our way. We stopped at a Spice Plantation. The guided tour of the Spice Plantation was a good experience. I learnt about so many new plants and goodness of those plants and herbs, how they can cure blood pressure, diabetes etc. We bought few things from their plantation shop and chocolates and then we started again and reached Munnar in late evening. It was raining. We settled down in our hotel, had a good dinner and called it a day.
Pics from spice plantation
Next day woke up to beautiful sunny morning.
Pic of Munnar Town:
After breakfast we headed towards sightseeing of Munnar. We started at around 9 am. Soon we started enjoying the bends of the hilly road. The tea plantations all around against the blue sky was beautiful. My hometown, which is in North Bengal, is also surrounded by teagarden and I kinda grew up in tea estates, so I never thought the beauty of the tea gardens of hills around Munnar will amaze me so much. I was already in love with this place by now. First we went to the Photo Point. Then we reached a beautiful dam. After that we headed towards Echo Point. The lake at Echo Point seemed amazing to me. Even some people there were shouting out loud there to check their echo and yes it was echoing back. We did paddle boating there, spent sometime there.
Pic of the dam near Munnar:
Pics from Echo Point:
We started moving towards Top Station.The roads in between the tea garden was so beautiful. Every place was a wall paper moment.
Wallpaper moments on our way towards Top Station:
Soon we moved to the other side of the hill and we could see nothing, yes, we were in clouds. We stopped and walked to the end of Top Station after paying an entry fee. It was a long downhill walk to reach the point. We could just get a glance of the hills of Tamil Nadu from that view point since it was mostly cloudy. We walked back uphill, had a quick lunch and was wondering where to go now.
Views from Top Station:
Our driver was suggesting many places which did not attract me much. And I already read at tripadvisor that Kolukkumalai Tea Estate is one of the best places around Munnar. And I knew that we need to hire a jeep at the base, because of the bad roads, to reach the top. And finally I decided to give it a try. We started heading towards the tea estate. We crossed beautiful lakes. Soon we were greeted by a herd of elephants who were enjoying the meadows.
Some pics on our way towards Kolukkumalai:
After some clicks we started moving again between the beautiful landscapes before finally reaching the base of Kolukkumalai tea estate. There were some jeeps parked there. We agreed to a price of 1400/- rs for the round trip of around 4 hours. We along with our driver got in the jeep and started our safari.
The breeze striking my face in the airy jeep already made me happy. We crossed a small village with some shops and then soon we entered the beautiful tea estate. The spectacular view of the plantation amazed me. The sun was playing with the clouds and our jeep was playing and romancing the bends of the road uphill. The road was very rough and patchy with stones. We crossed some beautiful streams and waterfall. The jeep driver was a great photographer and took our amazing pics with my dslr. He even instructed us to give poses and was happy to share his innovative ideas while clicking pics. He asked us to enjoy small treks at some places. We walked in between the gardens. Workers were plucking tea leaves there. We learnt the art of plucking tea leaves and plucked leaves along with them. It was foggy by then.
Pics from Kolukkumalai tea estate:
We reached to the top of Kolukkumalai in our jeep and trekked a little up to the tea factory. There was an echo point in between. The tea factory was an old one built in 1930s and is the highest in the world at about 7900 feet above sea level. We paid 100 rs each there for a guided tour of the factory. First we went upstairs where tea leaves were kept and then we came downstairs where we made tea from the raw material through different machines. It was an experience one of a kind. We also had tea there.
Old tea factory:
Looking through the broken glass of the old factory:
Tea making machines in the factory:
It was around 6 by then and it was getting dark and cold. We got into our jeep and started moving back to the base. The sight of the tea factory far way surrounded by the tea garden looked like a castle to me from the distant road.
Far away is the tea factory in evening:
It was dark and too much foggy. I could see nothing. I was wondering how the driver was riding the jeep downhill through the dangerous terrain. It also started raining after sometime. After a bone breaking safari which was totally worth, we reached to the base, got in our car and started our journey back to Munnar town. After a delicious dinner in cold rainy weather settled in our cozy bed with memories of a beautiful day.
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