We went to Munnar in the first week of October, Gandhi Jayanti being on a Tuesday provided a perfect opportunity for making it a long weekend trip. As has been a habit now, all the preparations had been done. This was going to be a long drive. Checked the current road conditions by querying in teambhp, got fantastic feedbacks. Also came to know that another member is having similar itinerary and same destination Club Mahindra, Chinnakanal.
We started bit late around 5:30 from Bangalore and stopped for breakfast at GRT grand Salem. Took a snap while cruze was still looking clean:)
Roads were excellent and traffic was less, we covered lot of grounds quickly after breakfast.
Ishaan and saanvi both buckled up. Saanvi was also fast in turning pages of Amar Chitra Katha, she finished valmiki Ramayana before reaching Munnar. Luckily for her Ishaan allowed her to read.
Sky was clear and nice. Slowly we started seeing mountains. The route we chose was to go through highways in Tamilnadu and enter Kerala almost near Munnar. This was the route while going :
Bangalore -> Krishnagiri -> Selam -> Dindigul -> Theni -> Munnar. Road conditions from Dindigul to Theni was a nightmare with lots of diversions, we knew this beforehand.
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| Saanvi's photography |
The climb started after Theni, we will soon be above these clouds. Original plan was to have lunch at Theni but we reached there by 12:00 PM and were not yet hungry, we decided to have lunch at Munnar.
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| Pilot! |
Reached CM@Chinnakanal at around 2:00 after a nice drive through scenic ghats. Munnar is another 45 mins drive from here. Check i nwas quick as always and were provided a nice room with great views. Plan for rest the day was to rest and move around the resort.
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| CM Munnar resort is nice and deserves its gold crown. |
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| View from the our Balcony. |
Magic show was arranged for kids in the evening at the resort. Here is Saanvi as Volunteer.
We had 3 days in munnar, plan for second day was to hire a local cab and cover all the places in munnar and to repeat the places which we felt were good leisurely on the third day. We hired Lizu's Logan at a reasonable price. This was a good decision, there was huge crowd everywhere, even Lizu was surprised. Traffic jams everywhere and parking was not available.
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| Harrison Malayalam tea estates. |
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| Family Snap |
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| Say Paneer! |
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| Flower garden |
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| Kannan devan, tea estate |
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| Mattupetty Dam |
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| Echo point | | | |
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None of our voices echoed at the echo point. But there was a clear echo for Saanvi's shrill voice.
We had been to Munnar 9 years back in 2003.
Another view of the tea estates.
A little elephant waiting for us at our room. Very nicely done.
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| There was a fish too. |
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| Another gorgeous view from our balcony. |
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| Kathakkali at the Reception |
We decided to leisurely spend third day leisurely at a few selected points and to go to top station.
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| From another view point. |
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| Ishaan became mummy for Saanvi. |
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| Tata House |
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| Another view from Mattupetty dam |
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| Kundala Lake |
Being a Monday, there was far less crowd everywhere and we spent our time leisurely at the lakes and dams. We then went headed towards top station. we witnessed some spectacular views before reaching top station. There was almost a trek of more than a kilometer before reaching actual view point at the top station. Although we went there carrying Ishaan, it is a strict no no for parents with kids, not worth it. You can return from the top station entrance, you would have got 80% of the views from the road side.
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| Another view of kundala lake |
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| View of top station from the road |
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| Top Station, Munnar |
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| Observe the small lines, those are small roads and you will get the size perspective. |
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| Today swans were waiting for us. |
We started back on the fourth day through the scenic Udumalpet route.
Chinnakanal -> Munnar -> Udumalpet -> Salem -> Krishnagiri -> Bangalore
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| Dirty Cruze - Badly need a wash |
This route is very scenic it is impossible to drive through without stopping many a times.
Chai chai every where.
We can imagine waterfalls everywhere in the rainy season, but today we could see only this. We reached Bangalore in the evening. One more successful trip. Scenic place, great resort and nice food. We enjoyed three days of buffet breakfast and dinners as there were no other options nearby. We missed going to tata tea museum as we did not know that it would be closed on Monday. Next time then ..
