Water Colored Landscape of Munnar – God’s own art

This travelogue is about our travel to Munnar and about its beautiful landscape. I would talk about how Munnar become part of our itinerary, the bus ride to Munnar, the origin of the word Munnar, the early settlers and then we would explore Munnar’s landscape of tea-gardens and parks. This is the first trip to Kerala and hence a general introduction of Kerala is here as well. Here we go ….

Lord Parshuram threw the axe
and the sea gave way to a strip of land
thus formed the green kaleidoscopic – God’s own country Kerala.

Special about the Geographical location and landscape of Kerala

Geographically Kerala is separated from the rest of India by the massive Western Ghats and it enjoys an extensive coastal line formed by the Arabian Sea.

The rugged, steep, wild and forested Western Ghats sheltered Kerala from mainland invaders and the long coastal line provided it maritime contact with the outside world, thus flourished Kerala’s unique traditions and identity.

What Kerala has to offer to tourists?

This land of noble and generous “King Mahabali” is generous in its offering for the tourists too. It has palmed fringed beaches, tranquil hill stations, emerald-green backwaters, expressive dance arts, rejuvenating Ayurvedic treatments, moist evergreen forests and abundant varieties of Flora and Fauna.

Colors of the landscape of Kerala

In Kerala, the colors we noticed in abundance were Green, Green, thousand shades of Green and occasional Blue. It is a keralite tradition not to build houses taller than the surrounding trees and hence wherever one lives the abundant greenery always surrounds him and even the blue color of sky is visible only in glimpses.

How Munnar became part of our itinerary?

Though we planned our Kerala trip and booked train tickets well in advance, we didn’t finalize the visit to Munnar. We were in dilemma. Should we travel from Kochin to Munnar and make our trip hectic or we stay and visit Kochin only?

We were going to Kochin also for the first time, and Munnar was around five hours bus journey from Kochin, so we decided to give it a skip.

My friend Ram Narayanan is from Kochin. I shared with him my dilemma and the subsequent decision. He changed the whole plan.

His suggestion was, “You must visit Munnar”. And like most people feel about their native places he said, “There is not much to be seen in Kochin anyway; it’s a distant competitor to Munnar’s charm and beauty”. So the decision was taken for us.

Bus from Kochin to Munnar

Kochin Bus Stand is adjacent to the Railway Station. As we came out of the railway station, a private bus was ready for Munnar.

There were no glasses on the windows of the bus. The first feeling was, “Oh no! we have to travel in this “khatara”.

I usually feel nauseating on serpentine hilly roads, seeing the condition of that bus I felt that I had to undergo nightmare till we reach Munnar. In contrast to my initial feelings, the road journey to Munnar was scenic and having open windows was the best part. It presented unhindered views of the beautiful landscape.

As we left Kochin behind, we moved from the sultry and humid Kochin weather to fresh, crispy and pleasantly cold weather of Munnar. Munnar is at an altitude of 1524 mts and is around 130 Km away from Kochin (distance by road).

Reaching Munnar in peak tourist season with no reservation

We finalized Munnar quite late, so were not able to book the accommodation and felt the wrath of going to this popular destination in the peak season without any booking.

After initial hassles, luckily we got a room in one hotel for one night and another room in nearby hotel for the next night

Origin of the word – Munnar

The word Munnar is formed by combining two words “Munnu” and “aar”. Munnu in both Tamil and Malayalam Language means three and aar means river/stream. Munnar is situated on confluence of three mountain streams Muthirappazha, Nallathanni and Kundala.

History of Munnar

The early settlers of Munnar belonged to the Muthuvan tribal community . Munnar’s development as plantation hub started with a chance visit of John Daniel Munro.

He visited it while trying to solve a border dispute between the state of Travancore and the state of Madras. He fell for the beauty of the region and also realized its potential for coffee plantation.

He and few of his Scottish friends acquired ownership of the cardamom hills from the Rajah of Travancore and cleared a huge forest area around Devikulam in 1879. They started to grow Coffee, Cardamom, Cinchona (a plant species used for the production of quinine) and Sisal (species of flowering plant native to southern Mexico and used for making ropes, floor coverings, etc).

In 1880, another European, Mr A.H Sharp experimented with planting tea in the Munnar area, and tea rapidly became the region’s most successful crop; the tea plantation was so suitable to Munnar’s environment that soon rest all other crops were abandoned.

Today Munnar is the commercial center of some of the highest tea growing estates. Initial settlers to this place were Tamil laborers who were brought here for cultivation of tea and coffee and this is one of the reasons that in-spite being in Kerala, Tamil is also widely spoken in Munnar.

Exploring Munnar Landscape in Cochin Direction

That day our morning half was lost in travel to Munnar and then we lost precious hours in the search of a decent accommodation. It was already late afternoon. We hired an auto rickshaw and decided to explore the Cochin direction.

The auto took us through the rustic pathways of this sloppy mountainous town, driving us through the ups and downs of its quaint surroundings. Just one kilometer outside Munnar and we were among the carefully manicured hills that rolled down from sky up to our legs. These hills were adorned with the sculptural carpet of tea-trees.

It had rained only a day before, so the tea-leaves were devoid of dirt and dust, and the lush green slopes of mountains resembled a beautiful painting done in watercolor with pristine blue sky in the background. We were awestruck by its sparkling beauty.

The Monsoon Seasons in Kerala

Kerala is blessed with two monsoons in a year – the southwest monsoon that last from June to August and Northeast Monsoon that last from October to November.

Together these two monsoons cast a spell over the greenery of Kerala. Good rainfall over the year ensures numerous waterfalls in Munnar and around.

The deafening sound of these garrulous cascade and the beauty around them soaked us in. Luckily, there were less tourists around all the waterfalls we visited and we could enjoy them at peace and leisure.

In Nilgiri hills lives a local tribe by the name Todas. Here, is a song that they sing welcoming, life giving water, with affection:

The Monsoon from Mt Toas is coming, playing like a child

The Pykara river is coming, frisking like a calf

The wind is playing the plantain clarinet

The river is beating the Jack-tree drums

The wind is playing a tune on all four-sides

The River is dancing like a cobra

(From the Toda and the Tahr by E.R.C Davidar)

Tea Gardens dominate the landscape of Munnar

We were thoroughly enjoying the auto rickshaw ride through the green, serene and peaceful hills, but soon started to feel the itch to walk among those green labyrinths.

From morning we were in the vehicles, first in the bus and then in the auto. Exploring a town only on vehicle does not satisfies our taste of travelling and gives a feeling of incompleteness. So, we requested the driver to take us to a dense tea plantation where we could walk in the estate.

He dropped us at this beautiful place and told us that he would be waiting at the Sunset point. As we started to walk, I found myself humming melodious song of Aandhi movie, penned by Gulzaar.

कहाँ से चले, कहाँ के लिए, यह खबर नही थी मगर, कोई भी सिरा जहाँ जा मिला, वन्हि तुम मिलोगे मगर …

A crude English translation will be

“From where I started, and where I wanted to go,
I was not sure,
But I was sure, wherever my path will lead,
I will find you there.”

Walking in that tea estate was like walking in a dreamland. We crossed smiling women laborers returning home after day’s hard work.

As we moved up towards the sunset point, we saw the sun playing hide and seek among the leaves of the tall trees around. At the top, we ordered tea and sipped the gingerly nectar, looking at the reddish ball vanishing down in the hill crested horizon.

Blossom Park in Munnar

The final destination of the day was the Blossom Park. The park had many varieties of exotic flowers. It was our first trip with a digital camera, and the beautiful surroundings gave us a good photographic opportunity.

I wish, I could write the name of these beautiful flowers – Things to do – Post retirement.

With this visual treat we ended our first day in Munnar. And I would also like to end the first part of this post on Munnar. In this article, we moved towards Cochin direction, in the next article we would explore the Mattupetty and Coimbatore directions.

My friend suggested Munnar, nevertheless Fort Kochin is equally beautiful, click hear to read more

Click here to further explore the Mattupetty and the Coimbatore directions

Click here to read about the top 10 places to visit in Kerala

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