Interesting India'N Ravi: Munnar - Allapuzha Summer Trip

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Munnar - Allapuzha Summer Trip

To beat the heat in this summer vacation, my friend’s family wants to go for some hill station and they asked me for some plan. I made a plan for 3 days Munnar and Allepey tour. He got free stay from his office at Sterling resorts, Munnar and we booked a House Boat in Alleppey for 3 families. But I didn’t get leave for these days and I said I can’t come. My friend insisted me to join with them at least in the middle of the tour. Finally I decided to join in the middle of the tour. But I made all the plans for them, Sightseeing places in Munnar, Car Arrangement and Alleppey House Boat Booking etc.,

Munnar Tea Estate

They had 2 days nice time in Munnar as per plan and the third day they are waiting for me to come. I reached Munnar Bus stand around 12.00 and asked about the way to sterling resorts, Autowalas asked me Rs.350. Immediately I called my friend and they asked our car driver about this, he said there is some Govt Bus to Theni will pass that area Chinnakanal. So I boarded the bus and reached Chinnakanal(Bus fare Rs.19, So I saved around Rs.330).

Cardamom Plant

As per our plan the car driver picked me to the resort from Chinnakanal Bus stop. My friends (two families) are welcomed me and asked me to get ready then we will go for Lunch and Sight seen. I took bath and ready in 20 min time and went for lunch. After lunch we went by car to Spice Garden tour. There we saw lot of spice plants namely Cardamom, Elaichi, Biryani leaves, Pepper etc., by return we crossed Anaiyirangal Dam and saw a single elephant drinking water in that dam. We took some photos in the tea estate and returned to our resort. We have some time before dinner so we played shuttle in the road light and had dinner by 9.00pm. I was so tired so I went to sleep immediately, but as per our plan everybody played card and went to sleep.

The next day morning we vacated our rooms by 6.30 and proceeded to Alleppey by our Xylo car. The downhill road was very curvy and slope. So some of our group members are feeling giddiness and vomited. We felt heat slowly when we getting down from the Munnar hill. We reached Alleppey around 12.30 and as per our arrangement The House Boat was ready. It has 3 bedrooms with A/C and attached bathrooms (Rs.11000 per day). We served welcome drink and settled in our rooms.

We spent some time in the balcony and taken some photos. It was very nice to travel in a boat in the mid noon. Where ever we see, lake and backwaters surrounded the place. Both side along the way some houses are there. After some time there is no house and both sides are planted Coconut tree and Plantain tree. The boat stopped in the middle for some time to finish our lunch. They served Veg/Non veg lunch with fish curry. We get down on the bank of the lake and tasted fresh coconut water and taken a bunch of unclaimed(?) bananas in a tree.

After some rest the boat again started to our resting place. It was an awesome view there in an island kind of place. Alleppey is also called as East Venice. In the evening boat stopped in a lake side shop for fish purchase. My friend’s family bought some prawn and Carb. But the rate was very high. People are living there are using boat as their main transport for their daily use. Government also operating some boats for public transport in that lake from Alleppey to Cochin. Finally our boat reached for night halt by 5.30pm near the owner’s house. Now they plugged a cable for watching TV and connected a power cable for operating AC. (AC will be operated during 9.00pm to 6.00am only).

As per our pre plan with the house boat people they arranged a small motor boat for a local trip. It was more enjoyable as we are sitting on the top of the boat and viewed the lake. It took one hour for that trip and now the area is getting dark. We watched cricket match in TV up to Dinner and had dinner by 8.30pm. Again we watched TV for some time and went to sleep. Everybody wakeup by 6.00 am and went to a small walk in the surroundings. We thought we will take bath in the morning, but the water in that boat was not good. So we had breakfast by 8.00 am and vacated the boat around 9.00 am.

Now we have enough time for our train as we booked from Kayankulam to Chennai starting by 16.10pm. Now we want to take bath and go for shopping in Alleppey Market. We booked a Room for Rs.600 and took bath by 12.00pm and went for shopping. We bought some Banana Chips and Rice Halwa from the Market. After that we had Lunch in a Tamilnadu hotel and boarded a bus to Kayankulam. From Kayankulam boarded the train by 16.15 and reached Chennai the next day around 6.45am. The journey ended with pleasant memories.