Munnar, nature all around

Our Kerala travel started with Munnar. We started very early from Bangalore around 3:50 AM on 2nd Feb and reached Munnar around 2 PM. We covered a total distance of 521 kms which included 3 short ten minutes break.

  The route that we took was like (bangalore to munnar)
Bangalore-->Hosur-->Salem-->Dindigul-->Theni-->Munnar.
This road it tolled and you need to pay toll tax at five points.

  Since most of the road is NH7, so driving was easy. In some places the roads were little narrow but good and motorable.

Road from Theni to Munnar

  After reaching Munnar city centre at 2 PM, both of us were dead hungry. The hotel we had booked through makemytrip was another 3 kilometres. Since lunch time was almost up so we decided to have our lunch and then proceed to hotel check in. We went to a small roadside restaurant and had chicken biriyani. The only remaining item on the menu was chicken biriyani. With Rs 100 a plate,the quantity was enough for two people..... lucky that we did not ordered for 2 plates :)

  Munnar city center is little crowded and concentrated. Hotels there are cheap but since we wanted so stay a little closer to nature so we chose hotel "Munnar Rock" which is a little far from the city centre. And as we had our own car Sparky with us, so commutation was never a headache.

Munnar Rock Hotel

  The peak time for Kerala visit is Nov-Jan end. Hotels and all other services will charge you more at that time. Anytime apart from that, things will be cheaper. Hotel Munnar Rock was good. They charged Rs 1140 per day. They had well ventilated rooms and really big bath rooms... The bad thing is that the path leading to the hotel entrance is very steep. So car parking can be a little challenging. The hotel attendents were also courteous and mostly from Bengal. You need to order your lunch and dinner a few hours before as they will buy raw material and specifically cook what you ordered. There is also an advantage of staying here. There is an office just opposite to the hotel that sells ticket for Kathakali and Kalarippayattu (traditonal martial art). They have daily shows in the evening at a hall very near to the hotel. Ticket price is Rs 200 for each show per person.

  We had the whole after noon free so we thought of visitng Attukal Falls that same day. From our hotel Attukal Falls was within 1.5 kilometres. Since it was dry season the falls was almost dry. There is a small tea shop just near to Attukal Falls owned by Mr Moses, a really nice and jovial person. After we had tea, he chatted with us for sometime and showed us his spice garden. There were so many types of spices growing.... cardamon, black pepper, nutmeg...... we had never been to any spice garden before so this gesture of his was really generous. A big "thank you" Mr Moses.

Attukal Falls

Mr. Moses

  While driving back we saw many bulbuls, drongo 's and sunbirds happily chirping and flying. A few birds also posed for us :)

Oriental Magpie Robin

Unknown bird

Bulbul

  There was a long list of places to be seen the nest day. That included:

  Mattupetty Dam and Lake
  Echo point
  Kundala Lake
  Top Station
  Eravikulam National Park

  We started early as usual around 7:10 AM. Our first stop was Mattupetty lake. When we reached the lake there was no tourists or buses so early in the morning. It is a very big lake and looks very beautiful. We clicked to our heart's content. Boating facilities are available for tourists.

Mattupetty Dam

  We crossed the dam for our next destination Echo Point. Echo Point is near to Matupetty lake. Echo Point is a lovely place.... the water in the lake so tranquil and reflections on the water so clear. But people have made this place so dirty. There was litter all around.

Echo Point

Echo Point

  Between Mutupetty and Echo Point there is a place called Cattle Point that falls on the way. Though it is not a tourist place, the place looks beautiful and we got down from our car to take a few snaps.

Cattle Point

  From Echo Point we headed for Kundala Lake . For entering Kundala lake we had to cross over a dam. Since the dam is narrow, only two cars are allowed to cross at each time. There are two people posted on each end of the dam who coordinate this traffic flow.

Kundala Lake Dam

Kundala Lake

Kundala Lake

Gift shop at Kundala Lake

  From Kundala we went to Top Station. We kept the car at car parking and had to walk around 500 metres to reach the point. The view is stunning from here and one can get a birds eyeview of Theni city. By the way Top Station is in Tamil Nadu.

Way to Top Station

Top Station

  From there we agin retraced our way back to Munnar. When we reached Matupetty Dam again, this time it was full of tourists and vehicles. We were lucky to have seen this place early the day else with so many people around it would have been difficult to get decent shots.

  Our last destination was Eravikulam National Park. The park is famous for nilgiri tahr. Previously nilgiri tahr were found all across the Nilgiris but now Eravikulam National Park is their last resort. The park is generally closed for few months every year, mostly from Feb to April end for calving. We got to know from the local drivers that today was the last day before the park closes the season. From  next day onwards the park will be closed for calving.

  We reached the park at 1 PM. The ticket counter was closed as the counter staffs were having their lunch hours. After buying the tickets one needs to wait for his/her turn to get into the park bus that will take you to the place where the tahrs are. It is roughly 4 KM from the boarding point. Private vehicles are not allowed.

  It was very hot and there was a long queue at the ticket counter. Our rough calculation told us that it would take at least 1.5 hours of waiting to get a bus. So we had to drop the plan, because we were supposed to reach Periyar before sundown. Surely next time, when we visit Munnar, we will visit this park.

  So our trip of heaven's garden, Munnar, was over. We headed for Periyar through Devikulam. Devikulam is an ever green landscape of undulating tea gardens. And the rest of the road to Periyar was equally pictursque.

Tea Garden

Tea Garden at Devikulam

Fisheye Tea Garden

Top Station

Way to Periyar

Black Pepper Tree

Trivandrum, capital city of Kerala

The third destination in our itinerary of Kerala trip was Trivandrum or  Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala. After Periyar, we wanted to drop the anchor at Trivandrum mainly because it was near to Kovalam beach. 

  We left Periyar at around 2 pm and reached Trivandrum city close to 8 pm. The distance isn't that long; however, as it mostly passes through different cities, the pace of driving gets slow. Add to that, most of the roads are two way. For the first 10-20 kilometers you can see rubber, banana and pineapple plantations on either side of the road.

  Anyway, just after entering the main city, we spotted a hotel on MG road called "City Tower Hotel". Tired out of the journey, we quickly checked into the hotel. They had their own parking and a restaurant. 

  Though not luxurious, the rooms were decent with clean toilet. Only few things were left to be done for the day. Food and sleep. The food at the restaurant was superb. We savored parathas, chettinad chicken and fried rice and chilly chicken. WOW! That's a big menu, isn't it? 

   After this huge meal, we headed back to our room and crashed for the day.

  Our plan for the next day was to cover the sight seeing places in the city and  spend the sunset hours at Kovalam beach.

  So after breakfast, we headed for Shanghumugham beach. Since the daytime temperature in Trivandrum rises very fast, we thought of covering this beach first. This beach is within 6 KM from city center. It's very close to the airport. It's a nice long beach. During that early morning hour, we found it very less crowded. 

Sanghumugham beach

Crab and the sea

Schedule of cultural program that happens by the beach

  From Shanghumugham beach, we went straight for Veli, or rather Veli Tourist Village. We parked our car within the paid parking space. There's a lake surrounded by a park at this place. If you cross one bridge within the park, you get to see the sea as well. There's also a floating KTDC restaurant, in case you feel hungry after the walk in the park. If you are a butterfly lover, you will find this place well suited for you. There are different types of butterflies within the park. We spotted different tiger butterflies and eggfly butterflies.

Swan at Veli Tourist Village

Beautiful butterfly at  Veli Tourist Village

Blue tiger butterfly at  Veli Tourist Village

Eggfly butterfly at Veli Tourist Village

Colorful wasp at Veli Tourist Village

  Next on our list was Napier Museum and Sri Chitra Art Gallery. Both of these places and many other tourist attractions are within the Zoo complex of Trivandrum. Parking is available either inside or outside the zoo complex.

Map of zoo complex

Napier museum from outside

  Napier museum hosts different antiques. Ranging from old coins to big statues, this museum is a collection of different art forms. Statues made of ivory were also in abundance in here. We specifically remember one statue where we found cherubs flying over a statue of  Shiva and Parvati. It was also made out of Ivory.

  We also visited the fish aquarium within the zoo complex. It was nothing special.

Fish Galaxy within zoo complex

Fish within fish gallery

   Sri Chitra Art Gallery was also on our list. However, as the temperature was becoming unbearable with midday, we decided to give it a miss and headed back to our hotel.

   We also wanted to get to Puthenmalika palace, but couldn't reach the place as parking was not available. The palace is situated next to Padmanavaswamy temple. In case you are planning to visit the palace, please note that it is closed on Mondays.

  After a lite lunch and small nap we started for Kovalam. Kovalam is around 14 KM from Trivandrum city center. It takes around 25 minutes to reach Kovalam beach. We started a little early for we didn't want to miss the sunset. If you want to read more about the time we spent at Kovalam, you can read our blog post here.

Sunset at Kovalam Beach

  We came back to hotel at around 8 PM and went for an early dinner to the same restaurant. This time we had parathas, Nilgiri chicken and chicken 100. Food was awesome as usual and very reasonably priced. 

  It was all for the day. We were both excited to see all the snaps that we took throughout the day and here are some more for you.

Tiger butterfly at Veli Tourist Village

Fish within fish gallery

Squirrel at Veli Tourist Village

Sunset at Kovalam beach

  Trip info:
  City Tower Hotel: Double Room Non- AC Rs. 650/-
  City Tower Restaurant: Average meal for two: Rs. 300/-
  Veli Parking: Rs. 10/-
  Veli entrance: Rs. 5/-
  Napier Museum entrance: Rs. 5/- (Photography is not allowed inside the      museum)
  Aquarium entrance: Rs. 5/-
  Kovalam parking: Rs. 20/-

Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary, a treat for the bird watchers

Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary is a famous bird sanctuary and needs no introduction.  It’s famous for the migratory birds that come here in thousands every year. However, some birds do stay here throughout the year. 
After our visit to Kokkare Bellur, we headed for the highway and took a left turn to get to Srirangapatna. When you reach Srirangapatna(from Bangalore), you will cross two water bodies in succession. The exit to the second bridge gets you to a roundabout circle; take the first exit on your  right at this roundabout. Soon you will get to a rail crossing and soon after that you can find the gate to the sanctuary on your right.
There is ample space for parking your vehicle. However, try to get there early as it can attract huge number of people during weekends. The entry fee for adults is Rs. 50 and car parking fee is Rs. 30. The park remains open from 9 am to 6 pm.
While in the park, you can roam around without much perspiration because the park is well shaded with big trees. The park encloses a big water body. You can see the big birds perched on the trees and on stones inside the park. To get closer to the birds, there is also a boat ride that you can avail. These boats are paddled boats for the noise from engine boats may disturb the birds. There are two different types of boat rides; the common one costs Rs. 50 for each adult and the special one costs Rs. 1000. By opting for the special boat ride, you actually book the whole boat, and it takes you even deeper into the water body.
We took the common boat ride. According to the boatmen, on the special boat ride, you can see many more birds like Pied kingfisher and all. Maybe next time. 

The boarding point for boat ride.

Boats ferrying people deeper into the lake.

An open bill stork and the boat passing by.

We could see Pelican, Ibis, Spoon billed stork, Open Billed stork, Cormorant, Bats and a beautiful kind of Heron (don’t know the type). To our dismay, we couldn’t find Painted Storks. Well, it was the mistake on our part. Painted storks get to this place only after mid of February and leave by June. So maybe the best time to find both painted storks and pelicans is from Feb to March. We got to know this from the boatmen, too. So another visit to this sanctuary was already due. We have to come back soon.

Spoon bill stork

Cormorants and a heron

Eagle

Cormorant, after an unsuccessful dive.

Open bill stork, scratching and flying.

Open bill stork, about to land.

The elegant heron

Big cormorant

Bats, lots of bats.

Cormorants

Apart from the birds, you can find many squirrels on the trees. You can find different types of butterfly and insects all around the park. It’s a fantastic place to spend the weekend.

Beautiful blue tiger butterfly.

Common Tiger Butterfly

Blue pansy

A Ladybug

An attractive yellow leopard butterfly

Caterpillar, beautiful and lethal.

Jewel Spider, top view.

Jewel Spider, belly view. This amazing looking spider is actually very shy.

Rainbow Skink

The beautiful lake inside the park.

Benches by the lake.

A fallen tree.

The lake view.

The hanging bridge.

The lake and the tree.

Bench under the shade.

  It was around 2:30 pm that we took some fruit juice and ice cream for lunch and headed out for Bangalore.



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