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Travel

Photos and stories from many of my travels in the past 5 years

DTPC Munnar day tour: Top station, Flower Garden, Spice Garden – Part 2

By Mithun Divakaran
/
Nov 14, 2018
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India, Kerala, Travel

Date: March 12, 2018

See the previous post for stops at Mattupetty dam, Echo point and Kundala dam.

Our tour continued with the next stop being Top Station — basically a great viewpoint. But we would stop along the way, whenever our driver-cum-guide would spot something interesting.

Giant squirrel Munnar Kerala — Like this Giant Malabar Squirrel. I wish I could have gotten a brighter photo but it was hiding in the tree.

Way to top station Munnar — Top Station is another viewpoint nestled among tea plantations… which you would think by now isn’t really necessary considering how many tea plantations we have seen by now

Now, we weren’t visiting the Top Station in Theni district, in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu. The driver told us this was ‘Top Station’ on the Kerala side. The driver dropped us off at the entry place and told us to walk down. There is no entry fee to Top Station.

Top Station plantation walkway — But we finally got to walk through a plantation

Munnar trek hill fire smoke — Unfortunately, no matter where we stopped, all the tour guides could talk about the tragedy that occurred yesterday night

The previous night, several trekkers were caught up in a forest fire and several young trekkers died. The picture above is one I took using my camera. The smoke from the fire was still blowing. As the locals murmured about the tragedy, we had to continue on with our tour.

Top station tour Munnar Kerala — I guess photos won’t do much

So here’s a brief video:

Continue reading “DTPC Munnar day tour: Top station, Flower Garden, Spice Garden – Part 2” »

DTPC Munnar day tour: Mattupetty dam, Echo point, Kundala dam – Part 1

By Mithun Divakaran
/
Aug 20, 2018
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India, Kerala, Travel

Date: March 12, 2018

After arriving in Munnar yesterday, we all woke up early to have our breakfast and then head to DTPC‘s office for our full day tour. DTPC is the District Tourism Promotion Council. You can call a day before to reserve your seats for the tour or just show up on the day of the tour at their office by 8am to get your seats.

After having breakfast, we took an auto-rickshaw to the DTPC office.

DTPC tourism office Munnar Kerala — This is the DTPC tourism office

Inside DTPC Munnar office — We were the first to arrive. We paid up while waiting for the other tourists joining us today.

DTPC tea valley tour — The main tour DTPC offers includes a stop over at Eravikulam National Park. Unfortunately, Eravikulam National Park was closed to the public as it was breeding season for the Nilgiri Tahr, a deer commonly found in Munnar and the Nilgiri Hills.

Tempo traveller Munnar Kerala — It was time for us to board our Tempo Traveller van and begin our tour

Munnar tea plantation panorama — I know I’ll be seeing sights like this every minute of the journey but tea plantations never stop being beautiful to look at

Flowers bokeh Munnar Kerala — Some flowers were in bloom along the way

Big beehives Munnar tree Kerala — The driver (cum guide) would stop along the way to show us sights like this — massive beehives

Carmelagiri Elephant park Munnar — Our first stop was at the Carmelagiri Elephant park

Continue reading “DTPC Munnar day tour: Mattupetty dam, Echo point, Kundala dam – Part 1” »

Getting to Munnar – Train ride from Kannur and KSRTC bus from Aluva

By Mithun Divakaran
/
May 12, 2018
/
India, Kerala, Travel

Date: March 11, 2018

I’ve been meaning to visit Munnar for quite some time. Although I’d been to Periyar back in 2009, I didn’t have the chance to visit the more popular town of Munnar, even though both are in the same district. My mother has been talking about visiting Munnar for a few years now. So in early March, I decided to take my parents to the famed hill station of Kerala.

There wasn’t too much planned. It was going to be two nights in Munnar and then one night in Kochi before heading back to Kannur.

Getting to Munnar

From Kannur, I assumed you had to get to Ernakulam first and then take a bus to Munnar. But upon doing some more research, turns out when coming from Kannur (or north Kerala), one can also get down at Aluva station and then take a KSRTC (Kerala State Road & Transport Corporation) bus from the Aluva bus depot which is very close to the railway station.

The train I booked from Kannur to Aluva was the NETRAVATI EXPRESS, which arrives (if no delays) into Kannur at 6:45AM and stops at Aluva 12:13pm.

On the day of our journey, our train was delayed :/

Since I woke up early to catch the train, I slept through most of the journey and missed most of the sights.

Aluva river Kerala backwater apartment — By the time I woke up, we were already nearing Aluva.

We arrived in Aluva 30 minutes late. We quickly had lunch from a restaurant nearby and then walked to the KSRTC bus depot which is only a short walk from across Aluva train station. Continue reading “Getting to Munnar – Train ride from Kannur and KSRTC bus from Aluva” »