Munnar Landings

---

Kerala is God's Own Country according to Kerala's tourist board. Well I am not sure about that but our first taste of Kerala from the advantageous heights of the Western Ghats was just like heaven!

We chartered a car to take us to Munnar - a hill station town just on the Keralan side of the Western Ghats which has the highest mountain in India - south of the Himalayas that is. As we left Madurai at 4pm, the sun set as we wound our way up to the town and we asked our driver to stop quite a few times so we could capture a photo of, "the best sunset we've seen so far on our journey." To do the beauty of the sky justice we would have needed a serious panoramic shot.

Arriving in the dark was a little tricky, particularly as we'd organised to stay in a home stay (Zina Cottages) amongst the tea plantations, rather than in Munnar town or one of the roadside resort hotels. Tricky to find in the dark, but when we stepped out of our room the next morning, our breath was taken away by the beauty and tranquility that surrounded us. A sunny day with a cool breeze in the air thanks to the altitude, small exotic birds in the rose garden and enough tea plantations and hills to ramble through. No horns, no plastic, no sandy dust - just greenery and Tetley tea and biccies on constant supply from our hostess. I kid you not, Tata tea plantation owns the Tetley brand and the tea was a taste of home! Ahh.

All we did in Munnar was walk to different viewpoints, read our books, make a fruit salad with the small but extremely tasty local strawberries and drink tea. We had two days to just relax and it was lovely.

---

Photos

An Awesome View
Tommy led me to the top of the hill with my eyes shut. When I opened them I saw rolling hills, covered in tea and shrouded in mist, stretching for miles into the distant horizon. Awesome!

First Sunset
On the drive from Tamil Nadu

Kanan Devan Tea
Part of the Tata group which also owns the Tetley brand

Sleepy Lau
It's cold in the hills!

Comments

[Kashyap]

great!!
I have heard that the beauty lies in the eyes of viewer.. I am afraid its not the case anymore. Beauty lies in the skills of a photographer. -KD

[T.R.Johny]

photo given does not show the dam properly;but only a part of reservoir.
most of the construction of the dam was done under my direct supervision. T.R.Johny,Chief Engineer(Retd.),Irinjalakuda(N).Kerala,680125.