http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Munnar/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , India , Kerala , Munnar en-us Wed, 30 Dec 2009 23:57:40 +0000 Wed, 30 Dec 2009 23:57:40 +0000 After a long sweaty day on the slowest train in the world we finally arrived in Kochi and got a Jesus blessed rickshaw to Fort Cochin to a nice little homestay called Hannahs Haven. We checked in and dumped our bags and scrubbed up and sent a lot of washing off to be laundered Out to dinner we found a little restaurant where everyone was drinking tea from tea pots what NO BEER are you mad But http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Munnar/blog-461140.html Friday Nov 13th MunnarToday was my second day in Munnar well sort of. I arrived yesterday night at 6 pm after a beautiful but tiring 5 hour bus ride. As I mentioned before I like the buses but especially the first two hours where pretty awful. Getting on the bus I thought lsquowow such a nice and spacious bus with comfy cushioned seatsrsquo got in a row sat my backpack next to me a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Munnar/blog-452894.html Munnar Friday 6 Saturday 7 Sunday 8 NovemberThe patter of raindrops on Hornbillrsquos thatched roof the croaking of a thousand frogs and the growing stuffiness in the tent caused by a lack of electricity to power our overhead fan woke us up before 7.00a.m. As night turned into day the rain eased and the gardening boy gathered up leaves and some coconuts that had fallen in the night. Two p http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Munnar/blog-451873.html Wild Elephant Ecofriendly Resort situated at Munnar Kerala India on Kallar Mankulam Road is surrounded by scenic hills on one side Tea Gardens on the other side Cardamom and Coffee plantations within the estate and Rain forest on the opposite side. For more details click on to website at www.wildelephant.net . TO SEE PICTURES OF ROOMS AND ACCOMODATION AND THE LOCATION PLEASE CLICK ON THE http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Munnar/blog-411369.html Woke up at 6am to get the bus which we nearly missed as my phone clock was out by 10 mins my phone seems to be resetting itself randomly my clock is always out We took a bus towards the airport and then a flight with a company called GoAir the plane was really really newin fact it was its 4th flight We made it safely to my friend Ramki who was letting us stay at his house for a few nights. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Munnar/blog-407736.html We went on an early morning trek into the tea plantations at 630am. It was very cloudy we climbed right to the top of the mountain and had breakfast there after a 3 hour trek. I was sooo hungry the guyguide took ages to get the food out of his bag...first we had a tea which was yummy from the TATA tea company. We then finally got some much needed food sweet toast and eggs. On the way downback http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Munnar/blog-407728.html We took a private bus which was only bus to Munnar for 5 hours to Munnar across the mountains. It was like a rollercoaster ride i had bruises at the end We stayed in the Green view hotel where we had a smallish room with a lovely view and occasional hot water. We went out for a meal in a restaurant nearby and got in trouble for mixing rum into our 7ups. It changed the colour of the drink http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Munnar/blog-405553.html Munnar is set up in the mountains 1600 metres. The town of Munnar isn't particularly pretty. The real beauty of Munnar is the miles and miles of tea plantations that surround it. Every hill side has been taken up with beatifully manicured tea plants. The plantations are owned by TATA who employ 12000 people in Munnar. We stayed 20 miles outside of the town in a resort called Dew Drops. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Munnar/blog-404219.html We decided to escape the heat and humidity of the backwaters and run to the hills to a place called Munnar. The bus trip there took us along a long and winding road up into the mountains and it seemed to take forever. It was dark when we arrived and with our new friend Mauritz who had decided to join us we went looking for a guesthouse. Unfortunately for us it was high season in Munnar as every http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Munnar/blog-401381.html Let me introduce you to an Ecofriendly Resort situated at Munnar Kerala India on Kallar Mankulam Road which is surrounded by scenic hills on one side Tea Gardens on the other side Cardamom and Coffee plantations within the estate and Rain forest on the opposite side.For more details click on to website at www.wildelephant.net .TO SEE PICTURES OF ROOMS AND ACCOMODATION AND THE LOCATION PL http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Munnar/blog-395090.html I arrived in Kochi Saturday morning after spending a lovely night in the Bangalore airport met some interesting people including a girl who was about to do a 10 silent meditation retreat where you have to sit for 10 hours straight a day with a 5 minute break. Sounds hellish to me. A guy from Germany also gave me the name of the hostel his parents own in Varkala which was very useful. At the airpo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Munnar/blog-372269.html Apologies if some of you got the email version of the last blog with the dodgy punctuation inserts. It is probably due to the terrible internet connections and ancient operating software used in the last cafe.So our second day in Kummily started with loud animal screeching noises and the additional sound of dogs barking furiously. All this was happening on the roof of our lodge style room.I natur http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Munnar/blog-362307.html AN AWFUL EXPERIENCE STAYING AT AUTUMN TREES MUNNAR KERALA... ZERO HYGIENE ZERO HOSPITALITY ZERO PROFESSIONALISM AND A RUDE BEHAVIOR BY THE STAFF ESPECIALLY CATERING STAFF.STANDARD OF FOOD AND SERVICES IS PATHETIC AND WHOLE STAFF IS INTERESTED ONLY IN MINTING MONEY WITHOUT EVEN PROVIDING BASIC SERVICES.NOT EVEN CLEAN DRINKING WATER WAS PROVIDED. DINING HALL WAS DIRTY AND IF U ASK WAITERS TO CLE http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Munnar/blog-359838.html On one of my days in Munnar I signed up for a sightseeing tour through the local Tourism Department. These tours are primarily geared to the Indian tourists so I was not surprised to be the only westerner on board. We started at 9am and it was still a quite cold out. The local news station was at the starting point to interview me and noone else about my view of the Munnar climate. They http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Munnar/blog-359634.html The primary reason for being in Munnar was to hike. I went for several long walks in the tea plantations and among cardamom fields with an architect from Italy and a tapastry weaver from Montreal respectively. Both instances involved a map from Joseph which led us astray. I hiked along the ridge nearest Zina's for a long way and along the way I discovered trail markers and constructed looko http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Munnar/blog-359624.html From lovely Thekkady Kumily I went north and up to Munnar a favorite tourist Hill Station in the highest reaches of Keralarsquos Western Ghats. The town lies in the shadow of Anna Mudi which reaches 2695m the highest peak south of the Himalayas. The bus ride from Kumily to Munnar is along a narrow highway right through coffee cardamom and tea plantations. Because it is so narrow and r http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Munnar/blog-359564.html After two hours of weaving through tea fields crossing a miniwaterfall taking a small and casual spill and coaching my roommate through her first wilderness urine passing my rommate Alia and I made it back to a hotel in Munnar where we planned to camp out and write letters while we waited for our two travel companions to meet us for dinner. It was 830 when the other two students Dan and Ge http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Munnar/blog-356443.html Well as expected there were some computer problems at the program house this last week so I apoligize for the long time with no update. I am now sitting in a little internet cafe about 1.5 miles from my house where the connection is fast and a fan is pointed directly at me. Life is good.We left for our long weekend in Munnar last Thursday afternoon 4 of the 9 of us decided to trek around Munnar' http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Munnar/blog-356442.html Let me introduce you to an Ecofriendly Resort situated at Munnar Kerala India on Kallar Mankulam Road which is surrounded by scenic hills on one side Tea Gardens on the other side Cardamom and Coffee plantations within the estate and Rain forest on the opposite side.For more details please visit the website i e www.wildelephant.net .TO SEE PICTURES OF ROOMS AND ACCOMODATION AND THE LOCATIO http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Munnar/blog-348041.html So after a couple of days in Kochi we set of on a 3 day tour to see what Kelara had to offer. We had arranged for a Taxi driver to pick the 3 of us up at 6.30am to drive the 120km to our first night stay in Munnar. This journey was to take us 4 hours on sometime good roads and then onto roads with more potholes than even Delhi. During the drive we stop at many pitstops to view waterfalls dams an http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Munnar/blog-347485.html