Up to Munnar

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From lovely Thekkady (Kumily), I went north and up to Munnar, a favorite tourist Hill Station in the highest reaches of Kerala’s Western Ghats. The town lies in the shadow of Anna Mudi, which reaches 2,695m, 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 run down and the plantations grow right along side, the road would seem more appropriately called a farm road than a highway.

Munnar is very high in the mountains, and it was below freezing all the nights I was there. It’s cold from as soon as the sun goes down, until it comes up over the mountains again in the morning. Clouds settle in over the town at night, which adds humidity. There was no heat in any of the hotels or restaurants I went at night, though surely the very high end luxury resorts are heated (I was not in those places). From sundown to sunup, I wore a fleece hat, which I bought on the street for R10 (20c US), and I was fine.

Munnar is beautiful. There are high grassy mountains towering all around, and the relatively lower hills are covered in tea plantations. Growing tea resembles manicured gardens — its bright green color, even rows, and hedge-like uniform height. Tea is planted in all sorts of steep places and nooks and crannies, with small pathways switch-backing through the plantations. And in between the plantations and grassy high ranges are small dense forests, where elephants sometimes hang out. On the road from Kumily to Munnar, the bus pulled over so we could see a family of wild elephants traipsing at the edge of a cardamom plantation.

Munnar is a relatively small bustling town, spread among 3-4 streets along the river and in mountain valleys. It feels busier, bigger, and less concentrated, than Kumily, where it was easy to leave town behind in a 5 minute walk. I’m not sure how Munnar and Kumily compare population-wise, it may be Munnar is sprawled out due to the geographic restrictions of the river and hills. Munnar itself is not a town to spend quality time in, which I didn't.

With 2 national parks nearby, some of the highest-growing tea in the world, and mountain-tea scenery, Munnar is especially popular among Indian tourists. It seems less geared to western tourists than, for example, Kumily and Cochi, which are lined with Indian stuff shops, internet cafes, and western-flavored restaurants (Italian food, continental breakfasts). In Munnar, I saw more traffic jams (all involving large tourist buses) than I’ve seen anywhere in India so far. There are huge tourist buses lined up outside some of the more popular tea and spice shops, and the speciality local tea flies off the shelves by the tray-load. I surmise people load up for a long term supply because it’s relatively inexpensive for the high-quality tea, or else they buy the tea as presents, but I watched lots of people buying tray-loads (10 to 20 bags, 1 kg each) of tea.

I spent all but one of my nights at Zina Cottages, an old British stone cottage plopped up high in the tea plantations, a 30 minute walk from town. The 80+-year-old owner, Joseph, is locally famous for his wealth of tourist information, particularly drawing hiking maps (which often have errors, we learned). The place is particularly welcoming because there is always a pot of tea on the table in the living room or garden, so there tends to be a congregational chat around the tea pot.

Between the tea trails and the grassy mountains, Munnar is an ideal place for hiking, which is mostly what I did there.

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Photos

Sign for Munnar resort
Where you can be really cold