[redballons]

This is my first travelogue after joining T-BHP, so guys go easy on me ehh.



Places Visited – Valparai & Munnar


When ? Sept 2011


Route – Bangalore – Salem – Perundarai – Tiruppur – Pollachi – Valparai – Aliyar – Chinnar – Munnar – Chinnar – Palladam – Kangeyam – Perundarai – Salem – Bangalore


Car – Honda City A/T



Been a long time viewer of Travelogue section before becoming a member and the places that people have been to, places to stay, with the wealth of meticulous information is of fantastic help.



After relocating to India couple years ago, bought a car, me daughter was a year old by then, thought of hitting the road for a small vacation. But where ? spent many happy hours on the weekend to identify a place where it has not been really explored, not commercialized, at the same time peaceful, green. Finding 5-6 days of leave was hitting a roadblock as well at work and then I changed job last year . Got 2 weeks break before I were to join my new job, that’s when I thought, now is time.


The thing about the wealth of info on T-BHP is, you are spoilt for choices. But then I tried bottoming out options by deciding – it will be south, destination has to be more than 400+km. Came across couple fantastic threads in here about Valparai and I thought this is it, lets go here. Going through the map figuring out where it is, any nearby places to add to the itinerary, what the heck, let me add Munnar ( commercialized agreed ) , might as well visit it whilst we are going all the way down there.



Now accommodation – Stanmore was expensive , so called up waterfall estate and because we were travelling on a week day , the places were not booked. Had all the 3 options ( Indraprastha, tennis court & valley view. Now I really wanted to stay at Indraprastha, but at the same time wanted privacy. To rent out the whole bungalow just my missus, daughter & me was daft. Called them up and said, we want to stay for 3 nights / 4 days at Indraprastha, has anybody else booked a room for the same days there ?, Answer was no, not at the moment. So I took the punt, booked 1 room and hoped for some good news whilst I landed there. Its not that I don’t like socializing, I just needed a bit of time for ourselves, as it was well over a year since we really went anywhere after our daughter was born. It so happened, that since nobidy had booked for the days we stayed at Indraprastha, we had the whole place to ourselves, lucky ehh


Similarly want to a secluded place in Munnar as well, so after searching on the internet a bit, booked Chokanad Bungalow for 2 nights & 3 days. Same here as well, nobody else had booked other rooms, so had the whole place to ourselves. Whilst the location of Chokanad is very good, the place itself is rusty, damp walls, definitely needs a lot of dressing up to be honest.



Let the pictures do the talking rather than me banging on about

[redballons]

Some more pics , on the way to Munnar via Chinnar

[redballons]

some more pics, hope you like them. As it is evident, we are pretty much point and click type of photographers, some come out ok, some not so good

[VindyWheels]

Hi,


Some really beautiful snaps there!

Was nice to see Idraprastha bunglow again, reminded me of our trip to Valparai, Munnar and Kodai.

Is Chokanad bunglow part of the KDHP ones? Did not see a snap of that bunglow till now, do post it.

Cheers

Vindy

[AvonA7]

Originally Posted by redballons

...
Let the pictures do the talking rather than me banging on about

Thanks @redballons for the travelogue. Excellent.
Could you please add a line describing location for the respective pics.

[redballons]

Originally Posted by VindyWheels

Hi,


Some really beautiful snaps there!

Was nice to see Idraprastha bunglow again, reminded me of our trip to Valparai, Munnar and Kodai.

Is Chokanad bunghttp://www.team-bhp.com/forum/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=2972314low part of the KDHP ones? Did not see a snap of that bunglow till now, do post it.

Cheers

Vindy

Thanks mate, don't think so Chokanad is part of KDHP, i found it out through this site - > http://www.stayhomz.com/properties.htm

Few pics of Chokanad Bungalow, ace location but food quality could have been better

Originally Posted by AvonA7

Thanks @redballons for the travelogue. Excellent.
Could you please add a line describing location for the respective pics.

Thanks Avon, not sure if i get a chance to edit my posts now to start adding description. Pls let me know, If there are any specific pics you want to know more info

[CountDracoola]

Very nice photos and thanks for sharing.
I noticed the name "Marayoor" in one of the sign-boards. It is a forested area, and it is notorious for sandalwood smuggling. The forest is very beautiful, large trees, natural forests etc, but wilidlife sightings are not so good. It is mostly in the news for all the wrong reasons because of these sandalwood trees and the smugglers. Hope the city coped well on these not-so-good roads

[redballons]

Originally Posted by CountDracoola

Very nice photos and thanks for sharing.
I noticed the name "Marayoor" in one of the sign-boards. It is a forested area, and it is notorious for sandalwood smuggling. The forest is very beautiful, large trees, natural forests etc, but wilidlife sightings are not so good. It is mostly in the news for all the wrong reasons because of these sandalwood trees and the smugglers. Hope the city coped well on these not-so-good roads

Thanks mate, City coped well ( not that good yesterday against Chelski ), infact was a treat to drive down the winding roads. There were a couple places ( one whilst going to Sholayar Dam & the other instance whilst going over to Upper Nirar Dam) rough water logged patches, thankfully nothing major to worry about.

One thing which i missed doing was the Sholayar - Chalakudy drive, was really looking forward to do it, but then the butler told due to heavy rain, some parts might be dodgy. With a year old little one, somehow decided to skip.

really want to do drive that path as many members have done it already and just reading and seeing the pics is so enthralling, can only imagine the experience driving down there especially after monsoon.

[i.1979]

very nice photos there. thanks redballons for sharing the details of the chokanad bungalow. which is the exact location of this bunglow?

[redballons]

Originally Posted by i.1979

very nice photos there. thanks redballons for sharing the details of the chokanad bungalow. which is the exact location of this bunglow?

Ta mate, exact location - Its a little further down on the Kochi road from the bus stand , then take left ( get off Kochi Road ) proceed on the narrow bridge and then take left , you will see the way for Chokanad Bungalow & Estate Ots about 3-4 Km from here up the hill
If you take right, you will go to Tall Trees, Blackberry Hills Retreat and host of other hotels.

You have to take a left at this sign board in the below pic, hope it helps

[ranjitp1]

Lovely pictures except for that kitchen shot!I am sure with the kind of money these guys charge as tariffs,the least they could do was invest on the kitchen partThanks for sharing and for all those details as well.Chalakudy-Valayar is not that bad and is easily driveable-reason enough for you to go back there again.Keep writing.

[redballons]

Originally Posted by ranjitp1

Lovely pictures except for that kitchen shot!I am sure with the kind of money these guys charge as tariffs,the least they could do was invest on the kitchen partThanks for sharing and for all those details as well.Chalakudy-Valayar is not that bad and is easily driveable-reason enough for you to go back there again.Keep writing.

Thanks Ranjit, you are quite right, the money we paid for Chokanad was not really value in entirety except for the location.