12th September 2009, 17:11
| #16 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Bangalore
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12th September 2009, 17:20
| #17 | |||||
| BHPian Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Bangalore
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12th September 2009, 22:50
| #18 | ||
| BHPian Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Bangalore
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12th September 2009, 23:24
| #19 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Cochin/Bangalore
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| Beautiful Travelogue. All your trip logs are well written and supported by very good pics. You detailed descriptions makes it easy for anyone who wants to visit these places. KEEP IT UP!  It seems like you do trips far more frequently than the once in 3 months mentioned. I envy you on this but love your spirit of touring. And you've got the perfect partner to support you. Keenly awaiting the rest of the logs. |
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13th September 2009, 16:49
| #20 |
| Senior - BHPian  | DreamDiesel, awesome travelogue with detailed narrations to each of pictures which makes it worth reading as well as watching them.Munnar and Thekkedy makes one fresh just looking at those pictures and you got my old memories of this trips refreshed.wow waiting for another part of your log. loved this picture,splendid.  Last edited by vijaythacker : 13th September 2009 at 16:50. Reason: picture added. |
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13th September 2009, 17:33
| #21 |
| BHPian Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| Bangalore – Munnar /Thekkady /Kochi in Swift D.. Apologies for not updating the route and distance for the previous post of Day 2. So here it is.. Day 2 (06th September, 2009): Munnar – Mattupetty – Echo Point – Kundala Dam/Lake – Top Station – Munnar Trip Meter – 463kms to 554kms ***For Day 2 log and photos please go through the previous post*** Day 3 (07th September, 2009): Munnar – Devikulam – Kumily – Thekkady - Kumily Trip Meter – 554kms to 677kms I am up by 9:30AM after a good night’s sleep. The heavy curtains in the room kept the light out and I did not have sense of time. But again, I am on a holiday and just like it when I wake up refreshed not by an alarm. Today we travel south towards Kumily. Kumily is a good 120kms from Munnar and the travel time I have estimated is about 3hrs. We decide to leave Munnar by 11:00AM so that we are in Thekkady by 2:30PM for the 4:00PM boat ride at Periyar National Park. We just get ready for breakfast and drive down to Hotel Saravana Bhavan at Munnar town center. We quickly finish our breakfast, some shopping and while coming back to the hotel fill up diesel (Rs.1130/31lts.) at the IOC bunk near the bridge. Back to the hotel, pack the entire luggage back, take bath and check out by 11:15AM. By the time we leave Munnar it’s about 11:30AM. We take the road towards Devikulam out of Munnar. No rain today but it’s cloudy. The roads out are pretty OK and broken at some places due to rains. Devikulam is about 7kms from Munnar and we take the road going right before a kilometer to Devikulam. Just about 3-5kms from Devikulam the scenery opens up of wide open spaces covered with tea gardens. The place called Lock Heart is just too beautiful to describe. Stop the car and we take some pictures and also go for a small walk among the tea plantations for some time. No rains, little windy and somewhat clear view with no fog was just perfect. After about 20mins we continue our drive towards Kumily.  Vast tea Gardens out of Munnar after Devikulam  Towards Kumily  Towards Lock Heart Gap View  Towards Lock Heart Gap View  At Lock Heart Gap View  At Lock Heart Gap View  Swift D at Lock Heart Gap View  Your truely at the tea gardens  Swift D at Lock Heart Gap View  At Lock Heart Gap View A little further ahead we come across a huge waterfall just next to the road. I don’t remember the name of the waterfall. We again stop at this place; take some photographs and much on hot roasted maize and continue our drive towards Kumily.  Approcahing the waterfalls towards Kumily  Waterfalls - Dont remember the name  Waterfalls  Towards Kumily - Descending the hills The tea gardens continue for another 20kms till we make our descent through the hills. The roads till here were slightly broken and then thick vegetation of spices starts. The roads now have been newly done from here and I up my pace sometimes clocking past 110KMPH on this twisty 2 lane road. Roads are almost empty with very few oncoming vehicles and I push the Swift into corners. These roads through thick spice plantations were just too good. We see a crowd gathered looking into the spice plantations and we stop to find out what it’s about. We see a herd of elephants deep inside the plantation. Sorry no photographs of this. We then continue on our way. About 35-30kms before Kumily the good roads abruptly end; its broken tarmac till some stretch, then it’s just stones and slush from then on. The roads are being made and stones have been dumped on either side of the road. We slowly make our way through the mess and are back on good roads about 15-20kms to Kumily. We reach Kumily by 3:00PM.  Beatiful road towards Kumily  Beatiful road towards Kumily We first have to find a decent accommodation to dump our entire luggage. In Kumily there are various options to stay. Numerous resorts, hotels and home stays dot the entire town. We decide to take the option of Home stay as we were looking for a budget place to stay. We come across Tiger Land Cottages on the main road at Kumily. Very nice cottages with lots of privacy and calm place though it’s on the main road. Nice parking place too. The care taker there Suresh from Nepal was a very helpful guy suggesting various things we can do at Thekkady. They have Double Rooms at Rs.650 which my wife bargained for some discount. Very clean rooms with 24 hours hot water and TV. After dumping the luggage into the room we freshen up and headed towards Thekkady which is 4KMS from Kumily. We are the entrance to Periyar National Park by 3:30PM. But entry tickets (Rs.25/head) and LMV entry (Rs.50). We drive for another 4kms near the Boating area, park the car and we have about 20mins to spare. But tickets for the Upper level on the boat (Rs.150) and Camera fee (Rs.25). Hungry as we only had breakfast in the morning we head towards the restaurant at Periyar NP and munch on some snacks. Close to 4:00PM we board the boat and take our seats at the upper level. By 4:15PM the boat starts off into the lake at Periyar National Park. Along with our boat 2 other boats leave filled with tourists. The boat ride takes you deep inside the Periyar NP on the calm waters. The entire boat ride is about 1.5 hours. The boat ride through the forests was beautiful. We only spotted a herd of deer’s, wild boars and bison. We were a little disappointed not spotting any elephants. We are back to the shore by 6:00PM and quickly head back to the car and make our way to our cottage.  The boating area at Thekkady  The boats at Thekkady  Calm waters at Thekkady  We start the boat ride  Inside Thekkady  Beautiful nature  Herd of deers at Thekkady  The other boats at Thekkady  Bisons at Thekkady viewed from the boat  Returning back after the boat ride  Lush green surroundings around the lake Suresh the care taker suggests us to visit Mudra Kathakali Center to watch a Kathakali performance. The makeup starts by 6:30PM and dance by 7:00PM. The performance is for an hour and tickets are priced as Rs.150/head. When we went for the boating to Periyar NP we had got the tickets booked early which guaranteed seats close to the stage through Suresh. Mudra Kathakali Center is the Thekkady – Kottayam junction, a few meters towards Thekkady road on the right. They also organize Kalaripayattu presentation at the same location around 5:30PM and tickets are priced around Rs.200/head. We were at Mudra Kathakali Center by 7:00PM which is a 10min walk from the place we stayed and makeup was just getting completed. By 7:15PM the performance started firstly by giving a brief description of Kathakali in English and the narrator gave us an explanation about the 5 important natural colors used for the makeup. Apart from the 2 people performing the Kathakali there were one person who played the traditional drum with two drum sticks and another person who sang the story. The visitors were given a crash course about the various facial expressions and body movements of Kathakali. We were also given a printout of the evening’s story. Then the actual demonstration began which was a story from Mahabharata. It’s about Nakrathundi (Servant of the powerful demon Nakasura) who is sent to heaven to kidnap heavenly beauties for Nakasura. Instead, she finds there Lord Indra’s handsome son -Jayantha. Overwhelmed, she transforms into a beautiful woman Lalitha and tries to seduce him. Nakrathundi of course doesn’t want to involve his father in this game so she “tries to embrace him with her lustful desires”, but it makes Jayantha only angry. Then Lalitha unveils her real demonic identity. She informs him that she came there to kidnap him, what only makes Jayantha furious. As a result he cuts of her ear, nose and breasts bringing a drastic end to Nakrathundi. The performance was indeed fascinating with the story narration and drum being played in sync. The performance is over by 8:00PM and we have an appointment set for a Kerala Ayurvedic massage tomorrow morning by 8:30AM at Mantra Ayurvedic Massage Center right opposite to Mudra Kathakali Center before we head back to our cottage.  Kathakali performance at Mudra Kathakali Center  The artist with the face painted green is Jayantha and the other artist with the face painted yellow is Nakrathundi transformed into Lalitha..  With the artists at Mudra Kathakali Center Around 9:00PM we head back out for dinner at Curry Leaf Restaurant inside Hotel Sithara International at Kumily junction. It’s a good Vegetarian and Non-Vegetarian restaurant. After a delicious dinner we walk back to our cottage and off to sleep early as we had to wake up early for the Ayurvedic massage. Continued.... |
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13th September 2009, 21:08
| #22 |
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14th September 2009, 15:17
| #23 | |||
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14th September 2009, 15:37
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14th September 2009, 15:54
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14th September 2009, 17:48
| #26 |
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15th September 2009, 08:48
| #27 | |
| Senior - BHPian  Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Bangalore
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15th September 2009, 09:36
| #28 |
| Senior - BHPian  | Your first pics of the Day 2 spot, is very fav for many of us here. You can see almost in all our Munnar travelogues this particular pics  Very nice travelogue. Cheers.. |
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15th September 2009, 09:55
| #29 | ||
| BHPian  Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: CBE/ BLR
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| Very detailed Travelogue and wonderful snaps. Would love to go there anytime Quote:
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15th September 2009, 10:06
| #30 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Toronto
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