Kerala Trip: Munnar | Thekkady | Alleppey

"The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see"- says an author.

Before starting our four days Kerala trip on 24th December 2013, I really didn't have a clear cut idea on what I was going to see. All I had planned was, 'okay I am going to Munnar, Thekkady and Alleppey'.

The team was not big one. Karthik, another Karthik, Sunil, Pankaj, Vathsa and myself were the six guys who had packed their bags and started from Bangalore, in Royal Travels. Hence, wherever the word 'I' is used, anytime it can be replaced as 'we.'

Background:

Everyone of us wanted to have an year end trip. The places short listed were Andaman-Nikobar islands, Himalayas, North India (Rajasthan, Gujarath, Punjab) and Kerala. The place finally picked for this season was Kerala. Other places were added to the 'to be accomplished' list.

All six people mentioned above were IT professionals at Bangalore. Year end casual leaves were meant for trips. At least few leaves.
The preparation started by shortlisting places. Google was our friend. Sometimes we had taken few colleagues's help and opinions.

People who blog about their journeys write from their own standpoint. You need to experience it on your own. But, I realized it very late. Considering google as bible was very wrong. Places and hotel reviews will not work always. For example, many people rated 'Hotel Raiban' with a dirty single star. But it was really good for us. People who said 'Never miss Rajamalai and Tea factory in Munnar' never mentioned the timings. When we went there, the gates were closed. We didn't face any problems in Royal Travels when many people said they are frauds.

• Taking opinions is good; but we need to think on our own. 
• Information will be available everywhere; but it will not be complete. 
• It seems it is not good to focus just on the planned destinations. Destiny can be anything. One needs to have a mission of enjoying whatever comes and wherever we are led to.
• It seems foolishness to expect pleasant surprises. Photos taken by DSLRs which are available on the internet lie many a times.

The Trip:

Day 1: 25th December 2013. Happy Christmas!

Our first destination was Munnar. We started from Bangalore on December 24th night. Let me switch to present tense. Royal travels starts from Madiwala, probably every day at 7:30PM. Okay, at least by 8:00PM. The route is little complicated. It goes via Salem, Tamilnadu. (By the way, Munnar is almost at the border of Kerala and Tamilnadu. Many people there do know Tamil). The Non A/C sleeper coach stops at Cumbam. Because, from then on, you get hair pin curve roads. 

We didn't know this. So what next? Get down, take few 'yo-yo' photos. There you get another swaraz mazda with a 'www.royalbus.in' text printed in bold, italics and underlined customized font. Okay, yes it is free service till Munnar town; ignore the already paid 1000 rupees at redbus.in. Alas! we are nearly 35 people and not more than 21 guys can get in! We are still checking the 'just captured' yo-yo photos, at Pankaj's camera and the swaraz mazda is already filled. Okay, the driver said, in Tamil, that another mini bus is coming. At least we understood him that way. It was 5:30 AM and in next five minutes we got another 13 seater cab.

Now, we realize that the home stay is at 'Adimali' and not at Munnar town. 23 kms from Munnar town. So, where shall we get down?

The passenger adjacent to us was a Malayali and he could speak English too. He suggested us to get down at Pooppara and catch a bus to Adimali. Okay, thanks for his timely help. Now we get down at Pooppara and get in to another 'ready' bus to Adimali. A 38 rupees ticket journey in a hilly area for 90 minutes.

We reached Adimali home stay by 10:30 AM. We requested the home stay owner to 'arrange for a 6 seater vehicle, preferably an Innova or a Travera'. We had sincerely requested. I guess he had expected such requests. In less than two minutes, an Innova was ready.

We took another hour for brushing and bathing. It was 11:35 AM when we locked the room.

Our plan was to hire the taxi for three days (25th, 26th and 27th). On 25th and 26th, we will cover Munnar. Google suggests 40 places- at least 8 must see places around the town. So we need two days.

On Day-3, we will ask taxi to take us to Thekkadi. An unique of its kind Safari and why to miss it? Let him drop us there and we will catch a bus to Alleppey where a boat house is already booked. Budget trip it should be! And again, google says there are frequent buses from Kumily to alleppey (Kumily is 4 kms away from Thekkady). Why to hire taxi? Lets use public transport!

One should be lucky to get a nice taxi driver. The...

(This is continued here...)