Ladies Day Out - 4

Day 4: Munnar

The next day was very unplanned and got troubled when a fight erupted on where to go next. She said East, I said West. We were already in East because of her interest; I insisted to go west! I.e. a wildlife sanctuary. We had to take a bus in the afternoon, so we went for some local shopping that morning. Of course after a typical South Indian breakfast!

I shopped some Munnar tea and coffee that's a specialty of the place. Some hand-made soaps and lots of hand-made assorted chocolates for my friends!

After taking a bus and traveling a painful journey of 6 hours in bus we got a rude shock in the evening! Read after the photos ...

Yum! Masala Dosa and vada

slurpy filter coffee

Common city-scape of Munnar

We shopped from here! The old man gave us good discounts :)

Selfie!

Beautiful weather !

Traveling there, one again goes through these scenic place ...

ahh... I don't know if I'll ever be able to see these views again!

Pretty homes

Sometimes we got bored watching these, after all we were in the bus for 6 hours!

Love !

So here it is; the shocking part -

Because of our mistake... we reached at the wrong place! Instead of 'Thattekkad' which is a bird sanctuary we reached 'Thekkeday' which is a wildlife sanctuary (Periyar Tiger Reserve!)

A mere communication problem in the south and our travel for so long put us into mess. We were in kind of a remote area and we got damn scared! It was almost late evening and we had no other option to go anywhere else. I later convinced her that Kerala is a tourist friendly place and this place too we can stay overnight and go to the wildlife sanctuary in the morning BUT she refused to listen and was furious. Anyways... after a while we both cooled down because people actually were tourist friendly. A guide helped us to get a good night halting place and made a plan for the next day morning! The manager of the hotel was a good man, helped us understand the place and the sanctuary we'll be visiting! Had a bitter night because of my friend. 


to be continued ...

Love
Tanuja

Ladies Day Out - 3

Day 3: March 9

We reached Ernakulam. Thats in the south of India. It was pitch dark and we couldn't travel anywhere. We waited at ladies restroom till 6am. It was quite a strange feeling in the unknown land. We half slept there and taking a pre-paid auto went to the bus stand. From there we took our bus to 'Munnar', our destinated place. Munnar is a place of tea plantations on hills and spice gardens and lakes and all the scenic views one can imagine in a green land! 

It was a long journey of 5 hrs. We were again half sleepy BUT when the tea plantation scenery arrived, we came back to out senses. We were thrilled to experience the view. The bus went round and round around the mountains giving us a visual treat of the place.

There with a local tour operator we booked a hotel for a night and arranged sight seeing. We were scared to trust somebody but we just had to take the risk. We quickly got ready and were off in our cab for sightseeing tour. The place is amazingly beautiful. Very peaceful and soothing. We had a nice time roaming, checking on the places the tour guide showed us, had snacks in between and enjoyed ourselves a lot! Rest let the pictures speak! A new place; new experiences! The kind of freedom one feels when you know you are at a place where no one knows you, no one's going to bother you and you are not going to witness all those regular life's routines but a fresh start, a good feeling, a different air to smell and experience all those as never before.

The bus ride towards our destination ...

The view caught our eyes!

  

The paradise ... <3

Our cab ride and sweet little homes on the way

A garden visit

strange plants

Heart warming view !

In love with the nature there :-)

Pretty yellows

Some spiced up mangoes for snacks? yum

Towards 'View Point' the highest point in the Munnar hills.

Lot of stairs to cover. Men in traditional lungi everywhere!

That's the point where we couldn't cover. Too high and scary!

Ahh... we were at such a height! It was getting chilly there.

Some signboards

Kind off lunch there! Maggie

Cardamom Tea... slurp!

Local things to buy, strange little fruits and herb oils!

I tried a chilli-tomato kinda fruit too. One had to suck the insides only. It was good :-)

And my friend tried some :-)

You get horses for local rides !

That's one gorgeous Indian Coral tree!

And an Oriental White-Eye bird on it. Love love

The snake roads all around the hills !

The most serene view! .... Echo-point.

The land of greens!

We had some fresh little carrots! Felt like a rabbit :-P

More fruits :-)

Me :-)

:-)

Some movie shooting was going on!

Posed with the amazing Munnar tea-plantations! :-)

The day ends and we slept like a log :-)

To be continued..

Love
Tanuja