Valparai & Munnar

This time its Valparai and Munnar. When I was planning for a trip near by kerala I researched a lot through web and found many ideas, routes and places to visit. The planning phase of this trip was itself very entertaining for me. Reading about these places and its natural beauty tempted me a lot to go to these places. My initial choice of places were Valparai,Athirampally and Munnar. But due to travel constraints we dropped athirampally. Hope I would see it in my next trip.

This was a four days trip started on Dec 24th Wednesday night 10 Pm and ended on Dec 28th Sunday night and we were totally 11 in number. This was planned only two weeks before our trip date. So we didn't have much options regarding transportation. Finally we hired a tempo traveler right from chennai. It was a journey of 1617 Kms.We planned, but as usual many unexpected changes took place on due course of the trip. We planned to reach valparai by morning but as usual, when a bunch of crazy friends join, who cares about the plan just left the trip to take its own course. Few of my friends were at work till the last moment and one guy was still under pressure because he was not allowed to go by his parents. Everything turned good at the final moment, he finally got permission from his parents and after wrapping up all the issues, it was around 11.30PM when we left olympia tech park chennai where we picked up few more who jus came out of office. The party started in the Tempo Traveler. Had few pit stops in the highways when we reached chengalpet it was 1 AM :) there we found a road side hotel we had a group dinner with parathas, half boil, egg paratha etc. After finishing that midnight dinner When we started from Mamandur a place near chengalpet it was 2.30 AM. So the trip actually started on Thursday :)

We reached Chinna salem enroute to pollachi at morning 7.00 AM. . . Had a pit stop there for tea coffee and breakfast and started to pollachi by 8 AM. We reached Pollachi for lunch around 1 PM. The food was so nice in the hotels in pollachi and we were also surprised by the price. After a nice lunch we started to Valparai. There were many places en route valparai. We visited Aliyar Dam by 4 PM and spent about 1 hr there seeing the scenic view and having first photo session. Then we started to monkey falls. Monkey falls was really cool place. The falls is exactly at the correct height from where we stand so that the force of water is correctly giving a smooth massage to the body. After a boosting shower under the falls. We proceeded further to the top on the way we stopped at the 9th Hair pin bend.


A very beautiful view of the Aliyar dam from the top. Had a photo session there enjoyed the view and started to the top. We reached the top and checked in the room by around 7.30 PM.

The climate was really cool. Not too shivering but perfect cool weather as if the entire place has a controlled Air conditioner.There are many small lodges in valparai. Some of the decent lodges are Green Hills Hotel, JBR Lodge etc... For booking lodges you can visit www.valparai.com or www.valparaionline.com Will give you all the details and contact numbers. Food is cheap and best in valparai. We 10 had a feast in Lakshmi Mess in valparai and the bill came to just 300 Rs for all of us we were astonished. Even the people who serve food were so humble and attend everything immediately. Not like the bearers in city hotels.One can observe lots of difference in respect given to people by people over there and in city. That night we played cards and spent sometime went for a night walk and went to sleep.

Next day Friday morning we headed to few beautiful places in valparai.We went to koolangal river, chinnakalar dam and finally reached the Lawson falls. To reach the actual falls we need to cross a small stream of water through a small rope bridge. It will be like a small trek before you reach the falls. The water in the falls was very very cold. We kept our legs in the water for few seconds our legs got frozen and we took it out. It was so cold and freezing. Slowly we managed to take a dip in the water. These waters crosses many medicinal herbs from the mountains and reaches here it was such a refreshing bath. After that tiring trek and swim in the falls. We headed back to the town for lunch.

After that our next plan was to head to munnar. We went down again to udumalaipet to get kerala permit. When we reached udumalaipet it almost became 7 PM. Our plan was to go to munnar through chinnar wild life sanctuary. But we can enjoy the nice views only in the day time. So we thought of staying in udumalaipet. But as usual there was another twist in the plan. We went for a movie 'Abiyum Naanyum' night show in Lathagni theater in udumalaipet. Then waited for sometime in the tempo traveler and started our journey by early morning Saturday 5 AM to munnar through Chinnar wildlife sanctuary. The mountain views were very beautiful and scenic.



Really beautiful forest mountains. There are also chances of seeing some animals en route but our bad luck we didn't see any of them. We should be the first to take the route in the early morning to see some animals. Unfortunately we were able to enjoy only the scenic view of the place and didn't see any wild life.

We visited few beautiful places in munnar and since we wanted to do a day journey while returning we headed back to udumalaipet Saturday night itself. Stayed at Udumalaipet that night and returned back to Chennai on Sunday night. One of the beatiful place in Munnar is Lakkam falls, many will not visit this spot because its en route to chinnar. This falls was also really awesome. Enjoy the scenic clips below and leave your comments please.