KERALA -> Cochin -> Moonar

There is this problem with Moonar – it haunts you!
Imagine, watching a sea of tea-gardens from the inside of a makeshift restaurant, sipping a cup of locally grown and brewed tea with a group of smiling foreigners and reserved honey-mooners. You might feel the tenderness in the air but then again it could be due to the rain-drops coming down almost wafting in the cool crisp air that ever so gently brushes your visage. And you see the tea-pickers with the baskets behind them returning back to their colonies as the slight fog eclipsing the jungles yonder there grows thicker…





How to Reach?
Moonar is nestled in the Western Ghats in Kerala state and 2 popular ways of reaching it are:
1) From Ernakulam (Kerala) – 140 kms and 5 hours.
Government buses charge Rs. 70 but are at distant intervals. I know two slots - 8am and 11 am. Private buses thrive in-between these slots and start from various places – Foresaw Road being one point that I know.
2)From Udumalaipet (Tamil Nadu) – 85 kms.
Most buses coming from Tamil Nadu take this route. It passes through one of India’s densest jungles of Indira Gandhi forest reserve.

Our Story...
On 26 January 2007, we six guys from Mangalore- (left to right in the pic) Hrishi, Jibak, myself Mohit, Ramakrishna, Santosh, and Pradyumna. Due to unavailability of a direct train-ticket to Ernakulam, we reached Palaghat by West Coast Express at 5 am and immediately boarded the nearly empty Rajendra Nagar-Ernakulam Express coming from Bihar. Finally, at 8:15 am, we were there at the Ernakulam bus-station having finished our breakfast. The sad news was that one bus had just left for Moonar at 8 am and next was at 11 am. At Foresaw Road, a private bus was to leave at 9 am but there is always a little unprofessionalism associated with the private buses. So, I decided to show Cochin to other guys who had not seen it.

Cochin (Kochi)
We reached the nearby Main Jetty and waited at the ferry ticket office (Rs. 3; 15 mins). Once in Cochin, we hired two autos (Rs. 50 each for 1 hour) and went straight into the fish market where the Chinese fishing-nets were in suspension.

Next on the agenda was the Basilica – one of the two Basilicas in India, the other being in Goa. A simple and serene white structure, richly decorated from within with paintings and frescos from Italian artists. A mass was to be held at 10 am and so the caravan rolled on..




The St. Francissi Church is one of the oldest churches in India. It is also special as it once housed the tomb of Vasco de Gama for a few years before it was shipped to Portugal. Later, the Dutch also laid claim to this Church and hence Portuguese and Dutch engravings are on separate sides in this Church. Please note that photography is prohibited and so are footwear.

Finally we were back at the port. However since the return ferry took quite long to arrive at the port, we reached the bus-station at Ernakulam just in the nick of time and straight-away ran for the bus to Moonar.

And hullo, what a sight to behold in this stuffy and rickety bus. How shall I put it ..this way may be… a truly multi-national group of passengers with some real liberal-minded ladies …cannot blame them as the ambience was unbearably hot and humid even for us Indians…and we guys (unable to get a seat together) had to squeeze ourselves amongst them. Oh, boy!

And thats the way it was for 5 hours till we reached Moonar through Aluva and Thrissur. Now, for the accomdation part – we were in for some mild activity. Surprisingly, there was this privately run one-room ‘Free' Information Centre right next to the bus-stand. I warned myself that this is too good to be true; but then, what else had we for a start? And besides that’s where the ladies were headed too..



Now the budget which we offered (Rs.1200 for 6 guys for 2 days) only managed a wry smile from the operator and a forsaken hut on top of an isolated hill, which literally brought Jibak’s foot down heavily. So, the budget was upped and so were the antennas and an hour into the whole game, we signed off into the logbook of Chamunar Lodge (behind the famous Sarvana Bhawan Hotel) for Rs. 2100. Fair cost for being in the very heart of town and the panoramic view it had to offer. We all agreed on the neighbourly ambience as well.



Right next was the Sarvana Bhawan – the undisputed joint of the town where all kind of people relish the food on the banana leaves. It is known for its flat rates, reasonably good food, blitz services and amiable nature of the staff and this is where we had all our snacks for the next three days.

27 Jan - Day 2:
Next day, we hired a jeep for a one-day sightseeing (Rs. 1200 till 6 pm in night). There are four directions these drivers foray:
Madupatty Dam Direction
Photo-point (4km) - comes first and the photo on top refers to that.
Jungle Honey Bee Nest (5km) – few bees inhabit an old tree for some reason– why bother them, I ask!
Mount Caramel School and its scenic gardens came next, followed by the auditorium hall of Tata’s local community school.
Madupetty Dam (12 km) is truly beautiful and photogenic. It offers paddle, row and speed boating. And going by the excitement around, it sure should have been fun. We munched (a few corns) over the idea but decided to move on.
Indo-Swiss Project (14 km) is where the finest bulls are reared for artificial insemination.
Elephant Point – at the next curve is so called as the elephants gather there for collecting chopped down woods. This is a disturbing trend as most of the dense forests over here have literally disappeared and converted to tea-gardens. A decade down, the environmental costs will be massive and non-footable to all parties here..
Echo Point (20 km) was our final destination in this direction. The first thing that you realize here is the opposite hill has been stripped shamelessly. There was no echoing of voice either and the only thing that echoed for much longer time in our hearts was all the chopped woods thrown into the river that reminded the visitors of the recent plunder. There was also boating to be had but who would boat into so heart-rending a scenery. Several hawkers sold off their wares and a photo on the left will speak for itself. There were ayurvedic and acupressure rollers, cup-stands, religious idols, kitchen utensils made of wood, jewelry-boxes and such categories. We had tea, roasted and salted cashewnuts and roasted corns and left swiftly for Moonar for Lunch.

Coimbatore Direction
Post lunch with cell-phones and body recharged, we left in the direction of Coimbatore. The scenery is breath-taking here and we reached the Eravikulam National Park (popularly called Rajamalai) at 12 kms. Here one has to board the National Park’s mini-buses (Entrance is Rs. 15 and another Rs. 15 for bus) which are pretty frequent. This is the ride of a lifetime – lush valleys of tea-gardens with interspersed forests and a stark black mountain soaring in the near vicinity. (They say, even this road to the Rajamalai Park is owned by Tatas) The bus halts after 15 minutes of joy-ride and a mile of trek upwards takes you close to the rare specie of goats – Nilgiri tahr. A few of them graze along the roads for the benefit of visitors. Other areas are out of bounds for the visitors. Towering besides us is the gigantic black cliff - some say that this is the Anna Malai, one of the highest peaks of South India, but I have my misgivings. I believe that the peak in discussion is visible from the other side of this black cliff, where one is sadly not allowed. One more thing: the kurinji flowers had all dried by now after having bloomed in last rainy season. They bloom once in 12 years and when they do so, their color gives such a blue tint to the whole mountain range that it is called Nilgiris (the Blue Mountains). We returned and left further for Luckom falls (26 kms from Moonar). The dense fog caught us off-guard and it was like going down into clouds! Frankly, the fall is a pretty ordinary one and and a drain on one’s resources – I recommend please give it a miss unless one is coming to Moonar from Udumalaipet direction and that too in one’s own vehicle. We had some snacks at a shack and left even as weather turned frosty and gloomy.

As we reached Moonar by 6 pm i.e. nearly sun-set time, the driver refused to travel in Thekkady direction which had Devikulam lake to offer at 14 kms. We protested but to no good and had to shell out the agreed amount of Rs. 1200. An advice here is to agree to Rs. 1000 for sight-seeing as you would not be able to cover all that is being promised on paper.

We had meals as usual at Sarvanan Bhawan. A memorable round of 3 hours of DumbCharades (Haqeeqat and Vastav names of Hindi movies took nearly half an hour each to enact, :)) late into the night.

28 Jan - Day 3
The next day, we packed up and after the early breakfast, left for Blossoms Park (3 kms) by 2 autos (Rs.20 each). The park (entrance fee of Rs. 10) is small but beautiful with a childish do-it-yourself ropeway and row-boating (Rs. 30). The view of the nearby tea-gardens and jungles nearly summarizes Moonar in a single panoramic sight.






We returned and checked out of Chamunar Lodge. We caught the bus to Ernakulum at 13:30 and reached by 18:00 with still some 2 hours to spare for our train back to Mangalore.