So I woke up this morning to what seems to be a common sight of a hot air ballon. I don’t know what they cost or who operates them but they do seem to be popular. They look very pretty in the morning and evening times.

The national park

Eravikulam National Park is about one hour North of Munnar and is a fairly easy (if crowded) drive. Parking was a nightmare – but that is the nice thing about having a driver in India – he went to park the car while I went to the ticket office.

The fee to enter is quite a bit higher for foreigners than for locals. At Rp. 480 it’s one of the more expensive attractions around Munnar. But the views are really nice.

You cannot take private cars to the top, you have to take a park bus. This is an experience in itself. As you may have heard, Indian drivers like to use their horns. But I see no point at using horns when you have just one road and all the traffic is park traffic.

However, each driver seems to be trying to race the other drivers up the mountain to the top and hoking at each other along the way. It was almost like a carnival ride. I would suggest a light breakfast.

Mountain goats

Officially called the Nilgiri Tahr, this mountain goat is found in the park. You are very likely to see it, but as signs warn, you should not touch it. There are also a lot of other signs in the park such as not showing your rubbish in the bushes and no public urination. There is just no fun to be had here 🙂

The hike

From where the bus drops you off there is a little snack stand (they have good tea) and in information centre. You need to show your ticket to start the hike. After that you can only hike about 1km (although it is fairly steep). It’s a pleasant hike and you are very likely to see the lovely goat.

Hill Station

Munnar is a hill station that is about 4 hours away from Kochi – and it seems REALLY popular around Christmas time, especially with other domestic tourists. I have seen some foreigners, but the majority of people here are Indian.

Nature

One of the top reasons to visit Munnar is to see nature. It’s very hilly up here and there are lots of tea plantations. On the way to Munnar you can stop and see waterfalls as well as quite elaborate bridges that were constructed by the British a long time ago.

Tea

Since there are so many tea plantations here I wanted to go and see a working factory. One of the best bets seems to be to go to the TATA Tea Museum. It has a small working factory at the back and a short film talking about the history of Munnar and how tea plantations started here.

Of course after the tea museum I had to buy some tea to take back home. You can buy either loose tea or tea bags and they also have a choice of black or green tea.

Hiking

One of the other things that I love about hilly areas is the opportunity to go trekking. Since the tea plantations are private property, to go trekking you need a guide. It may be a bit of a cash grab but that seems to be the way it is around here. You can find day hikes and multi-day hikes.

There was a bit of low cloud, but it was still a great hike to walk among the tea plantations and up the side of one of the mountains.

Arrival

You can get to Kerala by train if you want to. You can get anywhere in India by train – but it will take a long time. It is scheduled as 3 days from New Delhi which I thought was a long time to spend on a train. So I decided to fly. I flew with IndiGo

6E

As airline codes go IndiGo has got a good one. I am not sure if they are allocated or requested but they use it as a play on words. If you speak “6 – E” then it sounds like “sexy” and they make use of this all over their literature. All their signs say “Hello 6E…”. I think their advertising is quite good and their onboard service was really good for a discount airline. You get water for free, however you do have to pay for food and coffee. The prices are very reasonable though.

Fort Kochi

Fort Kochi is a good hour from the airport if you take a car and a driver. Although it is quite far, all the things that you will want to see are here so I decided to stay in the Fort. I find this location to be quite relaxing with most people here having a laid back and relaxed lifestyle. Compared to New Delhi it could almost be a different country. There is little pollution and not very much traffic. People are friendly and prices are cheaper.

Chinese Fishing Nets

Some people in Kochi still do an old style of fishing where they dip huge nets into the water and then withdraw them later on. Apparently this is the only instance of this Chinese fishing technique used outside of China.

You can buy the fish directly from the fisherman here and you can take it to a little cafe on the beach and they will cook it for you.

Christmas

Since Kerala has a Christian population you certainly see more signs of Christmas around here than you do in the north. Some of the churches go to great lengths here to put up huge stars and Christmas lights.