Kerala trip - Day 2 :)

Day 2 dawned with misty mountains and freezing cold breeze. Prabhu was ready at 9am sharp and we had our complimentary breakfast that has different food items including the authentic Kerala recipes.

Echo point:

We drove to the echo point that was between mattupetty dam and Kundala lake, on the backwaters of Mattupetty dam. As the name suggests, it is an Echo point midst the hills. A wonderful place for photography (not during the holiday time !!!), and there is boating too.

Mattupetty Dam:

Then, we visited mattupetty dam built in 1953. Surrounded by eucalyptus hills and tea plantations, this scenic beauty is the main attraction at Munnar. We have boating here, including exclusive speed boats.

Rose Garden:

After the mattupetty dam, we reached the rose garden well maintained by Kerala Forest Development Center(KFDC). The entry ticket is Rs.30 per person. The garden has wide variety of flowering plans, herbs, creepers, climbers, drought plants, bonsais etc. It has a sales outlet too. We spent most of our time in rose garden wondering at the rare varieties of plant species and the shower joined us. 

Lockhart Tea factory:

In the all-time favorite tourist destination Munnar, this tea factory is the MUST VISIT place. Munnar is very famous for tea cultivation, we all know. But less we know about the methods of preparing tea and have you heard about the White tea? I wonder why we did not visit this place for both the times we came to Munnar during our college days. Came up with a separate post for this.

Click here to read about the white tea !!!

Kalapariyattu show:

A trip never completes without enjoying the native things. In that way, we were happy that Prabhu took us to a show by Punarjani. There are Kalapariyattu as well as Kathakali shows conducted every day. The timings for Kathakali is 5pm to 6pm and for Kalapariyattu, 6pm to 7pm. I craved to watch Kathakali but we missed the show due to the very heavy traffic congestion in Munnar. Weekends are too crowded and you may experience worst traffic block everywhere.

As Kathakali show started when we reached there, we bought tickets for Kalapariyattu.

Kalapariyattu is a martial art form that originated in Tamizhakam (Ancient Tamizhnadu that covered present Tamizhnadu, Puducherry, Kerala and some parts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka).  We were excited to watch the show and we waited for some time in the rainy misty dark evening.

We were asked to go to the auditorium wide enough to accommodate approx. 250 people. That’s a circular auditorium with the stage on the ground and seats in 4 rows one above the other. Ticket prices were 200(Third and fourth rows)/300(first and second rows – side and back)/350(Balcony – You can watch the show from the front).

With the sound of rains on the tin roof, the show started amazingly. It is really worth to watch such a show portraying too many Kalapariyattu techniques demonstrated by the Punarjani team. I was awestruck by their performance. How amazingly the tradition is pursued!!! Amazing!!! It is an experience to sit there and get mesmerized.

The day ended with this beautiful show but again, we got stuck in traffic on the way to hotel. Munnar is a very small town and too many vehicles come every day and the count doubles during holidays. Most traffic blocks are because of private vehicles that is parked at the road sides blocking way for lorries and other buses. It takes hours to bring the driver and move the vehicle away.

We are very thankful to Prabhu who was very patient for more than 2 hours, bought dinner for us and baby before he left us in hotel.

Click here to cruise Day 3...