Munnar Diaries: Witnessing Neelakurinji Bloom- Kya pata, KalHoNaHo #westernghatsinphotos #bestof2018

2018, the year that Kerala witnessed most catastrophic floods in its history, devastating life and livelihoods of many citizens. The floods in July caused a major halt for the tourism industry of the state, which was soon going to witness the Neelakurinji Bloom, the flowers that bloom once in every 12 years. I had plans to go to from Delhi to Bangalore around Dussehra festivities. The floods in Kerala were gone and life was slowly picking up the track there, so we decided to go to Munnar and witness this amazing phenomenon of our beautiful planet.

It is around 11 hrs drive from Bangalore to Munnar. They say, its about the journey than the destination. After this trip I say, the journey is equally beautiful as the destination is. And remember, or read on Tripoto as well, Bangalore to Munnar road trip is a bucketlist item.We reached at around 6Pm to our prebooked hotel Tea Valley Resort.

After dinner and rest, we got ready in the next morning for the expedition towards Kochi route and Thekkady route.

A mesmerizing view of the valley

View from Kochi highway

In the main town of Munnar, you can enjoy a ride on trained elephants. Don't misguide elephants with the wild ones. There are areas where traffic cautions are marked , stating "This is an Elephant Crossing Area, please go slow". We watching some of these beautiful beasts enjoying in the mud.

Mattupetty Dam is one of the largest artificial water reservoirs in Munnar amd Kerala. The place is very charming and the panoramic view is really one of the best places in the town.

At the backside of the reservoir towards the Top Station road, a spot is what they call the Echo Point. One can stay and shout out loud to hear the voice back.

By the time we reached Ripple Waterfalls at around 4PM, it started raining heavily. And the authorities closed the entry near the waterfalls for the safety purpose. We only got a chance to view it from far away.

Forward to the Ripple Waterfall, our next stop was The Hanging Bridge. It was slowly turing dark and rain wasn't stopping. So we turned back to our hotel after not spending much time at this place. Rain and time does played the spoilsport in capturing the photos at these beautiful places.

It was the day when we were going to visit and witnessed the talk of the town, The Neelakurinji Bloom. We had prebooked the tickets online for 8 AM to Eravikulam National Park from their website. Some of the areas of the park were still closed due to heavy rains. Go early, so that there is less crowd and you see the perfect morning views. My DSLR got loaded with the serene and exotic captures of the area. It was so refreshing that the words can't express.

At around 11 Am, we left Munnar to reach Alleppey for some beach fun, and took the Munnar-Kochi Highway with a bag packed of beautiful memories. We also visiting some waterfalls en-route Kochi.

We reached Alleppey at around 5PM and visited the lighthouse and sunset in the evening at the Alleppey Beach.

After some fun at the beach in the morning, we went straight for a ride in the Backwaters houseboats. It was a 6 hrs ride from 11 AM to 5 PM with lunch on the boat. Kerala Backwaters are beautiful and I covered another travel bucketlist item to visit in the Western Ghats of India.

Our day ended with a spectacular view of the sunset at Marari Beach in Alleppey, after which we started our journey back to Bangalore. It was indeed the best trip of my life and of the year 2018. Not North or South, but our India is incredible. I uploaded here some 50 of my best photos. Do let me know about your view on my trip in the comments section.