Journey to Munnar

Munnar, the popular hills in the Kerala region for holidaying Indians and foreigners alike, its to the east of the Kerala state bordering Tamil Nadu state. With more tea plantations than one person can imagine…it came well recommended and documented in my rough guide I pencilled it into my plans.

Its always the getting there is the trick; I had no WiFi access in trivandrum which was my intended stop before Munnar so planning this part of the trip was impossible without an travel agent. Ranjiv was recommended to me by an Ex pat I had met on the bus and became a friendly face and very helpful from the moment I met him.

As I had awkwardly chosen an Indian holiday weekend, Munnar’s accommodation was all booked out…it worked out that this would have to be a treat weekend as all the cheap accommodation was gone.  I could handle that, the YWCA had pushed me.

The plan was to head up via Thortapelly for one night which is just south of Alleypey and stay at Coconut palms with a cycling tour group that Ranjiv was on to counter the fact that there was only two nights availability in Munnar.

A bus ride at 6 am from Trivandrum main bus station to Kollam which took 2 hours was phase one! I managed this after discovering a tuk tuk strike and having to walk to the bus stop and even with the bus information man at the station trying to tell me my bus was cancelled…I made it to Kollam.

A ferry to Thortappely was phase two, this is 3-4 hours worth of back waters on the route to Alleypey. 250 rupees gets you a fair distance north in one of the most relaxing ways to travel. This was a blissful part of the journey once I got passed the numerous touts trying to get me on their ferry.

My stopover was amazing in that I met a lovely group of people on this cycling tour, stayed in some unique and fabulous accommodation that strangely mirrored the architecture of the wooden palace in the south that I had loved so much with a mattress on the floor and a mosquito net for protection with the sturdiest wooden doors and furniture I had ever seen.

I left at 6 am on Saturday morning, Ranjiv helped me to the bus which I was going to take to a town outside Cochin and connect to another state bus to Munnar. Saturday travel fun! He told the conductor the connection he thinks I should make.

I sit down and pop my bag on the front next to the driver under his gestured instruction. This conductor was one of the people that shone out for me, he spoke little English but could write it, At the next major bus station stop he went off to find out the best connection we could make with the by I was on, to the bus to Munnar that I needed. He came back and started jotting me instructions in English, I was not only thankful but surprised and touched that he had made the effort.

I forgot to mention I was on a ‘Super Fast’ bus service at this point which in India in my opinion translates to ‘I have the right to travel faster than any other bus on the road, beep any vehicle out of the way with brute force and stop OR indeed not stop anywhere I like’.

20 minutes later we are on a highway or A road of some kind and the conductor starts pointing at a bus up ahead. That’s my bus, that’s my connecting bus to Munnar, I must have looked concerned cause he said to me. “No problem, we are super fast bus, this is a super fast bus, you will catch it”. The bus driver takes it away, accelerating after this bus, he beeps the horn to get the other bus drivers attention, the conductor flags his arm up and down out the window and hollars something at the other bus driver. Our bus abruptly pulls up in front of my connecting bus, “GO!” They both point at me and the bus frantically…. I pick up my 19kg back pack and day pack and squeeze my wide load down off the bus, waddle slash run up to my new bus. I made it on and was greeted by the normal stares and a big smile from the bus driver who pointed at where I should put my bag. I was so grateful, and relieved but flipping exhausted!

So, the rest of this 4 hour journey should be easy….just sit right?!

Munnar is up a mountain and I mean a serious mountain, so Indian driving plus Indian road and a mountain does not make for the easiest journey, especially when I’m up front and can see everything AND the bus driver is exhausted. Yes, he was because on a U bend up a mountain on a road I’m convinced is too narrow for state buses, I looked over and caught his eyes closing. I wish I was exaggerating. He was nodding off…

I had to tell him to wake up the second time I saw his eyes close, and not understanding me he looked over….ERM, Mr, the road?! So I point at the road and then do a gesture to say your eyes were closed….he then points at my seat. I’m sat in the seat used for storing his lunch is what I leant at the previous large stop, so I reached in and passed him his bag. He took the bag and grabs out a drink that looks like lucadade. Please note we are still rocketing up this mountain. He starts to drink with one hand while maneuvering the bus with the other around a corner, with other buses coming down the other way.

At this point I’m finished, if I get to this hotel in one piece it would be a miracle but one thing I knew was I was not making the journey back down on a state bus, my heart could not cope.

Was it worth it?….heck yeah: