Mystique of Munnar

Joseph drove me from Ernakulam to Munnar in a Logan in about 4 ½ hours. It took that long because we had 3 photo stops at waterfalls and a couple more. A friendly and chatty taxi driver is a great asset on a road trip. Joseph told me his life story – why he returned from Gulf, his failure in business and his indebtedness, which made him to take up the present job. We conversed in English, Tamizh and Malayalam. Photo stops at the falls were leisurely; I took my sweet time to frame and focus. Experimented with shutter speeds and the rewards were satisfying. The road was surprisingly good, with very little signs of the damage caused by last week’s heavy rains. 

Munnar does not have the usual trappings of a hill station. It is probably too small for that. Munnar is tea country and the rolling hills carpeted with tea bushes lend a special charm. Cardamom is grown in Munnar, but when I asked for cardamom tea at a roadside stall, the lady put in a drop of the essence.  The usual tourist spots of Madupetty Dam and Echo Point had very less tourists and photos shot in manual focus yielded good results. On the way back a very thin drizzle started. And as the fog drifted up from the valley below, the mystique of Munnar that I had conjured up a hundred times in my imagination became a reality.