What I realized on this ride was that Mallus most often ridiculed for their pronunciations of words were ironically very particular about the pronounciation of Munnar. Every place I stopped for directions, I would say Munnar, only to be corrected and then given directions. It’s pronounced as Moonaar, for those who don’t want to go through this. 

Munnar is in Kerala and is mainly a “Honeymoon destination”. Newly married couples everywhere you see i.e. other than the tea plantations and the color green. Mostly owned by Kannan Devan, the green of these tea plantations can get to you, which is if the lousy traffic doesn’t get to you earlier.

We did get to see some beautiful places and isolated pockets. But this is only true if you go there early in the morning before the crowds come in. I guess there are many other places around Munnar which would offer something like home stays. These I feel would be a better option for those who do not fancy, standing in kilometers of bumper to bumper traffic. Luckily for us a bit of off-roading helped jump most of this, but there are sections where if you want to off road, you’ll have to scale the face of the hill vertically. Not worth it, in my opinion 😉

We were a few from RTMC, Madbulls and V40. We rode out to the place from Bangalore and the rest came from Chennai. It was a good ride, till my bike went kaput. It was fine for the first 300 odd, but once the roads opened up and I started pushing it, it just died on me. I left the bike in a parking lot in Udumalpet at Rs.1.50 per day! I have to say it was one of the most organised and neat parking places, which you do not find in larger cities too. Though, later on I rode it back to Bangalore, I did not want to push it in the ghat roads around there.

From there onwards I was a pillion behind Prashanth (nomad). I did however get to ride Deepa’s Thunderbird with 18″ wheels in the short rides around Munnar once we reached there. More about the 18″ wheels later. Prem joined us from Bangalore on his Comet GT 250, which is a Hyosung bike released in India by Kinetic. He did have a good deal of fun in the hills, though his battery died. We had to give him a race bike styled bump start.

We did eat a lot of beef fry with parota, fish curry rice etc. Now, almost a month after the ride, now that I think of it, I feel hungry! The place is beautiful, the food great and the ride almost perfect. But, as with most places I’ve been to in Kerala; expect to be treated like you’re doing them a favor by visiting the place. This attitude combined with a lousy traffic conditions in the places worth visiting, Munnar is one of the lowest ranked places that I’ve been to.

I don’t think I’d want to go back there in a hurry.