Serenity personified, why doesn't time pass me by as I slip into the depth of your beautiful eyes…
Will I get to wake up to such poetic dreams? I pondered as we left for our honeymoon to Munnar. We reached
Ernakulam by train from Chennai, stayed at a hotel for the night. The next day was assigned for spirituality: now that you are married, you definitely need divine power to see that both of you come out of it unscathed!
So, off to the famous Bhagawati Amman temple. And how beautiful the temple was... The Amman herself wears a golden cast and looks fierce, as though to guard Her true devotees. We arranged for a taxi to take us to the temple from Ernakulam, after lunch around 10 a.m. The trip from Ernakulam takes around 1.5 hours from Ernakulam, and we were there just before the temple was about shut. We would have missed having a darshan if we had been a little late. So please do plan to leave early so that you get to spend some time basking in the aura of the temple, and also find time to buy a new pair of slippers, maybe, for mine were gone when I came back from the temple! The temple probably had someone who needed a new pair of slippers that day.
Like all newlywed girls, I was awaiting my technical hubby to turn poetic, pampering me with flowery language, become a painter like M F Hussain and paint me in melodic shades: but here I was walking the length from the temple to the car barefoot and through the streets of Eranukalum, doing pada yatra shopping for a new pair of slippers as though I was M F Hussain (the famed painter is around 80 and one of the richest and has the unique practice of walking barefoot everywhere, until very recently when he did start wearing slippers).
My husband's first gift to me during our honeymoon... a new pair of slippers... how unique can you get about gifts? Or maybe he was laying the world at my feet, symbolically! There is a story called Cinderella that also has a pair of beautiful slippers in it, isn't it?
I stepped into the new slippers and had a good lunch at a restaurant in Ernakulam and our next stop was
Munnar. We were planning to leave for Munnar at 9 p.m. but it would have meant reaching there at 1 a.m. The transport is definitely not the best to one of the top destinations of the world, as voted by 'Time' magazine. The bus facilities and the frequency can put one off. But my over-enthu hubby wanted to search whatever he could of the place. So we went for a walk and there was this boat ride. I jumped in joy, a perfect night, a loving hubby and a boat ride, stuff that movies are made of.
Time for romance,
poetry,
and a slice of err… Wait a minute, I could feel some jostling, for within a few minutes of our standing on the riverbanks we saw a mammoth crowd gather there. Well, this boat ride, it seems, was like a bus ride for the locals commuting from this side of the bank, where their offices are located, to the other side where they lived. We had come to Munnar to get lost in each other, but seems like we had to be vigilant so that we did not have to go searching for each other.
The next morning we left early for Munnar, after making all the requisite enquiries about the bus timings. Around 7.30 a.m. we boarded the bus to Munnar and reached there by noon, famished, after a roller-coaster ride. We stepped out of our bus to be ushered in by a Tamil-speaking guy. A friendly chap who was our auto driver and guide for the rest of our stay in Munnar. We had already made advance bookings at a hotel so left our bags in the room and rushed to capture Munnar as the day slowly marched into the western horizon.
The second day, our faithful Man Friday came at the stipulated time and off we went to see the tea estates and the scenic view points that Munnar has in plenty. The place is home to several tea estates, mostly owned by Tata Tea Estates. After years of staying in concrete jungles, Munnar, unsullied by holiday hordes, hmmmmm... why should it not be called God’s Own Land?
In the afternoon, after lunch at our hotel, we were taken to a Rose Garden and a cattle farm where we could feed young cattle. In the evening, we went to watch the eluding mountain goats in the hills. Well, they eluded us but we came back with memories of lush greenery and beautiful waterfalls.
On the third day we decided to take off to
Thekkady, a place famed for its wildlife sanctuaries. We took a cab from Munnar and reached Thekkady around noon. Took a boat ride on the artificial lake formed by the Mulla Periyar Dam, watching from the safety of our boat the wildlife in their natural habitat.
The next day we were back in Ernakulam boarding a train to Chennai. We hadn't reserved tickets, so travelled unreserved for a few stations till we finally got a nice first-class berth and reached Chennai and bounced back to reality.
Serenity personified, why doesn't time pass me by as I slip into the depth of your beautiful eyes...
After seeing such beauty in abundance, I wonder now if hubby dearest was referring to me or
Munnar!
Serenity personified, why doesn't time pass me by as I slip into the depth of your beautiful eyes…
Like all newlywed girls, I was awaiting my technical hubby to turn poetic, pampering me with flowery language, become a painter like M F Hussain and paint me in melodic shades: but here I was walking the length from the temple to the car barefoot and through the streets of Eranukalum, doing pada yatra shopping for a new pair of slippers as though I was M F Hussain (the famed painter is around 80 and one of the richest and has the unique practice of walking barefoot everywhere, until very recently when he did start wearing slippers).
I stepped into the new slippers and had a good lunch at a restaurant in Ernakulam and our next stop was
The next morning we left early for Munnar, after making all the requisite enquiries about the bus timings. Around 7.30 a.m. we boarded the bus to Munnar and reached there by noon, famished, after a roller-coaster ride. We stepped out of our bus to be ushered in by a Tamil-speaking guy. A friendly chap who was our auto driver and guide for the rest of our stay in Munnar. We had already made advance bookings at a hotel so left our bags in the room and rushed to capture Munnar as the day slowly marched into the western horizon. 
In the afternoon, after lunch at our hotel, we were taken to a Rose Garden and a cattle farm where we could feed young cattle. In the evening, we went to watch the eluding mountain goats in the hills. Well, they eluded us but we came back with memories of lush greenery and beautiful waterfalls.
