Kodaikanal,munnar,cochin and lord tirupati darshan. Review on Munnar

On 23 may 2010, myself, my wife and  mother made a unforgettable tour of kerala(munnar, kochin) , tamilnadu (kodaikanal)& AP(tirupati, balaji) for 8 days . On 23rd we reached directly to kodaikanal road railway station just 75km from kodaikanal hill station by navyug express 6688, wkly train coming from jammu tawi. We booked AC innova for 6 days  from kumar taxi, cochin, approved by tourism of govt of india. Very nice peoples, especially, Mr Ajit, 09446323558 who asked for the entire payment after completion of the tour(no advance, , unbelievable). Our driver siddharth was very caring, mannered and most importantly could speak hindi fluently(becoz language problem is a big problem there). we booked hotel spring valley 09842027526 in kodai, 2km near to main market, nice hotel, good room service, worth to money.

The places we will  love to visit again are pillar rocks(always fog present), kodai lake(though not maintained properly), Bryant park near to lake & chettiar park(for beautiful  flowers), cokers walk(2 km jogging path inbetween fog )& kurinji temple. Nothing special for shopping we found there than home made chocolates. Don’t forget to hav ghee roast dosa in sarabhavan bhavan(famous)..we stayed for 3N in kodai and then moved to munnar, 190km, the jrny took around 6hrs, the scenic beauty was mindblowing, the lushgreen tea gardens and the premonsoon clouds going near to and touching us. Do take a break for few min in gap view, heavenly scenary. In munnar we stayed for 2N and visited ervikulam national park(endangered tahr goats & anamudi, highest peak in kerala 9000ft) and mattupattu dam(enjoy speed boating there) & top station. Then on 6th day, we moved for kochin, on the way,  enjoyed cheeyapara waterfall & covered 130km in 5.30hrs, first visited Bolgatty palace, now ktdc resort(excellent grenary and view of backwater), & then enjoyed golden moments of 2 hrs  in golden beach, the cherai beach 35 km away from city(very clean beach & minimally crowded). Lastly, we took himsagar exp at 8.40pm from ernaculam station and reached tirupati next day morning 9am. We had made internet booking at TTD guest house, kaustabh in tirumala(up the hill) & after having shregra darshan ticket Rs 300/person, had darshan of lord balaji in 3 hrs. Always advisable to have ticket worth Rs 500 as little advertisement done about 500 Rs  tkt, hence little awaareness, and actually can have darshan in 1hr even in heavy rush days i.e. saturday, sunday, vacation.

Then on the same night, we left for Nagpur, our home town  by kerala exp.Thus, in total 8 days jrny, by proper planning, we were lucky to enjoy 2 hill station with different beauties, green carpeted tea gardens, waterfalls, backwaters, sea beaches and one of the most worshiped pilgrimage place.