Neelakurinji Munnar – A Trip To Munnar – Neelakurinji Flower Booming
Kerala, known to be God's own country is pretty much popular due to its serene beauty and natural scenery. Monsoons always arrive first in Kerala with their debut in June and the outset a magical spell in nature. Once in 12 years, along with this monsoon, a miraculous natural phenomenon happens in the hills of Munnar. Each and every hill slope is carpeted in shades of blue, where the blossoming of Neelakurinji, a shrub with affable flowering. This is one of the best tourist spots in Kerala. Neelakurinji blooms once in 12 years, the last time was in 2006, and for the next time, I need to wait till 2030. This thought led me to Munnar to immerse myself in those sightings.
As I am not willing to miss this fling, I searched over the internet to collect the details about the Kerala tour packages. I started my trip with one of my friends. I chose him because he was a solo traveler and traveled to many places and almost every hill station in India. He gave me an idea about the overall trip and told me that mostly this Neelakurinji blooms at Rajamala. We quickly devised a plan for the weekend and booked the bus tickets online. We started at 5.40 am from Ernakulam. By sunrise, we crossed Muvattupuzha. We had our breakfast there. Passing through Mulavoor, Kothamangalam, Neryamangalam reached Adimali by noon. Stopped there for lunch, crossed Chithirapuram and typical Munnar scapes rise.
Munnar was empty and bare of tourists. Many hotels were available for easy prices but we had already booked an Oyo. We were only able to check in by 3:00 p.m. Some daylight still left, so we thought of exploring around. Outside the hotel, we met with a local guide and had a conversation with him regarding the Kurinji flowers. He suggested mainly 3 places, Kolukkumalai, Rajamala, and Munnar top station. Since Rajamala was there in our plan, we decided to visit there and bought tickets for the next day with the help of that guide. The sun was going down and there was no point to more as it would be dark soon. So we came back to the hotel and Munnar embraced us with a beautiful sunset.
On the next day, we got ready early and set to Eravikulam National Park, which is famous for Nilgiri Tahr and one of the best tourist attractions and tourist places to visit in Kerala. On the way, we had our breakfast from a roadside tea stall. I arrived at the park at 7.40 a.m. By 8 a.m. the park opened and they allowed us to hop on. The ticket costs Rs. 120 per person which includes transportation charges from the entrance to Rajamala and back. For the very first time in my life (as he visited here back in 2006), I saw Neelakurinji and I was utmost excited. But we were informed not to pluck flowers, the offending needs to pay a sum of 2000 as a penalty. Although we witnessed, Kurinji Bloom, it was very few and scattered. So we decided to go back to Kolukkumalai. We had tea at the roadside and I asked the tea master about Kolukkumalai. He told us to reach Suryanelli and hire a Jeep as it is a bit off-road.
Kolukkumalai is about 10 km away from Suryanelli. We hired a jeep and the journey was one of the worst off-road rides I ever have. A short descent after the climb we reached a new viewpoint named Kurangini. Believe me, the view from here was breathtaking. At this point, I remembered what I read while I was surfing the internet about the trip. It was someone's (I don't remember his name) words "The spread of purple is an unforgettable sight“. And it was true, this was the most exciting and beautiful sight I had ever had in my life.
By reaching home after this tiresome journey with plenty of memories in my heart, I hunted over the internet to suggest others who wish to witness the beauty of Neelakurinji bloom and top tourist attractions of Kerala and I came across a site named Funday holidays, where they are providing budget Kerala tour and travel packages. The testimonials and reviews on their site show that it is one of the best tour agencies and the value of service they are providing. You can book Kerala tour packages online. So if you are searching for the best places in Kerala, you can absolutely go for the Funday Holidays.