It was easy to decide to go to Munnar for a vacation. It was difficult to decide where to stay for the duration. Too many choices aren't always good - especially if all of them happen to have breathtaking photos of the valleys and greenery all around. On top of it, the reviews about almost all the resorts that I checked out - except for Swiss Country - turned out to be mixed. Someone thought the rooms were spacious while others thought they could have been bigger. Someone went gaga with the breakfast while someone else thought they should have had more variety and/or better quality. Only Swiss County had everyone gushing about practically every aspect of their service. Unfortunately, by the time we were firmed up our plans, Swiss County was all booked up.
So we zeroed in on Sterling. Thought I could speak to someone there to answer some of my queries but the calls went unanswered for two consecutive days. I wasn't going to gamble away 4 days of my life and vacation so we dropped them like a hot potato and renewed our search for the roof over our head in Munnar. And chanced upon another resort within driving distance of, and yet comfortably far from, the town of Munnar - Ambady Estate. The photos looked amazing but like I said that was true of most of the places in Munnar so to be frank, I wasn't very sure that we have made the right choice - till I landed at that place.
The plane journey was uneventful - flight was late by a mere 10 minutes but the pilot made up for the delay by arriving on time at Kochi. The plane was still taxiing when the driver from Ambady called. I was relieved but the relief turned out to be short-lived. We couldn't locate him when we came out of the arrival lounge. A couple of phone calls later he materialized on the scene. Turned out that he was waiting for us just across the street - just a simple misunderstanding. Must say that except for this one glitch he never gave us any reason to complain during the rest of our stay.
Okay, so out of the airport and on the road. Since we didn't want to have any meal on the plane we were on the lookout for a good place to eat.Years ago we had eaten an amazing lunch at Annapurna while on our way to Ooty. So we asked the driver if there is any Annapurna around. He replied in the affirmative and took us there. Surprise! They were not serving any South Indian meal at that time of the day - only North Indian dishes. Wow! Why would we want to eat North Indian food in Kerala? I asked the driver if there was any other eatery around. He nodded and that's how we landed at Hotel Dwaraka - in Irumalappady, Kothamangalam. As soon as we stepped in we saw people eating a Thali meal. Fearing the worst I asked if they were serving dosas. Thankfully, they were. Not sure if they traditionally serve vada along with dosa but I didn't mind it at all. Both the dosa and vada were crisp and all the accompaniments were tasty. I especially liked the red chutney - wonder if what they call 'gun powder' was one of its ingredients. I was, however, mightily disappointed with the coffee that they served - pretty weak.
After a hearty lunch I looked forward to the road ahead - with slight apprehension about its curves. On our way we visited two waterfalls - Valara and Cheeyappara.
Just when I was calculating the probability of my throwing up the afternoon meal we reached Ambady. The unpaved road did nothing to alleviate my nagging fear of making the wrong choice. But one look at the estate and it all melted away to nothingness. We were served with a refreshing concoction of tea and spices - sans milk and sugar - that helped settle my stomach - and then shown to our cottage.
There are 4 chalets - each neatly divided into 2 cute cottages. I am very finicky when it comes to cleanliness. A spider here, a lizard there are enough to drive me up the wall. So I heaved a big sigh of relief when the interior of our cottage turned out to be as neat and spotlessly clean as the exterior. Every cottage has a back garden hemmed in by trees and some of them give you a bit of a view of the valley as well.
By the time the sun prepared to set for the day, I had fallen hopelessly in love with the cottage and its surroundings. We ordered rom service for dinner - Paneer Makhanwala (a bit too sweet for my taste!), Dal Tadka (finger-lickingly tasty!) and Payasam (rich, sweet and absolutely heavenly!) and then fell into a deep sleep as the cicadas sang on.
So we zeroed in on Sterling. Thought I could speak to someone there to answer some of my queries but the calls went unanswered for two consecutive days. I wasn't going to gamble away 4 days of my life and vacation so we dropped them like a hot potato and renewed our search for the roof over our head in Munnar. And chanced upon another resort within driving distance of, and yet comfortably far from, the town of Munnar - Ambady Estate. The photos looked amazing but like I said that was true of most of the places in Munnar so to be frank, I wasn't very sure that we have made the right choice - till I landed at that place.
The plane journey was uneventful - flight was late by a mere 10 minutes but the pilot made up for the delay by arriving on time at Kochi. The plane was still taxiing when the driver from Ambady called. I was relieved but the relief turned out to be short-lived. We couldn't locate him when we came out of the arrival lounge. A couple of phone calls later he materialized on the scene. Turned out that he was waiting for us just across the street - just a simple misunderstanding. Must say that except for this one glitch he never gave us any reason to complain during the rest of our stay.
Okay, so out of the airport and on the road. Since we didn't want to have any meal on the plane we were on the lookout for a good place to eat.Years ago we had eaten an amazing lunch at Annapurna while on our way to Ooty. So we asked the driver if there is any Annapurna around. He replied in the affirmative and took us there. Surprise! They were not serving any South Indian meal at that time of the day - only North Indian dishes. Wow! Why would we want to eat North Indian food in Kerala? I asked the driver if there was any other eatery around. He nodded and that's how we landed at Hotel Dwaraka - in Irumalappady, Kothamangalam. As soon as we stepped in we saw people eating a Thali meal. Fearing the worst I asked if they were serving dosas. Thankfully, they were. Not sure if they traditionally serve vada along with dosa but I didn't mind it at all. Both the dosa and vada were crisp and all the accompaniments were tasty. I especially liked the red chutney - wonder if what they call 'gun powder' was one of its ingredients. I was, however, mightily disappointed with the coffee that they served - pretty weak.
After a hearty lunch I looked forward to the road ahead - with slight apprehension about its curves. On our way we visited two waterfalls - Valara and Cheeyappara.
Just when I was calculating the probability of my throwing up the afternoon meal we reached Ambady. The unpaved road did nothing to alleviate my nagging fear of making the wrong choice. But one look at the estate and it all melted away to nothingness. We were served with a refreshing concoction of tea and spices - sans milk and sugar - that helped settle my stomach - and then shown to our cottage.
There are 4 chalets - each neatly divided into 2 cute cottages. I am very finicky when it comes to cleanliness. A spider here, a lizard there are enough to drive me up the wall. So I heaved a big sigh of relief when the interior of our cottage turned out to be as neat and spotlessly clean as the exterior. Every cottage has a back garden hemmed in by trees and some of them give you a bit of a view of the valley as well.
By the time the sun prepared to set for the day, I had fallen hopelessly in love with the cottage and its surroundings. We ordered rom service for dinner - Paneer Makhanwala (a bit too sweet for my taste!), Dal Tadka (finger-lickingly tasty!) and Payasam (rich, sweet and absolutely heavenly!) and then fell into a deep sleep as the cicadas sang on.
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