Fort Kochi is on a peninsula and the bus station is on the mainland, but I had a plan. Get up early, walk 500 meters to the car ferry and walk onboard, ride over to the mainland, walk or hail a tuktuk to the bus station.
But when I got up at 6.15 AM and had my coffee, I came to my senses and decided to check Uber. Turns out a ride to the bus station was less than $2, so instead of walking in the heat I just settled for that alternative. I sometimes forget how cheap transportation is, and walk instead of riding a tuktuk or Uber. In the India heat that is usually not a good idea.
Once at the bus station the next bus was in an hour. That gave me time for breakfast. There were two waiting areas, on with AC and one without. Strangely the AC waiting room only had two people even though it was already getting quite hot.
I was hoping for a more luxurious bus with AC for the longish ride to Munnar, but no such luck. Our bus was a standard Ashok Leyland, manufactured in another century, but in a way this was good; It had no glass in the windows, making for much nicer photos. And once we got going, the wind blew through the bus and it wasn’t uncomfortable at all.
The bus left at 8.35 AM and quickly filled up. It took us more than an hour just to get out of greater Kochi. When you’re in Fort Kochi on the peninsula you don’t really appreciate how big greater Kochi is, over 2.5 million people.
After a couple of hours the bus got emptier and as we started to climb into the mountains the views were spectacular. However, a massive road improvement project stretched along almost the entire route, slowing us down. In the end it took 5 hours to reach Munnar.
Central Munnar was very busy, a high traffic commercial zone. What was lacking, at least from what I could see, was restaurants. Shops and coffee stands everywhere, but no food. I walked around for a while, but I was probably just in the wrong area. I settled for a coffee and what looked like a standard muffin, but this one was filled with something unknown but spicy. It seems that all the bread you see in the stores and cafés is just camouflage for something spicy hiding inside.
I hailed a tuktuk to take me to my hotel, Monsoon Grande. I knew it was not in town, but it turned out to be quite far out, 11 km down the mountain side. We eventually got there and it was very nice, just like the pictures I had seen on booking. And it had a restaurant, so I finally got a late lunch.
After lunch I unpacked and rested for a while, then I set out to explore the vast tea plantations on the hills behind the hotel. You can just walk right into the plantation, in between the tea bushes. Beautiful.
Stayed in the hotel for dinner. Unfortunately the nearest other restaurant is several kilometers away. Maybe I’ll tuktuk over tomorrow.
India and Sri Lanka 2026 — all posts
- Day 1 — 24 Hours to Mumbai
- Day 2 — First Morning in Mumbai
- Day 3 — Exploring Mumbai
- Dhobi Ghat: Mumbai’s Laundromat
- Day 4 — Sightseeing in Colombo: One Day is Enough
- A Short History of Ceylon
- Day 5 — Kandy: Moving into the Mountains
- Day 6 — Moving on to Ella
- Day 7 — Hike and Sunstroke
- Tea in Sri Lanka: From a Blight in 1869 to Four Million Cups a Day
- Day 8 — Nine Arches Bridge
- Day 9 — Tuktuk Tour Around Ella
- Day 10 — Time to Leave Ella
- Orphans of Udawalawe: Inside Sri Lanka’s Elephant Transit Home
- Day 11 — Safari and Galle Fort
- Day 12 — Onwards to Negombo for the last day in Sri Lanka
- Day 13 — All the problems concentrated on a single day
- Royal Enfield: Why India Rides Different
- Day 14 — The Kerala Backwaters
- Day 15 — Local bus to Munnar
- Leyland, a familiar name from the past
- Buying a beer in Kerala: Local knowledge required
- Mahindra: The Jeep That Never Left