It was NH209 taking me all the way to sathyamangalam and then to coimbatore.Beautiful,butter smooth highway with lot of beautiful scenery around. And then the ghat section began. The Bannari ghat with 27 hair pin bends and it was all foggy., zero visibility.
I was enjoying the strange weather, stopped for a photo break. Met two strangers who stopped at the same point and started to stare me like anything
.Later they offered me a smoke and we striked a casual conversation and they were quite surprised and shocked after hearing about my solo tour 
.That was not the first time I saw that kind of reaction on People's face .Thanked them for the smoke, which I needed badly and moved ahead towards Coimbatore.
I was welcomed in Coimbatore with Jam packed road, and the sun was shining with full intensity..Right on the top of my head. I was sweating like anything. Enquired with locals to get on the route for Pollachi. And 30 mins of struggle in that traffic finally paid off....and I was there on the Pollachi Highway. Reached Pollachi and then Udumalaipettai, from Udumalaipettai got off from the NH209 and took a right turn to reach towards Munnar. Few KMs towards Munnar and I entered ANAIMALAI TIGER RESERVE. The Anamalai Wildlife Sanctuary now renamed as Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary. It was established in 1976.I get to view nothing other than few birds and a dancing peacock, calling for rain.
And finally the peacock's prayer got fullfilled,it started to drizzle. Pretty soon I made my entry into the laps of Munnar. Lush green surrounding with well organized tea gardens everywhere I see. Blissful ambiance and heavenly natural beauty, it’s the Kashmir of the South.
Well I was all lost in the beauty of Munnar, suddenly the heavy rains got me back into my senses
.I was feeling cold now, stopped at Eravikulam National Park for a tea break. Light started to fade away and it was getting dark as clock ticked 6:40.I quickly started for Munnar as it was still 10-15 kms away from there.
Reached Munnar at around 07:15.Now the worst thing happened. Spend almost more than 80 mins searching affordable and decent hotel. But all the attempts were unsucessfull,as most of them were full and rest of them were out of budget. And I was shivering in cold, quite badly.
At last god showed some mercy on me, and a hotel owner let me stay in his office room. Let me rephrase he let me stay in his stinky,shit hole office room. But something is better than nothing..Changed the clothes and went to the market to have few peg s of rum. But to my surprise, there wasn't any bar and restaurant. There was only one, but it was quite costly..So I started looking for a wine shop. The only wine shop they had in Munnar is the govt one, where you have to stand in long queue to get what you want
..
Picked my drink and went back to the hotel. Had few pegs and it was time to have a good night sleep.
Cheers
Biru
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