The Exotic City of Munnar India & Eravikulam National Park + Le Celestium Hotel Tour
After the wedding, Abin’s brother Basil arranged a hotel and some sightseeing for us in Munnar India. On our first day in Munnar, Basil arranged a driver (Shiva) to take us to lunch at Alibaba & 41 Dishes, show us around Munnar, and drive us to Eravikulam National Park.
CORRECTION: Several people have pointed out that the religion stats we quoted in the video were incorrect. Our Hindu driver told us Kerala was 60% Christian, 25% Muslim and 15% Hindu. While the numbers are close, he assigned them to the wrong religions. According to 2011 Census of India figures, 54.73% of Kerala’s population are Hindus, 26.56% are Muslims, 18.38% are Christians, and the remaining 0.32% follows other religions or no religion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Kerala
We had no reason to believe our driver was quoting inaccurate numbers since he is Hindu and lives in Munnar. We sincerely apologize for the mistake and we certainly didn’t mean to offend anyone.
Le Celestium Hotel – Munnar, India
We stayed at Basil’s hotel, Le Celestium, for 4 nights in Munnar. Our room was very spacious and comfortable, the bed was great, and we loved the view from our balcony. The staff was also super friendly and accomodating, especially Douglas and Velmurugan. And the food was delicious! It reminded us of Basil’s restaurant here in Cuenca: Namaste India. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Le Celestium and highly recommend it!
Lunch at Alibaba & 41 Dishes
Lunch at Alibaba was fantastic! For $6.42, we had two main dishes, rice, naan, coffee and bottled water. And the food was delicious!
Eravikulam National Park
Eravikulam National Park is a short drive outside of Munnar through the tea plantations. We were lucky enough to see several of the endangered Nilgiri tahr (goats), which were hunted to near extinction during the British rule. It is believed only 750 still live in the park, which covers 97 square kilometers.
Eravikulam National Park Photo Gallery
I don’t often shut off the video and take stills, but the park was so beautiful that I decided to take a few photos.
Walking Tour of Munnar India
After a nice walk through the park, we returned to Munnar for a walking tour of the city center. Munnar India and the national park are popular with tourists from Kerala and throughout India.
Shiva pointed out the Hindu Temple, Catholic Church and Muslim Mosque on our drive through Munnar and we wanted to get a closer look. Shiva told us the 3 religions live together in harmony, which we noticed in other parts of Kerala, too.
Walking through Munnar reminded me of the pictures I saw in National Geographic when I was a kid. I remember thinking it seemed so far away and exotic from my little Kansas farm town. To be there seeing it for myself was an otherworldly experience.
Munnar India Photo Gallery
The following pictures were taken on the day after we recorded this video. Patrick, Paul, Amelia and I went for a walk around Munnar specifically to take some real life photos. Most people were eager to have their picture taken; only a few said no. This walk through Munnar was the most fun I’ve ever had with photography.
Other videos in this series: Kerala India 2019
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Hola todos! Welcome to my author bio page! Let's see. Where to begin... I grew up in the country on a lake outside a small Kansas farm town. As soon as I could, I got the hell outta there! Since then, I've lived and/or worked in Kansas City, Washington D.C., Denver, San Francisco, and Ecuador. I started and sold a dotcom, wrote a book about it, started a YouTube channel, and now I write a lot. Amelia and I have embraced the Unconventional Life and we want to help you do it, too!
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